With so much of PRIDE month being celebrated online this year out if necessity it is giving us a wealth of excellent programming ……. and most of it free.
Next week PBS are mounting a screening of UNSETTLED Tim Shepard’s powerful message about the plight of LGBTQ refugees. Prior to that to mark World Refugee Day on June 22nd NPR’s Ari Shapiro will be hosting a Live Video discussion about the film. Joining him will be Ambassador Samantha Power who represented the US at the UN during Obama’s Presidency, plus the filmmaker and Subhi Nahas one of the subjects in the film.
Details of that HERE
UNSETTLED: Seeking Refuge in America follows LGBTQ refugees and asylum seekers from Africa and the Middle East as they flee persecution to seek safety in the U.S. TOM SHEPARD started his excellent and unsettling documentary about the plight of a handful of LGBT refugees in what we now wistfully call the ‘good old days’ i.e. pre 2016.
Up to then this country stood by its centuries old policy of giving refugee to all those in need. In fact Shepard points out at the beginning of this documentary that half the population of the USA were born into immigrant families. Including the present President (and The First Lady) even though he has single-handedly done more than anyone in history to deny wholesale entry to so many refugees and asylum seekers and literally passing a death sentence on so many of them.
Shepard allows the three stories in his film to unfold without comment other than to note that the number of refugees accepted into this country last year was the lowest ever. The visuals alone are enough for us to be reminded so vividly how far low the US has sunk by downrightly refusing to providing these needy and desperate the safe haven they need purely to survive.
Unsettled has a very powerful and heartfelt message that so needs to shared with the largest audience it deserves.
Airs on WORLD Channel via local PBS stations - June 28 (and on WorldChannel.org from June 28-July 12)
PLUS here is QUEERGURU:’s full review of the movie :
https:// queerguru.com/unsettled-seeking-refuge-in-america/
