"Zera Qassari, a Syrian refugee, celebrates the link between poetry and hip hop, sharing her edgy, rhythmic poem Psycho in While the Earth Sleeps. This link has long played a role in shaping justice movements, as explored in BaddDDD Sonia Sanchez, who introduces herself with “I want to tell people how I became this woman with razor blades between her teeth.” A seminal figure in the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s, Sanchez has harnessed her gift for words as a champion against racism, sexism and war, fusing art and activism over the past six decades. As a pioneer of spoken word poetry, her influence on hip hop is fundamental – the film features appearances by Questlove, Mos Def, Ursula Rucker and more."
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"Karem Potela, a mother and storyteller from Venezuela, discusses her experience of being separated from her family: “[O]nly when I was calm, when I finally felt that I was safe, did I realize the immensity of what I had left behind. The most important thing that I left was the affection of the people I lived with, the experiences that made me who I am today.” The physical danger of border crossing and the pain of familial separation are among the most common themes explored throughout While the Earth Sleeps. In the animated film Flee, an Afghani refugee shares stories about his life’s journey that he’s never revealed before, describing the conditions that forced his family to escape their homeland, how he became separated from his siblings in Russia, and how he came of age as a gay man in northern Europe. He crosses borders physically, emotionally, and psychologically as he learns how to confront his past and build trust in new relationships. Despite the harrowing stakes, the film, co–executive produced and narrated by Riz Ahmed, finds moments of light and humor, reveling in the joys of pop culture, young romance, and acts of kindness."
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"While the Earth Sleeps describes Istarlan Dafe as someone who “hates poetry – at least she thought she did.” With a distaste for the guidelines and rules she felt governed the artform, Istarlan viewed poetry as “an exclusive thing that only older people read and wrote.” Yet, once she realized that poems can be defined and shaped by poets rather than their audiences, she decided to give the medium a try and wrote about her lived experiences as a child growing up in a refugee camp in Somalia. Likewise, the subjects of Louder than a Bomb make sense of their turbulent young lives in Chicago via poetry. Four high school poetry teams prepare to compete in the world's largest youth slam. By turns hopeful and heartbreaking, the film captures their lives, exploring the ways writing shapes their world and vice versa."
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"Several young refugees profiled in While the Earth Sleeps dream of becoming doctors and helping others by working in the field of healthcare. Mara, 8, asks to be called ‘Dr. Mara’ because she hopes to become a pediatrician someday, as does the energetic and intelligent Mayar, 12: “Maybe the world will talk about me.” Perhaps these childhood dreams echo those of the subjects of Bending the Arc, a documentary about an extraordinary team of doctors and activists whose work thirty years ago to save lives in a rural Haitian village grew into a global battle for the right to health for all. The community health model they developed to treat diseases like tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS has saved millions of lives in the developing world."
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This short film offers a glimpse into the life of an unhoused, undocumented fifteen-year old girl named Inocente who is a burgeoning artist in San Diego, and the extraordinary challenges she must contend with on a daily basis. One can imagine that Inocente and the artists profiled in While the Earth Sleeps would have a lot to discuss – she says, “I have a lot of impossible dreams. But I still dream them.”
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"When she isn’t writing or acting, Maryam, an Iraqi refugee, dreams of becoming an international soccer player. Iranian director Jafar Panihi, who has been banned from making films by his government, has spent years under house arrest because of the content of his films. Prior to his arrest, he was inspired to make the film Offside after his daughter dressed as a man and snuck into a stadium to watch a soccer game. (Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, women have been banned from attending matches). This film weaves a story about gender politics with comedy, intelligence and defiance."
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"Solve Manson, an Iraqi refugee whose life has been imperiled by smugglers and the Mafia, finds solace in photography: “I wake up to photograph the sunrise. Photos for me are like medicine. I don’t want to sleep. Sometimes I go to the jungle to photograph. I like to take in the good energy there; it’s relaxing.” In Chasing Ice, acclaimed environmental photographer James Balog faces a different kind of peril. He heads to the Arctic on a challenging assignment for National Geographic: to capture images to help tell the story of the Earth's changing climate. Even with a scientific upbringing, Balog had been a skeptic about climate change. But that first trip north opened his eyes to the dangerous reality and sparked a challenge within him that would put his career and his well-being at risk: to change the tide of history by gathering undeniable evidence of our changing planet."
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"Erwin Zareie, an Iranian refugee, talks about his experiences helping other refugees in Athens. His stories shed light on the importance of understanding a community you hope to help, as he shares his experiences about how well-meaning donors’ actions are sometimes harmful. “A lot of money is wasted because no one asks the people what they need… This is not the way to give aid.” The Last Tourist explores potential pitfalls of ‘voluntourism’, as well as other consequences of the worldwide tourism industry."
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In A Tribute to Alan Kurdi, Ahmed Badr writes: "The sun now embraces us in a new land. / We try to return the embrace, but we hear Aleppo’s song in the distance. / We hear / Baghdad’s poetry shake the ocean floor. / The cities are impatient for our return. / They speak of lost times, desperate journeys, and new worlds. / They tell us they have not forgotten. / They tell us the sun is in our hands and it’s our job to return it."
In The Return / El Regreso, 30-year-old Antonio returns to Costa Rica after living in New York for 10 years and is forced to deal with the dangerous and complex realities he’d escaped.
(Credit: https://guides.lib.udel.edu/filmfinders_topics/while_the_earth_sleeps)
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