Se Shin Sa

Princesses

September 2005 •Spanish

Caye is a young prostitute whose family is unaware of her profession. She meets her striking Dominican neighbour Zulema, an illegal immigrant, after she finds her in the bathroom, badly beaten up. They strike up a close friendship unbeknownst to Caye's xenophobic co-workers.

Travelers

June 2023 •Tagalog

The diaspora of Filipinos around the globe is driven mostly by the economics of supply and demand. The yearning for something better, stability, and self-validation leads a handful of sojourners from the provinces of the Philippines into the arms of one of its former colonial masters — the USA. But what happens when they finally get what they want? And how? Filmmaker Dennis Empalmado explores the musings of Filipino expatriates and hopeful immigrants in "Naglalakbay" (Travelers).

Frozen River

March 2008 •English

Ray Eddy, an upstate New York trailer mom, is lured into the world of illegal immigrant smuggling. Broke after her husband takes off with the down payment for their new doublewide, Ray reluctantly teams up with Lila, a smuggler, and the two begin making runs across the frozen St. Lawrence River carrying illegal Chinese and Pakistani immigrants in the trunk of Ray's Dodge Spirit.

Building the American Dream

March 2019 •English

In Texas, construction workers face the deadliest conditions in the country. This documentary follows three immigrant families who are rising up to seek justice and equality in an industry rife with exploitation.

Undocumented in the Pandemic

August 2020 •English

With The Marshall Project and the Pulitzer Center, a look at one immigrant mother’s struggle to keep her children safe and housed, with her husband detained by ICE in a facility where COVID is spreading. Also in this two-part hour, Love, Life & the Virus.

El Norte

October 1983 •Spanish

Brother and sister Enrique and Rosa flee persecution at home in Guatemala and journey north, through Mexico and on to the United States, with the dream of starting a new life.

America; I Too

March 2017 •English

Three arrested and detained undocumented immigrants must navigate the system to fight impending deportation.

Reparation

March 2022 •English

Two semi-studious students living in 'Korea-Town' are interrupted & intrigued by the actions of a girl in a nearby building, witnessed via CCTV, whilst each trying to come to terms with important subjects in their university projects [one Korean related: the Sewol ferry tragedy, and one British: the Grenfell tower incident], as well as their own life challenges in this claustrophobic tragicomedy of alienation, helping hands & secretive students. Is all really what it seems?

Ms. Purple

September 2019 •English

Kasie, stuck in LA’s Koreatown, works as a karaoke hostess getting paid for her companionship by drunken men. When her dad’s hospice nurse quits she reconnects with her estranged brother, Carey, forcing them to enter a period of intense self-reflection as their single father who raised them nears death.

Can Pazarı

January 1976 •Turkish

The film is about the love story between Murat and Selma. Murat is a masseur loved by his clients. Her biggest goal in life is to make her daughter Ebru happy. One day, he is assigned to the physical therapy of Abbas, one of the bosses of the underworld. He meets Selma, Abbas' daughter. The two, who did not get along at first, fall in love with each other over time. But the struggle between Abbas and his rival Kamil irreversibly affects Murat and those around him.

Seven Lucky Gods

April 2014 •English

An illegal immigrant from Albania infiltrates the lives of a group of Londoners with devastating consequences.

Els dies que no oblidarem

January 2020 •Catalan

The Home Song Stories

February 2007 •English

Tom, now in his 40s, begins to write the memoirs of his 1960s childhood, as the little boy whose mother Rose was a glamorous Shanghai nightclub singer. When Rose meets Aussie sailor Bill, they are quickly married, and she packs up Tom and his older sister May to head for Melbourne. The marriage just as quickly breaks up and Rose moves with the kids to Sydney. After a succession of male friends and little success, in 1971 Rose moves back to Melbourne, in an uncomfortable arrangement living again with Bill – and his mother. With Bill called away to sea, Rose takes up with young Chinese cook Joe, but despair and conflicts over May's relationship with Joe tear the family further apart. Little Tom is deeply hurt, but May's ongoing conflict with her mother takes a respite when Rose tells her daughter about her traumatic teenage years.

Huckleberry Finn: A Close Place

October 2020 •English

Transposing Mark Twain's immortal anti-racist novel to 2017, "Huckleberry Finn: A Close Place" depicts the friendship that develops between a poor Missouri boy and an undocumented African immigrant as they drift down the Mississippi River on a makeshift raft in pursuit of freedom.

Eternity and a Day

October 1998 •Greek

An ailing Greek man attempts to take a young, illegal Albanian immigrant home.

Juanita

December 2018 •Spanish

An illegal Dominican immigrant and a lonely Spanish farmer start a love affair. Juanita and Mariano, who in Spain clung to each other like two castaways to a raft, will try not to drown in Santo Domingo this Christmas.

Sawah

March 2019 •Arabic

On his way to a DJ Championship in Brussels, a young Egyptian is mistaken for an illegal immigrant and detained in a country he's never heard of before.

Border Incident

October 1949 •English

The story concerns two agents, one Mexican (PJF) and one American, who are tasked to stop the smuggling of Mexican migrant workers across the border to California. The two agents go undercover, one as a poor migrant.

The Serbian Girl

January 1991 •German

The naive 18 year old Dobrila leaves her little Serbian village to travel to Hamburg, Germany, where her boyfriend lives. The trip is not easy. Finally in Hamburg she has to realize her boyfriend is not very interested in a relationship. She doesn't tell him she's pregnant and starts on her way home to Serbia, which turns out to be even more exhausting.

La Promesse

August 1996 •French

Igor, aged 15, and his father Roger deal in housing and peddling illicit labor in the outlying districts of Liege, Belgium. Scams, lies and swindling rule their lives. When one of his father’s illegal workers gets injured on the job and asks Igor to promise to take care of his wife and baby, Igor finds himself at a crossroad. He wants to keep the promise, but the price would be to betray his father.