While media coverage of the immigration debate will often highlight the treacherous nature of the desert along the U.S./Mexico border, for many illegal immigrants the danger begins many miles earlier. Filmed across five countries and two continents, Rebecca Cammisa’s Which Way Home documents the peril posed by the extended journey north for its most vulnerable travelers: children. Thousands of children make the journey through Mexico towards the U.S. each year, riding the tops of railway cars in hopes of finding work or reconnecting with lost parents who have gone before them. Adopting an observational style that allows the story to unfold on its own terms, Cammisa deftly handles heart-rending material without falling into the traps of sentimentality or sermonizing. Though it offers no easy answers, Which Way Home explores an important component of an incredibly contentious issue.

Presented as part of the Depth of Field 2011-2012 Series: Art and Culture in Transit(ion)

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