Filmmaker Statement

Can those who leave ever come back home? Will those who stay ever stop dreaming of leaving one day? When we’re abroad, we’re expats, immigrants. When we’re back home, we’re the foreigners who left. It is strange that once you make a decision to leave your home country, you’re a changed person, and the world around you seems the same but your relationship to it is different. As a Lebanese woman, I come from a society where immigration has always been a predisposition. Growing up, I witnessed so many family members come and go, and what has always brought them together, and somehow separated them at the same time, was the death of a family member. Frayed Roots is a representation of the fears I was faced with leaving my home country behind. It is inspired by the strong women in my family; who defied their surroundings and traditions, stood up for themselves, and decided to take charge of their own futures.