untold stories in a whole new light

The World Health Organization (WHO) is screening A PLACE TO BREATHE throughout Turkey from April 5th to 11th 2021 for their Leave No One Behind Film Days event on refugee and migrant health! Check out the WHO panel discussion. In the U.S., the film screened virtually via the Wexner Center for the Arts throughout January 2021, and won the Interfaith Documentary Award at the 2020 St. Louis International Film Festival and the Social Justice Award at the Queen City Film Festival. It premiered at San Francisco DocFest in September 2020, and did a two-week run at the Roxie Theater SF (virtually) in October 2020, followed by Alexander Valley Film Festival and American Public Health Association Film Festival.

Check out this interview about the film via Wexner Center for the Arts and the reviews in Educational Media Reviews Online, Eat Drink Films, and Oaklandside. You can also listen to these recent radio interviews with the film's director/producer Michelle Grace Steinberg on KPFA's Letters and Politics and KSRO Sonoma County News.

FILM SYNOPSIS

Rodrigue is a newly arrived refugee from war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, who, along with his mother and six siblings, is struggling to adapt to life in Lowell, Massachusetts. Training to become a community health worker at the local clinic, he ultimately aspires to be a social worker to help his community heal from trauma. Socheat, a Cambodian immigrant, seeks tools to combat the stress of supporting her aging parents, teenage daughter, and disabled brother on a manicurist’s salary. The entire family experiences the benefits of meditation classes and culturally tailored wellness approaches at the health center. Sue, a nurse to both families, examines the continued impact of her own traumatic experiences, thriving in the U.S. after surviving the genocide in Cambodia and now supporting others to do the same.

Across the country in Oakland, California, Edgar and Yania, a young couple from Mexico and Uruguay, provide healing to their community through outreach to day laborers and Spanish-language yoga classes. Their aspirations to become a social worker and a nurse are threatened by possible deportation due to their tenuous immigration status under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). At the same health clinic, Norma, a Guatemalan immigrant, provides interpretation into her community’s indigenous Mayan language, while she watches new arrivals from her homeland fight for asylum and safety.

untold stories in a whole new light

A PLACE TO BREATHE

Please contact our Educational Distributor Good Docs to set up screenings at Universities, Medical Schools, High Schools, Libraries, and other educational settings!