03 Jun 2021
Shelter
Fleeing religious persecution, resilient Jewish immigrants arrive in Toronto and begin building affordable, quality housing in a growing metropolis.
Lost, Lost, Lost
Drawn from footage shot between 1949 and 1963, Jonas Mekas’s autobiographical diary film chronicles his early years in exile, capturing the struggle to build a new life in New York and his gradual discovery of a vibrant artistic community.
Top Billed Cast
Peter Beard Self
Adolfas Mekas Self
Tiny Tim Self
Allen Ginsberg Self
Barbara Rubin Self
Similar movies
Shelter Shelter Melania Melania 30 Jan 2026
Melania
Offering unprecedented access to the 20 days leading up to the 2025 Presidential Inauguration — through the eyes of the First Lady-elect herself — step inside Melania Trump's world as she orchestrates inauguration plans, navigates the complexities of the White House transition, and reenters public life with her family. With exclusive footage capturing critical meetings, private conversations, and never-before-seen environments, Mrs. Trump returns to one of the world's most powerful roles.
God Grew Tired of Us 
God Grew Tired of Us 31 Dec 2006
God Grew Tired of Us
Filmmaker Christopher Quinn observes the ordeal of three Sudanese refugees -- Jon Bul Dau, Daniel Abul Pach and Panther Bior -- as they try to come to terms with the horrors they experienced in their homeland, while adjusting to their new lives in the United States.
Tell Them We Were Here 
Tell Them We Were Here 07 May 2021
Tell Them We Were Here
Tell Them We Were Here is an inspirational feature-length documentary about eight artists who show us why art is vital to a healthy society and reminds us that we are stronger together.
Paul Tomkowicz: Street Railway Switchman 
Paul Tomkowicz: Street Railway Switchman 02 Jan 1953
Paul Tomkowicz: Street Railway Switchman
In this film, Paul Tomkowicz, Polish-born Canadian, talks about his job and his life in Canada. He compares his new life in the city of Winnipeg to the life he knew in Poland, marvelling at the freedom Canadians enjoy. In winter the rail-switches on streetcar tracks in Winnipeg froze and jammed with freezing mud and snow. Keeping them clean, whatever the weather, was the job of the switchman.
Latvian Coyote 
Latvian Coyote 01 Dec 2019
Latvian Coyote
An absurd game of “finding happiness” is being played by local Latvian coyotes* and illegal immigrants on the Russian and the European Union border. It is a game with no winner – all participants are driven to play by the sense of despair. While one side leaves home and undertakes a perilous journey to the other side of the globe, hoping to spend the rest of their lives in a free country, the other side risks their freedom to earn a chance to stay right where they are, in their homeland. *coyote – someone who smuggles illegal immigrants
Slowly Forgetting Your Faces 
Slowly Forgetting Your Faces 05 May 2021
Slowly Forgetting Your Faces
Two men, the hint of a sofa corner and a pile of letters. Using minimalist means, the film tells the story of two brothers caught between exile in a foreign country and resistance in the underground. It takes us back to the time when the revolution seized power in Iran and tells of life between the fronts. Daniel Asadi Faezi sketches the story of his father and his brothers - based on correspondence that has lain in the cellar for 30 years.
Hotel Diaries 
Hotel Diaries 20 Oct 2007
Hotel Diaries
Made over six years in the hotels of six different countries, Hotel Diaries charts the 'War on Terror' era of Bush and Blair through a seven-part series of video recordings that relate personal experiences to the ongoing conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and Israel/Palestine. In these works, which play upon chance and coincidence, hotel rooms are employed as 'found' film sets, where architecture, furnishing and decoration become the means by which the filmmaker’s small adventures are linked to major world events.
The Adventure The Adventure 01 Jan 2013
The Adventure
In 2011, as tens of thousands of migrants, Loss, and Madess Moussa arrived in Europe via Turkey. Required by EU law to remain in Greece, they only want one thing : to leave. Therefore earn the money needed to start is an obsession and all means are good. The film "The Adventure" follows the lives of these three Ivorians to Athens - their sense of enclosure, strategies to find money, failover illegally, attempts to start - and explores what is at stake, individually and collectively during migration: relations to other migrant communities, friendship, betrayal, solidarity, mafias and violence.
Spellbound 
Spellbound 14 Mar 2002
Spellbound
This documentary follows 8 teens and pre-teens as they work their way toward the finals of the Scripps Howard national spelling bee championship in Washington D.C.
War Dance 
War Dance 15 Feb 2007
War Dance
Three children living in a displacement camp in northern Uganda compete in their country's national music and dance festival.
Moving to Mars 
Moving to Mars 21 Nov 2009
Moving to Mars
Moving to Mars charts the epic journey made by two Burmese families from a vast refugee camp on the Thai/Burma border to their new homes in the UK. At times hilarious, at times emotional, their travels provide a fascinating and unique insight not only into the effects of migration, but also into one of the most important current political crises - Burma.
Birth of a Nation 
Birth of a Nation 06 Aug 1997
Birth of a Nation
Jonas Mekas assembles 160 portraits, appearances, and fleeting sketches of underground and independent filmmakers captured between 1955 and 1996. Fast-paced and archival in spirit, the film celebrates the avant-garde as its own “nation of cinema,” a vital community existing outside the dominance of commercial film.
Terwijl het liefde was 
Terwijl het liefde was 11 Aug 2021
Terwijl het liefde was
Artistic director of the National Theater Eric de Vroedt writes and directs a performance about his own mother Winnie, who passed away in 2020. This piece, titled The Century of My Mother, is a family story about the migration from the Dutch East Indies to the Netherlands. It is De Vroedt's way of examining the relationship with his mother and not having to say goodbye to her yet: 'I can let her live on stage, but when the curtain falls, when the play is completely finished, then she is really dead'.
The Lure and the Lore 
The Lure and the Lore 01 Jan 1988
The Lure and the Lore
A collaboration between filmmaker Ayoka Chenzira and performance artist Thomas Pinnock, who performs his "immigrant folktales" using traditional lore of his native Jamaica to dramatize his migration to New York in the 60's.
Return Home 
Return Home 01 May 1992
Return Home
After the near death of her grandfather, Chinese Canadian filmmaker Michelle Wong embarks on a personal journey back home to her small town of St. Paul, Alberta to speak to her grandparents about their journey from China to Canada.
Displaced Perssons 
Displaced Perssons 23 Aug 2013
Displaced Perssons
Per Persson left Sweden 40 years ago. In Pakistan he fell in love and became the father of two daughters. Trouble starts when the girls grow up and the family decides to emigrate to Sweden. When they end up living in a caravan outside Hässleholm, all their expectations are dashed.
Polaris 
Polaris 27 Jun 2012
Polaris
Work. Eat. Sleep. And back to work. For a long time skippers in the North East of Scotland could not find locals to work on their fishing vessels. That was until Filipino fishermen started coming to town for work. Both nationalities strive to shorten the distance between two very different worlds.
Martha of the North 
Martha of the North 23 Jan 2009
Martha of the North
In the mid-1950s, lured by false promises of a better life, Inuit families were displaced by the Canadian government and left to their own devices in the Far North. In this icy desert realm, Martha Flaherty and her family lived through one of Canadian history’s most sombre and little-known episodes.
See You, Lovable Strangers 
See You, Lovable Strangers 29 Oct 2017
See You, Lovable Strangers
Follows Vietnamese migrant workers, to examine the reasons behind their numerous escapes and to trace the family situations of those who were deported from Taiwan.