1. Obāchan (Obāchan)
Obāchan is Japanese. She left her native archipelago in 1941 to marry one of her compatriots, 17 years older, settled in Mexico. Through fragments of family films, manga and sequences that she has shot, Nicolasa Ruiz sculpts a complex and delicate memory landscape between the two shores of the Pacific.
2. Adrift: People of a Lesser God
ADRIFT- People of a Lesser God is the story of an incredible odyssey made by several-times Pulitzer Prize-nominated undercover reporter Dominique C. Mollard. In this gripping story, Mollard sails with 38 African migrants, among them a five-month-old baby, out of West Africa on a quest to reach the golden shores of Europe. All aboard are packed together like sardines in a leaky fishing canoe as they set off under full moon on their harrowing journey. ADRIFT-People of a Lesser God captures the struggle of these desperate migrants as they brave their way across the cold Atlantic, risking their lives in search for a better future. —Ziad H. Hamzeh
3. HARRAGA – Those Who Burn Their Lives (Marokkos verlorene Kinder)
Imad, Nourdine, Walid and Hamza are a group of young Moroccan boys living in a cave under the lighthouse in the Spanish exclave Melilla. They wait for their chance to cross the sea, spending their time with drugs, video calls with their mothers, and filming themselves for YouTube while breaking into the harbor.
4. Casa en Tierra Ajena (Casa en Tierra Ajena)
(Casa en Tierra Ajena)
It has an average vote of 7 on TMDB.
5. The Right Girls
In this documentary about friendship and perseverance, three young transgender women from El Salvador and Honduras go on a 2,400-mile journey with the high-profile migrant caravan. These women, strangers at the outset and fleeing extortion, discrimination, and abusive relationships, endure hardship as they slowly make their way to the US, teaming up with other trans girls along the route and integrating with the caravan’s LGBTQ community.
It has an average vote of 1 on TMDB.
6. Homebound (Homebound)
Through first person narration, Tari reveals personal stories related to her decision to work in Taiwan, her strained family relationships, the risks involved in working abroad and the traps she has fallen into.
7. 8 Poems of Emigration (Göçün 8 Şiiri)
"8 Poems of Emigration" is a found footage film that focuses on the migration crisis. The film, while focusing on the immigration and immigration issue caused by the wild global capitalism, consists of the images and the found footage from the recording of the work named "8 Poetry of Immigration" that John Berger read to the audience in 2007 at the Fine Arts Center in Madrid. The narrative of the movie is revealed by the conflict between image and sound order. With the out-of-context use of commercial images and music, the film creates a critical structure that opposes capitalism.
8. La línea (La línea)
(La línea)
9. Libya: No Escape from Hell (Libye, les centres de la honte)
(Libye, les centres de la honte)
It has an average vote of 8.5 on TMDB.
10. Porta d'Europa
A migrant boat has been stranded in the Mediterranean Sea for 30 hours. As authorities ignore calls for help, the Sea-Watch Crew, an NGO, launches an urgent search.
11. Köy (Köy)
KÖY is about the longing for home, for belonging and the freedom of the self. Three women from three generations are united by their Kurdish roots.
12. Parrot at the Milk Bar (Parrot at the Milk Bar)
A humorous observation in Barcelona’s immigrant neighbourhood El Raval. Four barber shops, four places of remembrance, strange time and space capsules inhabited by people who left their home to find a better one, while the Spaniards are about to leave their own country themselves.
13. Viramundo (Viramundo)
Viramundo shows the saga of the northeastern migrants that arrive in São Paulo, beginning with a train arriving and ending with a train leaving São Paulo in a cycle repeated every day. Viramundo's aim was to question why the military coup d'état in Brazil happened without any popular resistance or revolution or reaction of the society.
It has an average vote of 8.9 on TMDB.
14. Derby c.1938 - Eisner Personal Film
Charming amateur film featuring the Eisner family, who emigrated to Britain from Romania the year this film was made.
15. On the Wings of Hope (Umudun Kanadında)
On the Wings of Hope depicts the 4 years of struggle for survival of 5 immigrants, one of them is a child, after the boat they were on sank while they were trying to cross to Greece from Turkey. In 2015, 5 Iraqi refugees who were escaping from ISIS attacks, were trying to reach Kos Island of Greece from Turkey’s coastal town Bodrum, even though their boat sank they managed to survive. Turkish journalist Zehra Yılmaz witnessed the disappointments, pain and hopes of these refugees for four years. Refugees who risk death for a new beginning, refugee boats sinking in the Aegean, lost lives and dreams.
16. The Cracker Effect (Abbassa l'Italia)
News explodes like a bomb! Due to the genetic mutation, immigrants living in Italy undergo a noticeable change. Is this wonderful country in danger of sinking? A television reporter decides to go over this strange theory, and the news is on the agenda of the whole country. This fake documentary brings fake news, media, politics and harsh criticism about Italy.
17. Fadia’s Tree
While millions of birds migrate freely in the skies above, Fadia, a Palestinian refugee stranded in Lebanon, yearns for the ancestral homeland she is denied. When a chance meeting introduces her to the director, Sarah, she challenges her to find an ancient mulberry tree that once grew next to her grandfather’s house in historic Palestine, a tree that stands witness to her family’s existence.
18. Gyrischachen - von Sünden, Sofas und Cervelats
A high-rise apartment built in the 1960s provides housing for 2500 people from 42 nations. Separated from the city by a river and bounded by towering sandstone cliffs, everyone attempts to live and survive in their own way. Foreigners who have a go at being Swiss, and Swiss who observe with scepticism. They meet in the corner shop run by an Iraqi living in exile, send their kids to a children’s club managed by a missionary, and old drinking mates meet regularly over a beer in the neighbourhood’s only bar. Despite all the differences, they are rather proud of the fact that they come from here.
19. Lessons for Zafirah (Lecciones para Zafirah)
A metaphor of the Flood in our times, The Flood is the rain of violence that washes over us. Noah´s Ark is the train that runs through Mexico toward the United States and migrants are the species attempting to save their lives. For the directors, cinema moves people not just by condemnation, but by confronting and fostering emotions which lead to new, constructive ideas. This documentary became a cinematographic diary for their first viewer, their three-year-old daughter, Zafirah.
It has an average vote of 5.6 on TMDB.
20. Trek - Spy on the Wildebeest
Each year over 1.2 million wildebeest travel across the vast Serengeti plains and Kenya's Masai Mara on a 1,800 kilometer circular journey, relentlessly followed by every big African predator. Revolutionary spy cams - airborne, swimming or disguised as rocks, skulls or dung - reveal the Great Wildebeest Migration from entirely new perspectives. This 2-part series focuses on the growing-up of a calf as he takes his first steps, faces his first deadly perils and tries to cross crocodile-infested rivers. It combines natural humor with exciting drama and gripping music.
It has an average vote of 7 on TMDB.
