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Film Reviews

Many of these feature-length films can be found on www.imdb.com or www.amazon.com. Movies are arranged by year and then alphabetically by title. A special thanks to Sheela Murthy for compiling many of these films.

While some movies deal directly with immigration as a theme, others are slightly more nuanced yet still touch on the topic. If you know of an immigration-themed movie that is not on this list, please let us know.

From The Levant To Middle America

From the Levant to Middle America retraces Arab-American women's emigration from the Levant to the U.S and recounts their notable achievements after assimilation into American society. Almost a century ago, Arab women began emigrating from the Ottoman territories known as the Levant (today's Syria, Lebanon and Palestine) to the shores of the United States in search of a better life.

Year Released: 2001

Immigrants Organizing: Changing The Workplace, Changing The Union

A large contingent of 1,300 Minneapolis hotel workers who went on strike in 2000 were immigrants who spoke 17 different languages. Immigrant issues were among the union's core demands and it fought to improve the newcomers' working conditions and overcome prejudice against them. At the same time, the union struggled with change as it sought to integrate and unify members from many countries.

Year Released: 2001

In My Own Skin: The Complexity Of Living As An Arab In America

In My Own Skin is a meditation on the complexities of the Arab-American experience through candid interviews with five young Arab women living in New York in October 2001.

Year Released: 2001

Leaving Tuzla, Bosnia

In wartime Tuzla, Bosnia, neighbors choose to unite rather then see their city divide along ethnic lines. Now, in the aftermath of civil war in the Balkans, the city is beginning to split apart as young people must leave in order to have a future.

Year Released: 2001

Nuestra Comunidad - Latinos In North Carolina

This documentary examines issues facing Latinos as a growing population in the emerging "New South", focusing specifically on North Carolina's transformation in the 21st century. How are Latino immigrants' notions of home, family and community impacting a state steeped in Southern notions of culture and identity?

Year Released: 2001

Out Of The Shadows

In October of 1999, just a week after 22 undocumented workers at a Minneapolis hotel won a union election, their employer called the INS and they were taken away in shackles. This is the story of how their union, their church and community fought back and won an historic ruling against deportation.

Year Released: 2001

The Immigrant Garden

The Immigrant Garden is an independent film by retired Hollywood film producer C. Tad Devlin (When a Man Loves a Woman, 1994), who left Hollywood for life in the small community of Chehalis, WA. It tells the story of a correspondence and friendship between two gardeners - young Cecily in rural Washington and 80 year-old Mrs. Beauchamp in England. The story is rich in character because its characters are rich, discovering themselves and coming to understand others.

Year Released: 2001

Bread And Roses

The struggle for fair and just working conditions in the United States has existed as long as there has been one group who would take advantage of the desperation and fear of another. This film from director Ken Loach (The Wind that Shakes the Barley, 2006) is the story of two sisters working as janitors. As undocumented workers from Mexico, they endure hardship and abuses. When a young man (Adrien Brody) comes around attempting to unionize workers, the issue divides the laborers - while dividing Maya and Rosa, as well.

Year Released: 2000

Dancer In The Dark

Selma has emigrated with her son from Central Europe to America. The year is 1964. Selma works day and night to save her son from the same disease she suffers from, an ocular malady that inevitably will make her blind. But Selma has the tenacity to live because of her fascination with music.  She is transported time and again, as if mad,  into fantastic environments in which her dull surroundings are transmuted into flamboyant performances.  David Morse chillingly portrays a crooked policeman who causes Selma to make a fatal mistake.   One of Lars Von Trier's most accessible films, Dancer in the Dark is nevertheless not for the faint of heart. 

Year Released: 2000

Dollar Dreams

Sekhar Kammula tells the tale of a group of friends, answering the big question - whether or not to go to the U.S. to make a lot of money. One in the group drops her studies to actively pursue their responses.

Year Released: 2000