“Human History is Created by People with the Courage To Do the Right Thing”: Eunice Lau on Accept the Call

Based in NYC but born in Singapore, filmmaker Eunice Lau is intimately familiar with the immigrant experience. And yet, her own history seems a far cry from that of the family portrayed in her most recent (IFP supported) doc Accept the Call. One of my top picks for the Human Rights Watch Film Festival last summer, the nuanced character study centers around Yusuf Abdurahman, a refugee from Somalia who fled that country’s civil war in the ’90s. Abdurahman now lives in Minnesota, where he married (and subsequently divorced), had seven kids who he’s wholeheartedly devoted to, and currently serves as a translator and facilitator at a Head Start program. On the surface this refugee’s life would seem to resemble that of many men in his Somali community — the largest in the US — if not for one personal (and political) tragedy. His eldest son Zach is currently serving a 10-year prison term, the result of having been arrested (and many, including Abdurahman’s activist daughter Ikraan, would say entrapped) in an FBI counterterrorism sting at the age of 19.

Filmmaker took the opportunity to discuss the thought-provoking doc with Lau prior to her film’s January 20th airdate on PBS’s Independent Lens.

To read my interview visit Filmmaker magazine.