The Truth is Found in Many Voices

The second of a two part interview with filmmaker Ziad Hamzeh.

In the 1990’s, many Somalians, displaced by their civil war, immigrated to the United States. This family-oriented, conservative Muslim culture was not a good fit for the urban housing projects, mostly in Atlanta and Cincinnati, the US government resettled them into.

So, in 2003, five or six elders went out to find a new home, with cheap housing, good schools, and a safe place in which to raise their families.

They discovered Lewiston, Maine, and families began moving there. Within 18 months, over 1000 Somali refuges had moved to Maine.

Maine is almost 99 percent white, and Lewiston predominantly Catholic. The community struggled to integrate its new members.

Then, in 2003, infamously, the mayor of Lewiston, Laurier “Larry” Raymond, wrote an open letter to the Somalian community, published in the local papers, asking them to stop coming to Lewiston, stating that the small city couldn’t help them, and didn’t want to.

The media storm that resulted was intense and negative. Lewiston was quickly labeled “racist.”

That’s when Swampscott filmmaker Ziad Hamzeh’s phone began to ring. By coincidence, six months before, he and his crew had just finished filming a promotional film for the city of Lewiston.

As Hamzeh relates the story one day last week from the comfort of his couch in Swampscott, “The city knew it had a publicity problem … they said to me, 'We need someone to come and tell the truth.”'

He adds that he was “given full access to everyone.”

The result is an extraordinary documentary, The Letter: An American Town and “the Somali Invasion.”

After decades of professional work in both theatre and film, Hamzeh has a clear philosophy: the story must take precedence. In this case he says, “It wasn’t for me to tell them what to stand up for.” He knew that his job was to “search for the truth, search for what’s happening.”

What is so fascinating about The Letter is that the truth—and the point where the viewer says, aha — emerges only gradually, and from dozens of widely different people with wildly different agendas.

The film consists entirely of the voices of the residents, ex-mayors, ministers, outreach workers, people on the street, Somali elders, and a representative from a white supremacist group.

We see how the mayor’s letter is perceived by the Somalis who see him as a tribal elder. Back in Somalia a similar decree would be seen as perhaps license to harm.

And what could be a textbook analysis of how hate becomes confident, we see the white supremacists interpret the mayor’s words as support for their views.

When the film was finished, it was shown at middle school in Lewiston. Hamzeh says, “a 1000 people came, and you could hear a needle drop.” At the end, the audience stood up and clapped.

Then, they began to get up on the stage and apologize to each other.

Now, Lewiston is seen a model for other cities and towns for how to integrate refugees.

Hamzeh adds that it was a “great privilege to have been able to be there and see how things carried out effectively.”

The movie has been “so well received,” and is shown regularly, in universities and in schools as well.

It won Best Documentary at the Boston Film Festival, was nominated for Best Documentary at Pan-African Film Festival, and was shown at the AFI Film Festival as well as the Amnesty International Film Festival.

The Letter: An American Town and “the Somali Invasion” is available on Netflix and at Amazon.

To view a trailer, visit: http://www.hamzehmystiquefilms.com/main/home.htm