now available on dvd
Welcome to Vermont is accompanied with a K-12 teachers guide created by the late Gregory Sharrow, Co-Director and Director of Education, Vermont Folklife Center. The guide is designed to facilitate classroom discussions and is linked to Vermont social studies standards and the common core. The DVD is structured in four
Welcome to Vermont: four stories of resettled identity. In four vignettes, it takes us inside the daily lives of four families from Bosnia, Somalia, Iraq, and Rwanda who have recently resettled in Vermont, one of the smallest and most homogeneous states in the country. The documentary raises questions about identity, assimilation, and diversity and explores how the adaptation process differs from one ethnic group to another, from one individual to the next.
Screened at film festivals, local and international cultural events. Purchased by numerous schools and institution for higher education.
By sharing the stories featured in the film, Welcome to Vermont aims to engage the general public, educators, and students in a humanistic dialogue about diversity and tolerance.
"A very powerful way for students to learn about the refugee experience that they can't get from a book."
- Carolyn Sawin Professor of Sociology and Anthropology Saint Michael's College
Welcome to Vermont was initiated as a short segment included in The Vermont Movie: Freedom & Unity, a collaborative documentary tv series involving over 20 Vermont filmmakers, that explores Vermont's independent spirit, and connects our past, present, and future.
A parallel world (2002)
A Parallel World (2002)
A 30-minute documentary exploring life in a refugee camp. It tells a story of suffering and existential chaos experienced by a few displaced families after the Kosovo conflict.
Awards:
~ Best Independent Documentary at the 32nd Canadian International Film and Video Festival
~ Honorable Mention at the Columbus International Film & Video Festival, Columbus, OH
~ Special Recognition Award for Personal Vision in Documentary Film, Vermont Stage and Screen Awards, Burlington, VT
Distributed worldwide by The National Film Board of Canada.
TRAFFICKING CINDERELLA (1999)
Trafficking Cinderella (1999)
A 48-minute documentary on forced prostitution and trafficking of women from Eastern Europe to the West. It features the gut wrenching testimonies of broken dreams, withered illusions, rape and humiliation from several Eastern European girls sold as prostitutes.
Awards:
~ Best Human Rights Documentary at the New York International Independent Film & Video Festival, USA
~ Certificate for Creative Excellence, Social Issues Category at the 32nd US International Film and Video Festival, Chicago, USA
~ In the official selections of numerous festivals around the world
~ More than 200 public screenings in North America-, Europe-, and Asia- TV stations, museums, foundations and other organizational libraries such as: Polaris Project, one of the largest anti-trafficking organizations in the United States and Japan; The United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking; Unite Clothing Foundation, Australia; Terre des hommes, Nepal; Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking Organization, LA, California, and others.
~ The film has been also used as an educational tool at universities around the world including: Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University, RI; American University and Georgetown University, DC; Archive of the Cineteca di Bologna, Italy; University of Minnesota, MN: Human Rights Film Library, "People in Need Foundation" Prague, Czech Republic; Columbia International Affairs Online, Columbia University Press, and others.