Rhode Island International Film Festival 2009

According to the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, of the world's nearly 14 million refugees, more than 7 million have languished in refugee camps for ten years or more, some for generations. Life in a refugee camp is a life of restricted mobility, enforced idleness and dependency-- a human warehouse where lives are on indefinite hold-- not unlike the punishment of a prison, though with the added injustice of never having committed a crime. Although the international community tries to find durable solutions to their plight, less than 1% are ever offered a chance of resettlement.HOME ACROSS LANDS is a documentary that explores the journey of resettlement-- it tells the story of a small group of Kunama refugees and how they reestablish their sense of community in their new home in America.The Kunama are considered among the original inhabitants of Eritrea and are a marginalized minority populating the remote but fertile regions near the border of Ethiopia. Formerly nomadic, today they are farmers and pastoralists, living and working in what has been called the "breadbasket of Eritrea."In 1998, war between Eritrea and Ethiopia broke out in a conflict over the Kunama inhabited border lands forcing over 4,000 Kunama to flee across the border into Northern Ethiopia. In 2000, the war ended with the Eritrean government regaining control of the disputed area and declaring that all farmland is now state property. The government now encourages and supports large commercial farms, which are mostly owned by members of the majority Tigrinya ethnic group separating thousands of Kunama from their homeland and way of life.Today thousands of Kunama wait in desolation, 45 km from the contentious Eritrean border, warehoused in the Shimelba Refugee Camp in Northern Ethiopia. Life in the camp is difficult and opportunities for a better life are nonexistent but the Kunama remain committed to their strong sense of community and family in spite of their displacement. Unwanted in Ethiopia and unable to return to their homes safely a small number of Kunama are given the opportunity for resettlement in the United States.HOME ACROSS LANDS chronicles the journey of these newly arrived Kunama as they strive to become self-reliant, invested participants in their new home. Guiding their transition is the resettlement agency, International Institute of Rhode Island that connects them to the resources they need as they work to establish a new community and a better life for their families.Shot over the course of one year, the film chronicles the extreme changes with an array of striking landscapes, from the arid Shimelba Refugee Camp in Ethiopia to the Spring House Hotel on Block Island. The diversity of these images help to illustrate the journey of the Kunama and the scope of their relationship with International Institute. By presenting a straightforward visual portrait of this partnership at work we experience how the Kunama make sense of the basics-- apartment living, public transportation, employment and health care, while grappling with the complex-- nurturing their own community and adapting to a larger and very foreign world.