Abstract:

This essay intends to share how students of ED-BLESL 497-597 (an interdisciplinary course offered in Summer 2014 at Boise State University) were able to produce a documentary on the refugee community in Boise, Idaho. The investigative component of this class allowed students to engage in verifying what they knew, but also in learning new facets of the refugee community, through the assigned readings and the interviews that constituted the raw data of the documentary. The final version of the students' work, a documentary, was supervised by Italian director Fabio Caramaschi (who was also involved with ED-BLESL 497-597) and titled: Starting Over Again: The Refugee Experience in Boise, Idaho. The documentary production provided a unique opportunity not often granted to students in undergraduate and graduate programs: having a hands-on learning experience-one that was actually twofold. Being interdisciplinary, this class had students learning about specific community (the refugee community in Boise, ID.) while also learning the basics of documentary making.

Our hope, as authors of this informative essay, is that a project like this one could inspire educators to carry out similar endeavours to explore communities and underrepresented groups with their students. The audience will have the opportunity to view parts of the documentary and have a better understanding of how the project was accomplished.

Keywords:

Interdisciplinary, Film, Documentary, refugees, multilingualism, multicultural education, social justice.