Unsettled: Seeking Refuge in America

In her stunning poem on immigration entitled “Home,” Kenyan-Somali poet Warsan Shire writes “no one leaves home unless / home is the mouth of a shark.” As the so-called “immigration debate” wages on in American politics and media, many glibly wonder why refugees flee from their homes. In UNSETTLED: SEEKING REFUGE IN AMERICA, director Tom Shepard provides a profound rebuttal to immigration critics by highlighting the lives of four LGBTQ individuals fleeing for their lives and finding refuge in the United States.

For Cheyenne and Mari (Angolan), Subhi (Syrian), and Junior (Congolese), seeking asylum is a matter of a new life in the US or an almost certain death in their countries of origin due to their sexual identities. But as all four learn, even with a team of lawyers, and new-found friends, the road to asylum is an uphill battle that can take years. Shephard’s work is a timely portrait of the painful struggles and small joys of refugees seeking asylum in the United States.