This list of reading resources to accompany North By Current was compiled by Veronda Pitchford of Califa Group, a non-profit library consortium, in San Francisco, California.

ADULT NON-FICTION

Anderson, Seth. LGBT Salt Lake. Charleston, South Carolina, Arcadia Publishing, 2017
LGBT Salt Lake recounts the history and survival of the LGBT community in Salt Lake City, Utah. From the early 1970s when a discernible "gay community" had emerged in Salt Lake City, laying the groundwork for future activism and institutions through the 1980s, amidst the devastation from the HIV/AIDS epidemic, marginalized communities valiantly worked to fight the disease and support each other. By the 1990s, LGBT Utahns had gained traction legally and politically with the formation of the first gay straight alliance at East High School and the election of the first openly gay person to the Utah legislature in 1998. In 2008, Salt Lake City’s transgender community became more visible in this new century that also included the community’s battle to gain marriage equality.

Bakker, Alex, et al. Others of My Kind: Transatlantic Transgender Histories. Calgary, Alberta Canada, University of Calgary Press, 2020
From the turn of the twentieth century to the 1950s, a group of transgender people on both sides of the Atlantic created communities that profoundly shaped the history and study of gender identity. By exchanging letters and pictures among themselves they established private networks of affirmation and trust, and by submitting their stories and photographs to medical journals and popular magazines they sought to educate both doctors and the public. The book draws on archives in Europe and North America to tell the story of this remarkable transatlantic transgender community. This book uncovers threads of connection between Germany, the United States, and the Netherlands to discover the people who influenced the work of authorities like Magnus Hirschfeld, Harry Benjamin, and Alfred Kinsey not only with their clinical presentations, but also with their personal relationships. Others of My Kind celebrates the faces, lives, and personal networks of those who drove twentieth-century transgender history.

Campbell Naidoo, Jamie, editor. Rainbow Family Collections: Selecting and Using Children’s Books with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Content (Children’s and Young Adult Literature Reference) by Naidoo, Jamie Campbell (2012) Hardcover. Santa Barbara, CA, ABC-CLIO, 2012
Research shows that an estimated 2 million children are being raised in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) families in the United States; that the number of same-sex couples adopting children is at an all-time high; and that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ) couples raising children live in 96 percent of all counties in the United States. Today's educators and youth librarians therefore need guidance in choosing, evaluating, and selecting high-quality children's books with LGBTQ content.

Gray, Mary, et al. Queering the Countryside. Amsterdam, Netherlands, Amsterdam University Press, 2016
The rural queer experience is often hidden or ignored, and presumed to be alienating, lacking, and incomplete without connections to a gay culture that exists in urban communities elsewhere. Queering the Countryside offers the first comprehensive look at queer desires found in rural America from a genuinely multi-disciplinary perspective. This collection of original essays confronts the assumption that queer desires depend upon urban life for meaning.

Kolk, Van Bessel der, MD. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. Reprint, New York, NY, Penguin Publishing Group, 2015
Trauma is a fact of life. Veterans and their families deal with the painful aftermath of combat; one in five Americans has been molested; one in four grew up with alcoholics; one in three couples have engaged in physical violence. In The Body Keeps the Score, he uses recent scientific advances to show how trauma literally reshapes both body and brain, compromising sufferers’ capacities for pleasure, engagement, self-control, and trust. He explores numerous treatments—from neurofeedback and meditation to sports, drama, and yoga—that offer paths to recovery by activating the brain’s natural neuroplasticity. The Body Keeps the Score exposes the tremendous power of our relationships both to hurt and to heal—and offers new hope for reclaiming lives.

Ostler, Blaire. Queer Mormon Theology: An Introduction. Newburgh, IN Common Consent Press, 2021
For most members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, its theology is only ever viewed through the authorized lens of Church Correlation. The book looks at the basic tenets of the religion through the eyes of a queer church member and starts with the premise that Mormon theology is inherently queer and always has been and, therefore, better suited than most religious traditions to embrace and celebrate the queerness of the individuals who, collectively, constitute the Kingdom of God.

Winfrey, Oprah, and Bruce Perry. What Happened to You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing. 1st ed., New York, New York, Flatiron Books: An Oprah Book, 2021
The book offers a groundbreaking and profound shift from asking “What’s wrong with you?” to “What happened to you?” to those who are experiencing trauma. In conversation throughout the book, Oprah Winfrey and renowned brain and trauma expert Dr. Bruce Perry focus on understanding people and behavior to create a subtle but profound shift in approach to trauma, to understand the past in order to clear a path to the future—opening the door to resilience and healing in a proven, powerful way.

FILM SUMMARY

Along the scorching southern border in Arizona, only an estimated one out of every five missing migrants is ever found. Águilas is the story of one group of searchers, the Águilas del Desierto, composed largely of immigrant Latinos. Once a month this group of volunteers—construction workers, gardeners, and domestic laborers by day—sets out to recover the missing, often reported to them by loved ones thousands of miles away.

USING THIS GUIDE

This guide is an invitation to dialogue. It is based on a belief in the power of human connection and designed for people who want to use Águilas to engage family, friends, classmates, colleagues, and communities. In contrast to initiatives that foster debates in which participants try to convince others that they are right, this resource envisions conversations undertaken in a spirit of openness in which people try to understand one another and expand their thinking by sharing viewpoints and actively listening to one another.

The discussion prompts are intentionally crafted to help a wide range of audiences think more deeply about the issues in the film. Rather than attempting to address them all, choose one or two that best meet your needs and interests. And be sure to leave time to consider taking action. Planning next steps can help people leave the room feeling energized and optimistic, even in instances when conversations have been difficult.

For more detailed event planning and facilitation tips, visit communitynetwork.amdoc.org.

FILM SUMMARY

Filmmaker and artist Angelo Madsen Minax returns to his rural Michigan hometown after the death of his young niece. Decades of home movies and ethereal narration reflect on struggles with grief and addiction as Madsen examines family, faith, and transgender identity.

USING THIS GUIDE

This guide is an invitation to dialogue and requires preparation before you and your community dive in. This guide is designed for people who want to use North By Current to engage family friends, classmates, colleagues, and communities in honest, though challenging, conversations that will require all participants remain committed to being fully present. Conversations that center gender identity; feelings of belonging; addiction; abuse and safety; loss and grief can be difficult to begin and facilitate, but this guide is meant to support you in sustaining conversations in community. In contrast to initiatives that foster debates in which participants try to convince others that they are right, this document envisions conversations undertaken in a spirit of openness in which people listen actively and share different experiences and viewpoints with care and respect.

This discussion guide is meant to inspire people with varying degrees of knowledge, as well as dynamic and different experiences, in relation to these topics to enter the conversation, and stay present in the conversation, in order to impact change and awareness.

The discussion prompts are intentionally crafted to help a wide range of audiences think more deeply about the topics in the film. Rather than attempting to address them all, choose the questions that best meet your needs and interests.And be sure to leave time to consider taking action. Planning next steps can help people leave the room feeling energized and transformed, even in instances when conversations have been difficult and/or uncomfortable. Please also consider using the closing activity that gives participants an opportunity to collectively reflect before closing.

FILM SUMMARY

Rember Yahuarcani is an Indigenous painter and one of the last surviving members of the White Heron clan of the Uitoto Nation in Peru. He left his Amazonian community to pursue a successful career in Lima, but when he finds himself in a creative rut, he returns home to visit his father, a painter, and his mother, a sculptor, and discovers why the stories of his ancestors cannot be forgotten.

USING THIS GUIDE

This guide is an invitation to dialogue. It is based on a belief in the power of human connection and designed for people who want to use The Song of the Butterfliesto engage family, friends, classmates, colleagues, and communities. In contrast to initiatives that foster debates in which participants try to convince others that they are right, this document envisions conversations undertaken in a spirit of openness in which people try to understand one another and expand their thinking by sharing viewpoints and listening actively.

The discussion prompts are intentionally crafted to help a wide range of audiences think more deeply about the issues in the film. Rather than attempting to address them all, choose one or two that best meet your needs and interests. And be sure to leave time to consider taking action. Planning next steps can help people leave the room feeling energized and optimistic, even in instances when conversations have been difficult.

For more detailed event planning and facilitation tips, visit communitynetwork.amdoc.org.

FILM SUMMARY

In the small Mexican coastal village of El Roblito, 16-year-old Ñoño lives what seems to be an idyllic existence with his loving family. But he holds a secret. Defying gender norms, Ñoño works up the courage to tell his family he wants to live his life as a woman. Yet when violence interrupts a community celebration, he must face the reality of a country shrouded in machismo and transphobia.

USING THIS GUIDE

This guide is an invitation to dialogue. It is based on a belief in the power of human connection and designed for people who want to use Things We Dare Not Do to engage family, friends, classmates, colleagues, and communities. In contrast to initiatives that foster debates in which participants try to convince others that they are right, this document envisions conversations undertaken in a spirit of openness in which people try to understand one another and expand their thinking by sharing viewpoints and listening actively.

The discussion prompts are intentionally crafted to help a wide range of audiences think more deeply about the issues in the film. Rather than attempting to address them all, choose one or two that best meet your needs and interests. And be sure to leave time to consider taking action. Planning next steps can help people leave the room feeling energized and optimistic, even in instances when conversations have been difficult.

For more detailed event planning and facilitation tips, visit communitynetwork.amdoc.org.

LETTER FROM THE FILMMAKER

I had a secret in my life and I wanted to go in search of a place where I could talk about it. I thought that talking about the secrets would make me grow up, become more mature or that maybe it would be the other way around, that maturing and growing up would make me talk about the secrets.

The film just came to be, it wrote itself while making the film. At first, I only knew I wanted to film something that would feel like a process of growing up. I thought that filming with kids in a space where you could get to feel first-hand the violence we live in Mexico would allow me to be close to the transformation process of a coming of age.

I got to Roblito, and after almost four years of being close to those who wake up, work and sleep there, I began to feel and understand that the waves of violence in that town are awful, painful and traumatizing but everyone around is keeping up with their daily random routine.

Ñoño grabbed our attention. She was the oldest of the pack of kids, and I felt particular empathy towards her, maybe because we both rejected the masculinity of the adults from the town. She’s the only teenager that hasn’t gotten out of that place, the only adolescent that keeps hanging out with the kids.

We developed a friendship, and thanks to that I noticed that she was also keeping a secret: she dresses as a woman when nobody’s watching. I think that the fact that we both were keeping a secret from our parents brought us closer despite our different ages and issues. It made us want to listen to each other. I talked to her about the contradiction of not being able to talk publicly about my boyfriend, and she talked to me about his dream of dressing as a woman. That was the beginning of a long journey of talks, moments, and dreams shared between us that got captured by the camera, and therefore, the film.

All the time I had ethical conflicts during the process of making the film. I worked with children and tried to be clear with them and also with their parents, all the time. That was the only way I found myself comfortable doing this movie. To me, it was important not to only be fair as a filmmaker, but also to be fair as a human being. For example, there is a sequence where I am in the middle of an intimate family confession and I was filming at the time. Suddenly the situation became so intimate that I was feeling out of place and I asked the family for permission to go out and leave them alone talking without a camera. It was they who decided for me to stay. Because they know me, they knew my inner conflicts. I was trying to find out how to be brave enough to find acceptance in the authority structure (family in this case). And Ñoño was doing so by asking her parents for permission to dress as a woman. And they knew how important it was for me to not only be there but also to film as well.

Things we dare not do is the outcome of this journey of dreams, accidents, and experiences. It’s a film that seeks to make people feel more compassionate towards the complicated process of coming of age.
—Bruno Santamaria Razo

In the small Mexican coastal village of El Roblito, 16-year-old Ñoño lives what seems to be an idyllic existence with his loving family. But he holds a secret. Defying gender norms, Ñoño works up the courage to tell his family he wants to live his life as a woman, a fraught decision in a country shrouded in machismo and transphobia.

Boylan, Jennifer Finney. She's Not There: A Life in Two Genders. New York : Penguin Random House, 2013.
She’s Not There was one of the first works to present trans experience from the perspective of a literary novelist, opening a door to new understanding of love, sex, gender, and identity. Boylan inspired readers to ask the same questions she asked herself: What is it that makes us---ourselves? What does it mean to be a man, or a woman? How much could my husband, or wife, change—and still be recognizable as the one I love?

Hoffman-Fox, Dara. You and Your Gender Identity: A Guide to Discovery. New York : Skyhorse Publishing, 2017.
In this groundbreaking guide, Dara Hoffman-Fox, LPC, accomplished gender therapist and thought leader whose articles, blogs, and videos have empowered thousands worldwide, helps you navigate your journey of self-discovery in three approachable stages: preparation, reflection, and exploration.

Krieger, Irwin. Helping Your Transgender Teen: A guide for parents. Berlin : Imprint, Springer, 2014.
If you are the parent of a transgender teen, this book will help you understand what your child is feeling and experiencing. Irwin Krieger is a clinical social worker with many years of experience helping transgender teens. This book brings you the insights gained from his work with these teenagers and their families. According to the author, “Today’s teens have access to a wealth of information on the internet. Teenagers who are wondering about gender identity soon find out what it means to be transgender or transsexual. Parents, on the other hand, know little about this topic. When a teenager declares he or she is transgender, parents fear that their child is confused and is choosing a life fraught with danger. I wrote this book to help parents of transgender teens gain an understanding of this complex subject.” "Helping Your Transgender Teen" begins with the basic information you and your family need. The central chapters of the book address the fears and concerns most parents of transgender teens share. The final chapters guide you through the steps you can take to discover what is best for your child. Although written for parents, this book is also useful for pediatricians, therapists, educators and others who work with teenagers and young adults. "Helping Your Transgender Teen" provides answers to many of your questions about adolescent gender identity.

Meadow, Tey. Trans Kids: Being Gendered in the Twenty-First Century. Berkley : University of California Press, 2018.
Trans Kids is a trenchant ethnographic and interview-based study of the first generation of families affirming and facilitating gender nonconformity in children. Whereas previous generations of parents sent such children for psychiatric treatment aimed at a cure, these parents agree to call their children new names, allow them to wear whatever clothing they choose, and approach the state to alter the gender designation on their passports and birth certificates. Sociologist Tey Meadow argues that these parents are negotiating gender in new and significant ways, with everyone and everything, from intimates to institutions.

Snorton, Reily. Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity. Minn. : University of Minnesota Press, 2017.
The story of Christine Jorgensen, America’s first prominent transsexual, famously narrated trans embodiment in the postwar era. Her celebrity, however, has obscured other mid-century trans narratives—ones lived by African Americans such as Lucy Hicks Anderson and James McHarris. Their erasure from trans history masks the profound ways race has figured prominently in the construction and representation of transgender subjects. In Black on Both Sides, C. Riley Snorton identifies multiple intersections between blackness and transness from the mid-nineteenth century to present-day anti-black and anti-trans legislation and violence.

Pier KidsDiscussion Guide
View the trailer here and sign up to receive updates here.

Film Summary

On the Christopher Street Pier in New York City, homeless queer and trans youth of color forge friendships and chosen families, withstanding tremendous amounts of abuse while working to carve out autonomy in their lives. With intimate, immersive access to these fearless young people, Pier Kidshighlights the precarity and resilience of a community many choose to ignore.

La Casa de Mama Icha offers a profound meditation on notions of home and the inescapable pull of one’s motherland. The documentary follows María Dionisia Navarro, otherwise known as Mama Icha, on a physical and spiritual journey that draws on the complexities inherent to many migrant experiences: distance, the loved ones left behind, and the problem of aging in a country that doesn’t feel like your own.

At ninety-three, Mama Icha feels that the end of her life is near. Despite protests from her family, she spends her days focusing on just one thing: returning to her native village of Mompox in northern Colombia. Mama Icha dreams of passing her final years taking comfort in the landscapes of her youth, walking along the Magdalena River at dusk, surrounded by her relatives and neighbors in the courtyard of the house that she painstakingly had built during her years of absence, with the money she sent from abroad.

Thirty years prior, Mama Icha had emigrated to the United States to help her daughter with the care of her children, Mama Icha’s grandchildren, and remained ever since. Now, against the best wishes of her family in the U.S. who feel that she’s built an admirable life in Philadelphia complete with Social Security, a community that supports her, and access to important senior resources, ​​Mama Icha boards a plane and flies back to Colombia where she meets her sons, Gustavo and Alberto, who have been in charge of her house while she’s been gone.

But upon returning, the idyllic world of her memories is put up against a harsh reality of deteriorating family relationships and broken expectations. The confrontation is disappointing and forces Mama Icha to consider exactly how much she’s willing to sacrifice for the notion of home that she’s longed for so long.

These suggested readings provide a range of perspectives on issues raised by the POV documentary La Casa de Mama Icha and allow for deeper engagement. Compiled by Sarah Burris from Bay County Public Library.

Adult Non-Fiction

Cathey, Kate. Colombia: Culture Smart! The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture. (Second Edition) Kuperard. 2019.
Colombia has a spectacular and variant landscape, embracing tropical beaches, highland plateaus, the rugged, snow-capped peaks of the Andes, arid deserts, and dense Amazonian jungle. Colombian society is equally diverse. Stylish, cosmopolitan cities coexist with poverty in the beautiful countryside. As a result of the 16th-century Spanish conquest, modern Colombia’s multiethnic society is a synthesis of Spanish, indigenous, and African traditions—evident in the music, in the food, and in Barranquilla’s famous Carnival. The Colombian people are emerging from decades of crushing civil war and lawlessness with their spirits unbroken. Animated, lighthearted, and ever ready to enjoy the moment, they are looking to the future with hope and are eager to share their rich and beautiful country with the outside world.

Fajardo, Anika. Magical Realism for Non-Believers: A Memoir of Finding Family.University of Minnesota Press. 2019.
He loved Colombia too much to leave it. The explanation from her Minnesotan mother was enough to satisfy a child’s curiosity about her missing father. But at twenty-one, Anika Fajardo wanted more. She wanted to know her father better and to know what kind of country could have such a hold on him. And so, in 1995, Fajardo boarded a plane and flew to Colombia to discover a birthplace that was foreign to her and a father who was a stranger. There she learns that sometimes, no matter how many pieces you find, fitting together a family history isn’t easy.

Feiling, Tom. Short Walks from Bogotá: Journeys in the new Colombia. Penguin Random House, 2012.
For decades, Colombia was the 'narcostate'. Now travel to Colombia and South America is on the rise, and it's seen as one of the rising stars of the global economy. Where does the truth lie?

Writer and journalist Tom Feiling, author of the acclaimed study of cocaine The Candy Machine, has journeyed throughout Colombia, down roads that were until recently too dangerous to travel, to paint a fresh picture of one of the world's most notorious and least-understood countries. He talks to former guerrilla fighters and their ex-captives; women whose sons were 'disappeared' by paramilitaries; the nomadic tribe who once thought they were the only people on earth and now charge $10 for a photo; the Japanese 'emerald cowboy' who made a fortune from mining; and revels in the stories that countless ordinary Colombians tell.

Gawande, Atul. Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End.Metropolitan Books; 2014.
Medicine has triumphed in modern times, transforming birth, injury, and infectious disease from harrowing to manageable. But in the inevitable condition of aging and death, the goals of medicine seem too frequently to run counter to the interest of the human spirit. Nursing homes, preoccupied with safety, pin patients into railed beds and wheelchairs. Hospitals isolate the dying, checking for vital signs long after the goals of cure have become moot. Doctors, committed to extending life, continue to carry out devastating procedures that in the end extend suffering. Gawande, a practicing surgeon, addresses his profession's ultimate limitation, arguing that quality of life is the desired goal for patients and families. Gawande offers examples of freer, more socially fulfilling models for assisting the infirm and dependent elderly, and he explores the varieties of hospice care to demonstrate that a person's last weeks or months may be rich and dignified.

Rodrigo, Garcia. A Farewell to Gabo and Mercedes: a Son’s Memoir of Gabriel García Márquez and Mercedes Barcha.HarperVia, 2021.
In March 2014, Gabriel García Márquez, one of the most acclaimed writers of the twentieth century, came down with a cold. The woman who had been beside him for more than fifty years, his wife Mercedes Barcha, was not hopeful; her husband, affectionately known as “Gabo,” was then nearly 87 and battling dementia. I don't think we'll get out of this one, she told their son Rodrigo. Hearing his mother’s words, Rodrigo wondered, “Is this how the end begins?” To make sense of events as they unfolded, he began to write the story of García Márquez’s final days. The result is this intimate and honest account that not only contemplates his father’s mortality but reveals his remarkable humanity.

Velásquez, Mariana. Colombiana: A Rediscovery of Recipes and Rituals from the Soul of Columbia. Harper Wave, 2021.
To Mariana Velásquez, a native of Bogotá, the diverse mix of heritages, cultures, and regions that comprise Colombian food can be summed up in one simple concept: More is more. No matter what rung of society, Colombians feed their guests well, and leave them feeling nourished in body and soul. In Colombiana, the award-winning recipe developer and food stylist draws on the rich culinary traditions of her native land and puts her own modern twist on dishes beloved by generations of Colombians.

Warnick, Melody. This is Where You Belong: the Art and Science of Loving the Place You Live. Penguin Random House, 2016.
The average restless American will move 11.7 times in a lifetime. For Melody Warnick, it was move #6, from Austin, Texas, to Blacksburg, Virginia, that threatened to unhinge her. In the lonely aftermath of unpacking, she wondered: Aren’t we supposed to put down roots at some point? How does the place we live become the place we want to stay? This time, she had an epiphany. Rather than hold her breath and hope this new town would be her family’s perfect fit, she would figure out how to fall in love with it no matter what.

Ashley, a Mexican-American teenager living in an agricultural town in the central coast of California, dreams of graduating high school and going to college. But when ICE raids threaten her family, Ashley is forced to become the breadwinner, working days in the strawberry fields and nights at a food processing company.

USING THIS GUIDE

This guide is an invitation to dialogue. It is based on a belief in the power of human connection and designed for people who want to use Fruits of Labor to engage family, friends, classmates, colleagues, and communities in dialogue after viewing. In contrast to initiatives that foster debates in which participants try to convince others that they are right, this document envisions conversations undertaken in a spirit of openness in which people try to understand one another and expand their thinking by sharing viewpoints and listening actively.

The discussion prompts are intentionally crafted to help a wide range of audiences think more deeply about the issues in the film. Rather than attempting to address them all, choose one or two that best meet your needs and interests. And be sure to leave time to consider taking action. Planning next steps can help people leave the room feeling energized and optimistic, even in instances when conversations have been difficult.

For more detailed event planning and facilitation tips, visit communitynetwork.amdoc.org.

FILM SUMMARY

Mohamad Hafez received a one-way ticket to the United States. Missing his homeland, he decided to create a stand-in. A story of love, loss and creating pathways home.

USING THIS GUIDE

This guide is an invitation to dialogue. It is based on a belief in the power of human connection and designed for people who want to use A Broken House to engage family, friends, classmates, colleagues, and communities in conversation and understanding. In contrast to initiatives that foster debates in which participants try to convince others that they are right, this document envisions conversations undertaken in a spirit of openness in which people try to understand one another and expand their thinking by sharing viewpoints and actively listening.

The discussion prompts are intentionally crafted to help a wide range of audiences think more deeply about the issues in the film. Rather than attempting to address them all, choose one or two that best meet your needs and interests. And be sure to leave time to consider taking action. Planning next steps can help people leave the room feeling energized and optimistic, even in instances when conversations have been difficult.

For more detailed event planning and facilitation tips, visit https://communitynetwork.amdoc.org/.

To screen the film ahead of conversation you can stream it here.

A Letter from the Filmmaker, Jimmy Goldblum

I originally wanted to tell a story about refugees that my wife could watch. I had noticed a disturbing trend in this genre of films: documentarians were increasingly relying on graphic violence as a way to build empathy for the victims of conflict. These images are devastating and re-traumatizing to viewers like my wife, who developed c-PTSD while reporting on drone attack survivors in her home country of Pakistan. I wondered, for her and immigrant audiences like her, who deserved to see their stories told on-screen, what would it look like to create a film about the aftermath of war with neither blood nor bodies in it; to instead focus on the other things lost in conflict: our connection to our families, our culture, our ways of being in the world?

Then I met the architect Mohamad Hafez. I saw so much of myself in him. We’re both art and movie lovers, our parents shared similar professions; and we both grew up running around our neighborhoods with sketchbooks, living in the world of our doodles. The major difference between us is that Mohamad was born—according to George W. Bush and his NSEERS program —in the wrong type of country: Syria. For that reason, he was issued a single-entry visa to the United States and could no longer return home. He missed weddings, funerals, and births. He started to make miniatures as a way to soothe his homesickness; art therapy that he didn’t know was art therapy.

Mohamad’s lonely nostalgia turned to rage when the Syrian war broke out. He watched the thousand-year-old minarets, arches and porticoes that inspired him to become an architect— ancient doorways with their Hellenic, Roman, Byzantine, and Islamic influences—come crashing down. His world came crashing down with them: his family became refugees, fleeing to five countries amongst the six of them; and his parents eventually separated, unable to reconcile their competing attachments to Syria. And yet, Mohamad was one of the lucky ones: that, even as he endured the dissolution of the country he loved, he, along with his loved ones, survived.

I finished “A Broken House” a few months before the global pandemic forced us all inside for 18-months. As quarantine continued and we all missed weddings, funerals, and births, we experienced the slightest taste of Mohamad’s tragedy. But unlike Mohamad, travel bans have never prevented me from returning home; and I still have a home to which I can return.

This film asks, for those who survive war and arrive on our shores, what gets left behind? For Mohamad, all he has left of Syria and his family are memories. Damascus is irreparably changed, and our immigration laws have made it so, in the nearly two decades since Mohamad arrived in the United States, his once close-knit family has not been together under a single roof.

Even though they survived war and the life of a refugee without becoming another casualty or bloody statistic, this reality is agonizing, untenable, and yes, violent, enough.

STATELESS

Michèle Stephenson’s documentary Statelesscenters grassroots organizer and attorney Rosa Iris as she works with Dominican families of Haitian descent who have been stripped of their citizenship. In 2013 Domininca Republic. From Rosa’s encounters with these families and individuals, the tense and complex history between Haiti and the Dominican Republic unearths tensions of politics, identity, race, humanity and belonging - a complex history that impacts present day politics and the safety and privilege of people in both Dominican Republic and Haiti. As the Dominican Nationalist Movement works tirelessly to protect the borders into Dominican Republic to keep Haitians out, those with Haitian ancestry work even harder to legitimize their existence and value in a system and a political structure that keeps to limit their possibilities and humanity.

This guide was created as an offering to support community approaches to collective processing, and a direction towards healing after screening Stateless. This guide offers you the opportunities to engage with your audience once during the screening and also the opportunity to create experiential workshops following to deepen the work.

THIS GUIDE CAN BE USED TO EXPLORE THE FOLLOWING THEMES:

1. White supremacy, ultra Nationalism, & racial capitalism on a global scale: “These expressions of hate can lead to physical violence” Rosa Iris
   
2. Anti Haitianism: “Someone called me Haitian because of my skin color. They called me Haitian as an insult. I answered, “Why would that upset me?” Elias
   
3. Anti Blackness: “Or a plan to whiten the population. Their problem is with blacks not whites.” Juan Teofilo
   
4. Xenophobia: “The Haitians have a plan that the Dominican Republic take care of their citizens.” Gladys
   
5. Mental wellness: “Maybe nothing was physically missing...But they stole my peace of mind, how do they pay for that?” Juan Teofilo
   
6. Fatherhood: “They say mothers feel the deep connection with her children. But I have a special connection with my children. I can feel when something happens to them.” Juan Teofilo
   
7. Duty: “I decided to run for congress. As a mother I have to leave my son, But the conservatives want to limit the freedom of Dominicans of Haitian descent.” Rosa Iris
   
8. Voting: “I could give you 50, 100 pesos to go vote, but if you vote for someone who serves the community, you’ll get so much more!” Rosa Iris
   
9. Government: “Who will help me feel safe? The State? When the State is the one persecuting me?” Juan Teofilo
   

Download the full resource here.