America ReFramed

Indie Films Series / 7 Seasons

America ReFramed brings to life compelling stories, personal voices and experiences that illuminate the contours of our ever-changing country. Since 2012, the series has premiered 170 films - more than half helmed by female makers and a third credited to BIPOC makers - centering stories of the LGBTQ community, people with disabilities, the formerly incarcerated, veterans, immigrants and more.

Watch Latest: S12 E6

1h 12m / TV-PG

Running with My Girls | Identity and Politics

44s / TV-PG

Rebekah Henderson, the filmmaker of RUNNING WITH MY GIRLS, opens up about her life as a woman of mixed race and reveals her voter story - from lack of knowledge about local elections to voting based on political and racial identity. But the "good citizen" and Denver resident wonders if identity politics is the way to vote. Is it enough that someone in political office only looks like you?

From Here | Undocumented, Unafraid, Unapologetic

1m / TV-PG

Tania Mattos is "Undocumented, Unafraid, Unapologetic." The Bolivian-born, Queens-based activist reveals her status as undocumented, and what it means to have cultural and social ties to America but not legal standing in the United States. Tania also talks about the day-to-day challenges she shares with the many DREAMers across the country, and why their presence must be seen and heard.

From Here | Leaving Home

59s / TV-PG

Tania Mattos, an undocumented activist living in Queens, NY, talks about her family, their roots in Bolivia, and the reason why they had to leave the country for the United States. She is like many others who have had no choice but to flee home for a new "home" but no matter the years that pass, they lack a sense of belonging as they search for a path to citizenship.

From Here | Through Art Is an Identity and Existence

50s / TV-PG

Akim Nguyen, a Berlin-based street artist born in Vietnam, immigrated to Germany alone and had to deal with a country, systems and households who did not understand him. Through his art like with graffiti, Akim has a voice, and an outlet to express his experience as a child of refugees and a person who is able to traverse the globe.

From Here | Being Roma in Germany

42s / TV-PG

Miman Jasarovski is German-born and lives in Germany but as a Romani person, he is without citizenship. And he, like others who are also known as Roma, suffer from prejudices even though they were born in the country. Miman, who is an activist, realizes that change can only come from within their community and all refugees throughout the European Union.

From Here | The Power of Identification

50s / TV-PG

Tania Mattos, an activist and organizer, speaks to other immigrants like herself who are undocumented in the United States. She shares her knowledge of the everyday necessities they all need to survive every day, including possessing a legal form of identification which would allow them to do things that Americans take for granted.

From Here | Growing Up Sikh in America

1m 9s / TV-PG

Growing up in Charlotte, North Carolina was both an American and Sikh experience for Sonny Singh and his brother. He had a childhood like his peers but he wore a turban - and that difference, among other things, led to bullying by fellow students. Singh also had to find out for himself who he was in his majority white neighborhood and that has impacted him today.

From Here | Sikh in a Post-9/11 Nation

1m 13s / TV-PG

As Sonny Singh walks through New York City, he sees and hears two sides of America - open and supportive, and closed and defensive. This is the country following the September 11th attacks and people who don't look "American" are not welcome and under physical and verbal attack. Sonny, who is Sikh, recognizes how he is seen by others, taking all the perspectives in stride.

From Here | Trailer

1m 10s / TV-PG

“Where are you really from?” Inspired by a young generation’s creative response to this loaded question, FROM HERE follows artists and activists from immigrant families coming of age in an era of rising xenophobia and political turmoil. Set in New York and Berlin, the film shows them create families, fight for citizenship, make art and forge identities, while redefining what it means to belong.

From Here | Preview

30s / TV-PG

“Where are you really from?” Inspired by a young generation’s creative response to this loaded question, FROM HERE follows artists and activists from immigrant families coming of age in an era of rising xenophobia and political turmoil. Set in New York and Berlin, the film shows them create families, fight for citizenship, make art and forge identities, while redefining what it means to belong.

Blurring the Color Line | James Brown

53s / TV-PG

Deanna Brown talks with Blurring the Color Line filmmaker Crystal Kwok about her father, the music legend James Brown, who grew up in Augusta, Georgia. She tells of his young life living in the Southern city and having to work in one of the Chinese-owned grocery stores to survive through poverty - this was very much like the lives of other Black residents.

Blurring the Color Line | The 1970 Augusta Riot

1m / TV-PG

In 1970, the Georgia city of Augusta erupted into a riot that became the largest uprising of Black Americans in the South. Sixteen-year-old Black teenager, Charles Oatman, was arrested and then died in a county jail; his brutal death turned a protest into a riot that led to the killings of six Black men by white police officers...this piece of American history has been largely forgotten.

Blurring the Color Line | A Community Together

1m 7s / TV-PG

Residents relive the aftermath of the Augusta Riot, talking about what they had experienced over three days in 1970. Many of the Georgia city's businesses were vandalized but not the Chinese-owned grocery stores that had openly welcomed and served the Black community - over the years, some Black and Chinese residents had built close and trusting relationships.

Blurring the Color Line | Jim Crow Laws

16s / TV-PG

In Augusta, Georgia's history, Chinese residents were allowed to enter stores through the front door like white customers. But Black residents had to go to the back door marked for "colored" people. As fellow minorities in the Southern city, why were the Chinese afforded certain privileges?

Blurring the Color Line | Acceptance?

1m 14s / TV-PG

Senior members of Georgia's First Baptist Church of Augusta sit together to talk with filmmaker Crystal Kwok about their shared but separate histories. While the wife of the minister and the deacon - both white - tell of their acceptance of the Chinese community, the Chinese churchgoers address the dreams and realities they dealt with during that time.

Blurring the Color Line | Mixed Race: Being Black & Chinese

2m 56s / TV-PG

LeAnna Saucier and her daughter Asia open up about being mixed race - both Black and Chinese - and the indelible experiences they had growing up surrounded by their extended Chinese family. Though they have many warm memories, LeAnna and Asia also share the times each felt unaccepted by their own family and others.

Blurring the Color Line | Preview

30s / TV-PG

BLURRING THE COLOR LINE follows director Crystal Kwok as she unpacks the history behind her grandmother’s family, who were neighborhood grocery store owners in the Black community of Augusta, Georgia during the Jim Crow era. By centering women’s experiences, Kwok poses critical questions around the intersections of anti-Black racism, white power, and Chinese patriarchy in the American South.

Blurring the Color Line | Trailer

1m 12s / TV-PG

BLURRING THE COLOR LINE follows director Crystal Kwok as she unpacks the history behind her grandmother’s family, who were neighborhood grocery store owners in the Black community of Augusta, Georgia during the Jim Crow era. By centering women’s experiences, Kwok poses critical questions around the intersections of anti-Black racism, white power, and Chinese patriarchy in the American South.

Blurring the Color Line | A Black and Chinese Neighborhood

1m / TV-PG

In Augusta, Georgia's Black neighborhood, Chinese-owned grocery stores once lined the streets. Black residents talk about the stores they used to shop at when they were younger, sharing how each business supplied essentials and more for the community. For the Chinese, owning a small business provided an economic means to move up socially...but only to a point.

A Decent Home | My Affordable Home

56s / TV-PG

A mobile home is one of the most affordable forms of housing in the U.S. For residents like Luz, the move allowed her to live in a place she can call her own, and provide for herself and her daughter. But residing in a mobile home park also means living with stigma and now uncertainty as America is in the center of a housing crisis.

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