Traces of Home – Director Colette Ghunim

TRACES OF HOME follows filmmaker Colette Ghunim on an extraordinary journey of self-discovery as she sets out to reunite her parents with the ancestral homes they were forced to flee as children in Palestine and Mexico. Filmed over five years and featuring evocative animation and archival footage, the film is both a meditation on memory and an unflinching exploration of what it means to find our way back home—to ourselves. Colette and her brother Ramsey had a typical American childhood. Raised in suburban Schaumburg, Illinois, there were birthday parties, school events, and family outings. Her father, Hosni, and mother, Iza were determined to give their children a happy life. But as a child, Colette always felt disconnected from her culture and her parents. Immigrants forced to flee Palestine and Mexico as children, her parents’ only desire was to make a life that was simple, safe, and American, but they couldn’t escape the unspoken divide that separated them as a family. Now, decades later, filmmaker Colette Ghunim takes us on an extraordinary journey of self-discovery: a quest to bridge that gap, find her parents’ childhood homes, and confront the pain of the past to heal their family.

About the filmmaker - As a documentary filmmaker and nonprofit co-founder, Colette Ghunim’s soul purpose is to use the power of film and storytelling for those oppressed around the world to be seen, to be heard, and to heal. Her first documentary, The People’s Girls (2016), received over 2 million views and won Best Short Documentary at the Arab Film Festival for its bold spotlight on street harassment in Egypt. In co-production with Kartemquin Films and funded by Latino Public Broadcasting, she is directing Traces of Home, her first feature-length film documenting her inner quest to find home through unearthing her parent’s forced migrations from Mexico and Palestine. Colette is also the co-founder of Mezcla Media Collective, a nonprofit organization aimed to cultivate a Traces of Home follows filmmaker Colette Ghunim thriving landscape for over 700 women and non-binary filmmakers of color in Chicago. Her work has been highlighted on international outlets such as Huffington Post, Al Jazeera, Univision, and TEDx. Colette was selected as a 2023 Obama Foundation USA Leader, 2024 Sundance Institute x ISF Fellow, and was featured on Arab America’s “30 Under 30” list.