Which Way Home

Rebecca Cammisa's 2009 documentary follows unaccompanied children trying to reach the United States through Mexico. Most are thirteen or fourteen and travel on top of freight trains; the journey takes weeks and nobody accompanies them. The documentary does not reduce the children's reasons to one. Some set out to find family, some to work, some simply to leave; Cammisa leaves each account intact. The crew actually travelled with them and found some of the children again at the points where they turned back. The hardest part is that what finally happens to the people we watch is not always good. Who it's for: those who can watch documentaries about migration and children's rights. Who it's not for: viewers who do not want to see children exposed to serious danger; the film does not soften it and some outcomes are heavy.