Which Way Home

Colour, HD CAM
USA, Mexico, 2008, 82 min
EP – European premiere
Section: Tribute to John Malkovich

Synopsis

Olga and Freddy are nine-year-olds from Honduras who have entered the US illegally to find the girl’s relatives in faraway Minnesota. Ten-year-old José from El Salvador ends up in a Mexican detention center after his smuggler turns him adrift. Juan Carlos was born in Guatemala; in New York he hopes to locate his father, who abandoned him and his mother. Kevin is 14 years old and he already knows the ropes. He finds jobs from time to time, and his mother Lupe, who remained in Honduras, expects him to send her a little money. These and other children from Mexico and Central America endeavor to make it on their own in the United States across the Mexican border, having undergone a dangerous and lengthy train journey – most often via an infamous long-distance freight train nicknamed The Beast. Even in the worst moments they don’t lose the hope that in the USA they will find a better life: a beautiful and just existence befitting a Walt Disney fairy tale. Their fates often provide stories of hope and courage – but also disappointment, loneliness, and desperation.

About the director

Rebecca Cammisa joined creative forces with Rob Fruchtman in 1998, and together they directed and produced the documentary Sister Helen. This outstanding movie picked up Best Documentary at Chicago and Nashville and the Directing Award from the 2002 Sundance festival. A year later Cammisa founded Documentress Films. Her latest movie, Which Way Home, received development support from HBO, the Sundance Documentary Fund, the Wellspring Foundation, and the William J. Fulbright Fellowship in Filmmaking. The documentary was shot in coproduction with Mr. Mudd producers Lianne Halfon, Russell Smith, and John Malkovich. Which Way Home premiered at this year’s Tribeca festival in New York.