I Come From Far Away

Directed by: Charlie Stuart   Produced by: Charlie Stuart

Synopsis: Meet Nyamon Nguany Machar (aka Moon) a charismatic 30-year-old African woman who arrived in Portland, ME with her Ethiopian mother and Sudanese father as a refugee in 1995. This is her story of settling into the second whitest state in America. Through Moon’s eyes we experience the immigrant community in Portland with it successes and, regretfully, its burden of experiencing continuing racism. We are with Moon inside Portland’s dramatic effort to absorb 600 asylum seekers arriving from The Congo with only a few weeks notice. One asylum seeker, David Zwahila Mota, tells the story of his 6 month life and death journey with his young family to get to Maine from Africa by walking through Central America. Moon’s poetry (The Scars on My Daddy’s Back and I Come from Away) set the tone for this absorbing story of risk, hope and chasing the dream of freedom. As such, I Come From Away is a microcosm of the national debate surrounding immigration.