UNSETTLED
St John Film Society presents
7:30 pm / Wednesday, January 15, 2020
St John School of the Arts, Cruz Bay
UNSETTLED
Feature length documentary film
Filmmaker Tom Shepard
will be present for Q & A following the screening.
SYNOPSIS:
UNSETTLED is a three-year longitudinal character-driven feature documentary portraying three independent and unique stories of LGBT refugees and asylum seekers and told through a narrative three-act structure: Subhi, a gay Syrian refugee who, having survived multiple death threats from Islamic terrorists, beatings by a violent and homophobic father, and a nation devastated by years of war, finds his voice as a leader for refugee rights in the U.S.; Cheyenne and Mari,
a lesbian couple from Angola who, having faced brutal harassment from family and neighbors, seek uncertain asylum through the American immigration courts while pursuing their dreams
of becoming musicians; and Junior, a gender non-conforming gay man from the Democratic Republic of the Congo who struggles to find even basic housing and livelihood while exploring a more fluid gender identity.
The film follows these journeys of resettlement in the San Francisco Bay Area over a three-year period – arrivals and reasons for fleeing (back stories); layers of struggle, transition and acculturation in their first months and years in the U.S.; and finally, healing from past traumas and pursuing their aspirations as they become more “settled.”
An engrossing and empathetic look at the particular struggles of U.S. immigration in the new millennium.— Dennis Harvey Variety magazine
WATCH THE TRAILER HERE
DIRECTOR PRODUCER: TOM SHEPARD
PRODUCER / CINEMATOGAPHER: JEN GILOMEN
For 20 years, filmmaker Tom Shepard has produced, directed, edited, and distributed documentary films. Four of his feature projects – SCOUT’S HONOR, KNOCKING, WHIZ KIDS and THE GROVE – have aired nationally on PBS. Coverage of his work has been featured prominently in the U.S. and foreign press, including in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Washing- ton Post, and Boston Globe. Shepard’s films have played in more than 150 film festivals world- wide – including Full Frame, Silver Docs and the Sundance Film Festival (where he won two top awards in 2001).
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT:
“As a member of the LGBT community, growing up in the U.S. I was faced with misrepresentations of queer people. Documentary filmmaking, for me, has become not only a craft but a way to reach into the darker corners of my own life and explore forces that scapegoat groups of people. There are few groups in current international discourse more maligned than refugees and immigrants. That discourse, in the U.S., has turned toxic.
What drives this work is finding humanizing, non-threatening occasions for viewers to rethink attitudes and policies and use the empathic power of the film to change hearts and minds. As current American leadership steers away from multilateral policies and pluralism (and closer to
isolationism and tribalism) I hope UNSETTLED will lift the voices of those who argue for engagement, cultural diplomacy and meaningful response to those who are most persecuted.”
– Tom Shepard