16mm/DV, color, sound, 22:00, 2002

What kind of violence is exile? There is the exile by choice, and the one who is forced from home. There is the refugee who later becomes an exile. There is the visitor whose country dissolves in his wake. There are families and individuals, separated by space, by politics; by history. An exile lives a double life, here and not-here. Who speaks in this film? Teachers, workers, students, parents, long-term residents, asylum-seekers, people with families and with friends.
Songs from Kosovo resound loudly in a Geneva community center; a call from Sierra Leone transforms a refugee center classroom; landscapes blur into daydreams of home— these images contrast with the difficult issues of discrimination, incessant bureaucracy, and threats of deportation.
Migration, intolerance, and violence have been seen as inevitable consequences of global culture. View from Elsewhere reminds us that border closings, forced deportations, and travel restrictions have real, tangible effects on peoples’ lives.