Traces of Home (2026)
Director: Colette Ghunim · Writers: Colette Ghunim, Sara Maamouri
Delving into the past and not shying away from the dug-up pain, a young filmmaker speaks to her Mexican mother and Palestinian father about their trying journeys into the United States. In a society with rhetoric increasingly vilifying Mexicans and Palestinians, the filmmaker picks up her camera in a bid to address the grief at the center of the generational trauma that has underscored her relationship with her family. A meditation of loss and grief relieved, ultimately, through reconciliation.
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User Reviews (1)
Exploring one’s roots can be a revelatory experience, especially for those who don’t know much about their family history. That’s particularly true when one may wonder how and why one’s upbringing turned out as it did. It can end up being quite a journey, especially when one isn’t necessarily prepared for what emerges. Such was the experience of documentary filmmaker Colette Ghunim and her brother, Ramsey. As the children of a Mexican mother, Iza, an accountant, and Palestinian father, Hesni, a wedding videographer who was never without his camera, they grew up in Schaumburg, IL, a suburb of Chicago, in the 1990s. For all practical purposes, they personified the prototypical all-American family living a happy and contented life in a storybook suburban community. In many ways, Iza and Hesni spoiled Colette and Ramsey, hoping to give them the childhoods that they never had in the…
