LMU will present the award-winning animated feature documentary “Home Is Somewhere Else,” a film that provides a window into the hearts and minds of three migrant families who share their fears, hopes, and emotions about what it means to live undocumented in the United States. The screening happens on Nov. 19, 2024, at 7 p.m. in the Bruce Featherston Life Sciences Auditorium. The filmmaker and LMU faculty will participate in a panel discussion after the film.
Maria Barragán, director of Undocumented Student Support Services, is an immigrant and formerly undocumented person who will participate on the panel. “My life and that of my community is constantly placed in limbo,” said Barragán. “I believe that the message of the film is to bring awareness about the injustices of our immigration system. This film also helps humanize the stories of people who are impacted by immigration issues.” Barragán loves everything about the film, but finds the animation approach fascinating. “We do not have to see real faces or people to feel their experiences and emotions.”
The film tells three independent stories about undocumented immigrants. The first story is about Jasmine, who lives in constant fear that her parents will be deported. The second is about two sisters Evelyn (U.S. citizen) and Elizabeth (undocumented immigrant) who are forced to live apart because of their immigration status. The last story is about José Eduardo Aguilar, “El Deportee,” who was deported to Mexico at the age of 23 and becomes an activist for Mexican deportees.
José García Moreno, the director of Academy of Catholic Thought and Imagination (ACTI) is thrilled to be showcasing this film. “One of ACTI’s goals is to humanize others through their own stories,” said García Moreno. “The multilayered and complex issues surrounding immigration to this country requires from all of us that those who migrate, with or without documents, should always be considered, first and most of all, as human beings with human rights.”
Home is Somewhere Else, written and directed by Carlos Hagerman and Jorge Villalobos, was commercially released on May 4, 2023, in Mexican theaters, and has subsequently won awards at the Montclair Film Festival in New Jersey 2022 and the San Diego Latino Film Festival in 2023.
García Moreno said, “This documentary will share the rich complexity of the emotional experiences of immigrant children and families in order for audiences to better understand and empathize with them.”
