On Immigration, Life, Identity. Interview of Yehuda Sharim by Susanne Berthier and Paul Otto

Yehuda Sharim’s film We Are in It features visceral scenes from the everyday lives of immigrants in Houston. For them, Houston is a second, third or even fourth city of residence, both home, and metropolis of hostility. Here, they are safe, restless, part of a diaspora that struggles to find meaning beyond labels of foreigner, immigrant, undocumented, alien, and refugee.In We Are in It, Sharim’s camera follows Hussein, a recent immigrant to Houston, Texas, from Baghdad, Iraq, in a crowd rallying in favor of “A Nation of Immigrants” demanding something like justice. Karla—“My name is Karla, not undocumented!”—walks in her neighborhood through the thickness of the night. She talks about her parents when they crossed the USA–Mexican border. Now, she recalls her childhood, the days that she saved money to fix her glasses. Just like this immense wave of nomads from Africa, Middle East, and Asia, for whom “to migrate”, “to cross”, and “to seek refuge” is a way of life, Karla has developed that sensibility to see beyond borders.After leaving his beloved Myanmar, Tutu has lived twenty‑five years in a refugee camp in Thailand. Now, eight years after his arrival to the USA, where he is expected to become free finally, he is struggling with providing for his family with a minimum wage of $7.5 per hour. Every day, he films his family growing up in Houston, dreaming of making a movie, and farming his land while growing vegetables in the community garden. Unobtrusively, Sharim’s camera moves into the lives of immigrants who tell their stories and challenges, share moments of their lives and reveal their hopes and dreams.