This is part of our听special feature on forced migration,听Narration on the Move.
This is part of our campus spotlight on Vassar College.
Documentary filmmaker Jan M眉ller chronicled life during the 鈥淣ew Americans鈥 Summer Program, interviewing the high school students with refugee and forced migrant backgrounds who came to Vassar College for two weeks in July 2019. He filmed at the site of the mural they painted with Joel Artista, co-founder of , and in their academic classes. In one course, which relied on graphic novels to approach the subject of narrating displacement, he taught a lesson on camera techniques and perspective and helped students film interviews with their peers. Newly trained in camerawork and narrative perspective, students interviewed each other about their experience of migration, hospitality, and the challenges of starting anew as adolescents in the United States. These student interviews, combined with footage of classroom, the mural, and the input of program administrators, form a story about the way Vassar College is rethinking access to higher education for forcibly displaced students.
M眉ller produced the film on the heels of a year-long film workshop at a high school in New York City, working exclusively with students who had migratory backgrounds. He stated, 鈥淲hen Maria H枚hn approached me with this opportunity, I didn鈥檛 hesitate. I found this to be a deeply gratifying film making experience on many different levels. Particularly because young migrants take storytelling to another dimension, as their experience of a different, previous life adds extra sharpness and depth to their perception of the present and their expectations for the future.鈥
鈥擝rittany Murray and Matthew Brill-Carlat for 夜色直播
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Jan M眉ller is a Poughkeepsie-based filmmaker, who has lived a nomadic existence for some 20 years of his life. Migration has been a recurring theme in his work: Stray Tales (2012), Familiar Events (2019) and Ocho Mil Quinientos / Electric Generals (2019).
Published on October 29, 2019.
