Chicago-based filmmaker Colette Ghunim’s passion lies at the cross-section of social impact and visual storytelling. Her first documentary, The People’s Girls, received worldwide attention for its bold spotlight on Egypt’s issue of sexual harassment. With recognition by major international outlets, The People’s Girls trailer enticed over 2 million views.
Colette is currently working on Traces of Home, her first feature-length film documenting her journey back to Mexico and Palestine to locate her parents’ original homes, which they were forced to leave decades ago. She is also the co-founder of Mezcla Media Collective, a nonprofit organization to support women of color in film in Chicago. Colette strives to be a changemaker for communities worldwide, documenting powerful stories of individuals that often go unnoticed.
“Traces of Home tells the story of what happens when we as first-generation Americans go back to our roots to find out how where we come from shapes our identity. Through Traces of Home, I am telling my own personal story. I’m half Mexican and half Palestinian and both my parents were forced to leave their homes as children, and they both never returned since then. So through my film, we’re going back to Mexico and Palestine to try to find the original houses and to talk about why people are leaving and immigrating and why refugees are leaving as well, during a time when we need to hear it the most."
The Nasiona Podcast shares stories that explore the spectrum of human experience and glimpse into foreign worlds. We focus on stories based on facts, truth-seeking, human concerns, real events, and real people, with a personal touch. From liminal lives to the marginalized, and everything in between, we believe that the subjective can offer its own reality and reveal truths some facts can’t discover. Hosted, edited, and produced by Julián Esteban Torres López.
Our theme song is “Lat Dior” by Abdoulaye Mboup—a beautiful song by a classic Senegalese artist lamenting all of the beautiful culture that has been lost through colonization.
Julián Esteban Torres López is a Colombian-born journalist, publisher, podcaster, and editor. Before founding the nonfiction storytelling organization The Nasiona, he ran several cultural and arts organizations, edited journals and books, was a social justice and public history researcher, wrote a column for Colombia Reports, taught university courses, and managed a history museum. He’s a Pushcart Prize and Best Small Fictions nominee and has written two books on social justice. Torres López holds a bachelor’s in philosophy and in communication and a master’s in justice studies from University of New Hampshire and was a Ph.D. candidate at University of British Columbia Okanagan, where he focused on political science and Latin American studies.
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Born in a refugee camp in Germany after World War II, JOHN Z. GUZLOWSKI came to the United States with his family as a displaced person in 1951. His parents had been Polish slave laborers in […]
Conversation with Richa Pokhrel about her blog Nepali Chhori, the vulnerability of personal essay writing, and being a Nepali woman in today’s world. RICHA POKHREL is a nonprofit professional. She is originally from Nepal. Her work has […]
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