Newly Funded
Exodus Stories
Three migrants flee violence and persecution in Central America while navigating dangerous journeys, detention, and shifting immigration policies.
Exodus Stories follows three Central American immigrants—Daisy, Dennis, and Cindy—as they flee violence and political persecution and join the historic 2018-2019 mass migrant caravans moving through Mexico toward the United States. Over five years, the film documents their efforts to find refuge, reunite with family, and build new lives.
Dennis, a Nicaraguan university student targeted for protesting his government, leaves behind his pregnant wife and young son, hoping to eventually reunite. Cindy, a Honduran mother threatened after witnessing a murder, heads north with her sister and their children. Meanwhile, Daisy, a Honduran mother traveling with her sisters and six children, hopes the journey will reconnect her with her estranged preteen daughter, Gabriela. But hunger, exhaustion, and a failed kidnapping attempt test the family’s resolve. Along the way, the group builds a support network as they navigate dangerous conditions and a prolonged asylum wait in Tijuana.
At the U.S. border, shifting immigration policies and lengthy asylum waitlists force each family to make difficult choices. Detention brings overcrowded, degrading conditions, while release offers no guarantee of stability. In the United States, Cindy and Daisy face barriers to legal representation and changing asylum standards as they try to establish themselves. Dennis endures months of immigration detention while fighting for asylum. Their experiences expose the human cost of displacement—and the resilience it takes to start over again.