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Hundreds of times every day, the Asylum Office is a place where Americans come face-to-face with the rest of the world.
Asylum Officers who work there represent the people and the government of the United States. Asylum-seekers who come to ask for protection represent only themselves, their particular life circumstances, their own unique luck. For this reason, every asylum interview has the makings of a novel.
Tales From Real Life is an introduction to five of those stories, five people from different countries and very different lives. Yet they are five people you'll want to know -- a grandmother who was once a resistance fighter, a high school kid whose life was changed forever by an article he wrote for his school newspaper, an indigenous artist caught in a civil war, a political dissident who describes his unusual torture after a midnight arrest, a woman whose story shows how domestic violence can become political.
Out of 50 asylum cases in the archive of footage shot for our feature documentary film Well-Founded Fear, we chose the best. None of these Tales have been available until now. Each story opens the door to a universe of questions, and each can be looked at in several ways. Each person is someone you'll remember and wonder about.
We left these stories open-ended, trusting that creative teachers and discussion leaders will use them to open up many unique conversations.
Each story is about the person asking for asylum, but each one is also about us. Tales from Real Life raises a lot of questions, but inside every question hides these: who are these people? what are our values? who are we?
running time: Each story is 12 to 15 minutes long
Tales from Real Life is accompanied by an extensive teacher's guide.