Pushing The Elephant

May's Free Friday Films selections are complimentary to the NEA Big Read Program’s 2024 selection, “The Best We Could Do” by Thi Bui. The book chronicles Thi Bui's parents' life before and during the Vietnam War, their escape from Vietnam when Bui was a child, and their eventual migration to the United States as refugees. Our film selections tell diverse stories about migration and immigration all over the world and the scope of experiences this brings, from hardships and pain to love and unexpected kinship.

When war came to Rose’s village, she was separated from her five-year-old daughter, Nangabire. Rose managed to escape with nine of her ten children and was eventually resettled in Phoenix, Arizona. Over a decade later, mother and daughter are reunited in the US where they must face the past and build a new future. As mother and daughter get to know one another, they must come to terms with a painful past, and define what it means to be a survivor, a woman, a refugee and an American.

(Documentary, 2010, No Rating, 83 minutes)

(Courtesy of Women Make Movies - An organization that supports women producers and directors from the beginning, planting the seeds for a diverse and inclusive filmmaking landscape. As the world’s leading distributor of independent films by and about women, we amplify historically ignored voices and challenge the mainstream media. For more information, check out here: https://www.wmm.com/)