By Ramona Flume
Behind every headline about borders and immigration policy are real people with complex lives, families, and dreams of their own. Few art forms bring those lives into focus quite like documentary film. For more than two decades, Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program has supported nonfiction storytellers who center the experiences of immigrants and refugees around the world.
Their projects follow stories like that of an Afghan filmmaker documenting his family’s flight from the Taliban in Midnight Traveler, three Cuban baseball players who risk everything to chase major league dreams in The Last Out, and a New York City bakery café where undocumented workers organize against abusive conditions in The Hand That Feeds.
Below, our DFP team shares 15 Sundance Institute–supported documentaries about migration, exile, and belonging, with insights from our DFP team and details on how to watch.
Backside: The Unseen Hands of Horse Racing
Director: Raúl O. Paz-Pastrana
Producers: Gabriella García-Pardo, Patricia Alvarez Astacio
Logline: Following a racing season from beginning to end, Backside captures the daily work, friendship, dreams, and expertise of the underrecognized migrant workers behind the Kentucky Derby.
Supported by Sundance Institute’s 2024 Documentary Fund and premiered at the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival.
“Director Raúl O. Paz-Pastrana and producers Gabriella García-Pardo and Patricia Alvarez Astacio gained remarkable access to workers, grounds, and horses at the famed Churchill Downs racetrack. Through their intentional gaze, the project highlights the role immigrant labor plays in the production of American culture. Close studies of the track’s workers illustrate their labor, skill, and commitment at work — and their attempts to build lives and community off-site — revealing how class and race intersect in the United States. Delightful moments of animal humor and affection punctuate the story, underscoring the interdependence between human and animal labor.” — Dominic Davis, Manager, Documentary Film Fund
Check viewing options here.
Eat Bitter
Directors: Ningyi Sun, Pascale Appora-Gnekindy
Producer: Mathieu Faure
Logline: Against the backdrop of civil war in the Central African Republic, a Chinese construction manager and an African laborer work on opposite ends of the spectrum to construct a sparkling new bank. As deadlines approach, unexpected twists threaten their jobs, relationships, and plans for a better life.
Supported by Sundance Institute’s 2021 Documentary Fund and premiered at the 2023 CPH:DOX.
“China has been investing in infrastructure across Africa for many years, but the complex relationships and culture shifts that emerge from its economic influence are rarely explored in nonfiction. Eat Bitter offers an observational, character-driven portrait of two men on opposite sides of a Chinese-led construction project in the Central African Republic.” — Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
Streaming on YouTube.
Imago
Director: Déni Oumar Pitsaev
Producers: Alexandra Mélot, Anne Laure Guégan, Géraldine Sprimont
Logline: Déni is the new owner of a small plot of land in a remote valley of Georgia, at the border with Chechnya, from which he has been exiled since childhood. Upon his arrival, he plans to build a house that sharply contrasts with local traditions. A fantasy that rekindles memories both for him and his rootless clan, who have only one wish: to see him married!
Supported by Sundance Institute’s 2022 Documentary Fund and premiered at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival.
Currently screening at festivals.
Made in L.A.
Directors: Almudena Carracedo, Robert Bahar
Producers: Almudena Carracedo, Robert Bahar
Logline: Made in L.A. follows the remarkable story of three Latina immigrants working in Los Angeles sweatshops as they embark on a three-year odyssey to win basic labor protections from trendy clothing retailer Forever 21.
Supported by Sundance Institute’s 2006 Work in Progress grant and the 2007 Documentary Fund and premiered at Silverdocs 2007.
Check viewing options here.
Midnight Traveler
Director: Hassan Fazili
Producers: Emelie Mahdavian, Su Kim
Logline: When the Taliban puts a bounty on Afghan director Hassan Fazili’s head, he is forced to flee with his wife and two young daughters. Capturing their uncertain journey, Fazili shows firsthand the dangers facing refugees seeking asylum and the love shared within a family on the run.
Supported by Sundance Institute’s 2018 Documentary Fund and premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for No Borders.
Check viewing options here.
My Father and Qaddafi
Director: Jihan K
Producers: Mohamed Soueid, Dave Guenette, Sol Guy, Valentina Castellani-Quinn
Logline: A daughter unravels the disappearance of her father, the peaceful opposition leader to Qaddafi, and pieces together her mother’s 19-year search to find him. Without any memory of her father, she tries to reconnect with him and reconcile with her Libyan identity.
Supported by Sundance Institute’s 2025 Documentary Fund and premiered at the 2025 Venice International Film Festival.
“Taking the audience on a personal journey through exile and memory, director Jihan K said that she ‘feel[s] an urgency to overcome my void in the midst of Libya’s relentless chaos and instability, which I fear will eventually bury my Libyan identity.’ Framed by the search for her father’s memory and body, Jihan also searches for her place in a country her family fled many years before.” — Dominic Davis, Manager, Documentary Film Fund
Currently screening at festivals.
Queendom
Director: Agniia Galdanova
Producers: Agniia Galdanova, Igor Myakotin
Logline: Jenna, a queer artist from a small town in Russia, stages radical performances in public that become a new form of art and activism — and put her life in danger.
Supported by Sundance Institute’s 2022 Documentary Fund, 2022 Producers Lab, and 2022 Producers Summit. It premiered at SXSW 2023.
Check viewing options here.
Sansón and Me
Director: Rodrigo Reyes
Producer: Su Kim
Logline: Two Mexican migrants, a young man serving a life sentence in prison and a filmmaker who was his court interpreter, become intertwined through life and cinema.
Supported by Sundance Institute’s 2017 Spotlight on Storytellers Award and premiered at the 2022 Tribeca Festival.
Check viewing options here.
Sonita
Director: Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami
Producer: Gerd Haag
Logline: Eighteen-year-old Sonita is an undocumented Afghan immigrant in Iran. She has formed a rap group with her friends as an outlet for their problems, but her family plans to marry her off for $8,000.
Supported by Sundance Institute’s 2014 Documentary Fund and screened at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary and the Audience Award: World Cinema Documentary.
Check viewing options here.
The Hand That Feeds
Directors: Rachel Lears, Robin Blotnick
Producers: Rachel Lears, Robin Blotnick
Logline: Twelve undocumented immigrants face an uphill battle and the threat of deportation when they take on the popular restaurant in New York City where they work.
Supported by Sundance Institute’s 2013 and 2014 Documentary Funds and premiered at the 2014 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival.
Check viewing options here.
The Infiltrators
Directors: Cristina Ibarra, Alex Rivera
Producers: Daniel J. Chalfen, Darren Dean, Cristina Ibarra, Alex Rivera
Logline: A true story of two young immigrants who get purposefully arrested by Border Patrol and put in a shadowy for-profit detention center. The film follows Marco and Viri, members of a group of radical Dreamers who are on a mission to stop deportations. And the best place to stop deportations, they believe, is in detention.
Supported by Sundance Institute’s 2016 Documentary Fund, 2016 Documentary Short Fund, 2019 Luminate Fund, and the 2017 Documentary Edit and Story Lab. It premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.
“Winner of both the Audience Award: NEXT and the NEXT Innovator Prize at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, The Infiltrators is a hybrid documentary thriller following the true story of undocumented activists who get themselves deliberately arrested by ICE in order to infiltrate a for-profit detention center to fight deportation from the inside. With limited audio recordings of the events, directors Alex Rivera and Cristina Ibarra incorporate inventive reenactments to immerse viewers into the high-stakes operation led by these courageous young people. As ICE raids have only escalated under the current administration, the fight for justice and humanity continues, and community screenings of the film are ongoing, so please keep an eye out!” — Andrea Alarcón, Producing & Artist Support Manager, Documentary Film Program
Check viewing options here.
The Last Out
Directors: Michael Gassert, Sami Khan
Producers: Michael Gassert, Sami Khan, Jonathan Miller
Logline: Three Cuban baseball players leave their families and risk exile to chase their dreams of playing in the United States. At the shadowy nexus of the migrant trail and pro sports, The Last Out chronicles their harrowing journey, from immigration obstacles to the broken promises of dubious agents. Against all odds, these young athletes try to hold onto their hope while fighting for a better life for their families.
Supported by Sundance Institute’s 2018 Documentary Fund and premiered at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival.
“Sports stories often reflect dramatic human stories, but very few show the realities of what it takes to make it in professional sports. With incredible access, The Last Out follows three baseball players who risk everything to make it in the major leagues, showing how high the barriers are for players coming from Cuba.” — Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
Check viewing options here.
The New Americans
Directors: Susana Aikin, Carlos Aparicio, Jerry Blumenthal, Indu Krishnan, Steve James, Gordon Quinn, Gita Saedi Kiely, Renee Tajima-Peña
Producer: Gita Saedi Kiely
Logline: This seven-part series follows four years in the lives of a diverse group of contemporary immigrants and refugees as they journey to start new lives in America.
Supported by Sundance Institute’s 2000 Documentary Fund and premiered at IDFA 2003.
Check viewing options here.
unseen
Director: Set Hernandez
Producers: Félix Endara, Day Al-Mohamed, Diane Quon
Logline: An aspiring social worker, Pedro faces restrictions as a blind, undocumented immigrant to get his college degree. But when attaining his dreams leads to new challenges, what will Pedro do? Using experimental cinematography, unseen reimagines film accessibility through an audio-centric experience.
Supported by Sundance Institute’s 2021 and 2023 Documentary Funds and premiered at the 2023 Hot Docs Festival.
“unseen is a profoundly intimate, multiplatform documentary that follows Pedro — a blind and undocumented aspiring social worker — on his powerful journey of self-healing and community advocacy. As Pedro confronts systemic barriers to education and employment, director Set Hernandez crafts an experimental reimagining of accessible cinema. Through the lens of immigration, disability, and mental health, unseen speaks urgently to our current political moment. Now more widely available than ever, the film can be streamed on platforms including Kanopy, which is free with a public library or university card!” — Andrea Alarcón, Producing & Artist Support Manager, Documentary Film Program
Check viewing options here.
Who Is Dayani Cristal?
Director: Marc Silver
Producers: Thomas Benski, Gael García Bernal, Lucas Ochoa
Logline: The story of a migrant who found himself in the deadly stretch of desert known as “the corridor of death” and how one life becomes testimony to the tragic results of the U.S. war on immigration. As the real-life drama unfolds, we see this John Doe, denied an identity at his point of death, become a living and breathing human being with an important life story.
Supported by Sundance Institute’s 2011 and 2012 Documentary Funds and premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the World Cinema Documentary Cinematography Award.
Check viewing options here.
