Ithaca College student Sam Dellert, of Orange, Conn., is part of a group who filmed a documentary on Syrian refugees living in Dearborn, Michigan and local protests against the resettlement of Muslim refugees in the area according to a press release from the college.
{{more}}
The documentary, entitled “Stateless: Syrian Refugees in Detroit,” was selected as an “Editor’s Pick” by The Atlantic.
The students started with $2,000 from Ithaca College Professor Ben Crane’s documentary workshop class. With some early footage, they raised another $2,000 on crowdfunding site Indiegogo. In the end, they broke even, putting their last $50 toward film festival submissions, including the College Television Awards, known informally as “The College Emmys.”
The film documents a number of families as their multi-country journey ends-they hope-in their new homes in suburban Detroit, an area with America’s highest concentration of Arab Americans.
But not everyone is welcoming in Dearborn, Mich., or as one fiery protester calls it, “Dearborn-istan.”
The film juxtaposes images of an anti-Muslim protest with the everyday mundanities of the refugees’ new lives in the suburbs. As the protesters, some of them armed, describe the violent nature of Muslim culture, the youngest refugees frolic in the snow and play soccer in an apartment parking lot.
Inside, their families waver between fear and hope. Having fled violence, they want no more.
“My primary concern is that my kids receive the best education possible,” said Samir, an appreciative father, while sipping tea. “How could you not be grateful to America? We want to work with America to make this place a better environment? We want to help. How would we benefit from harming the community?”