Beginning just after the bloody Sioux victory over General Custer at Little Big Horn, the story is told through two unique perspectives: Charles Eastman, a young, white-educated Sioux doctor held up as living proof of the alleged success of assimilation, and Sitting Bull the proud Lakota chief whose tribe won the American Indians’ last major victory at Little Big Horn.

18ος αιώνας βαθιά στις ζούγκλες της Νότιας Αμερικής, Ένας ισπανός ιησουίτης χτίζει μια ιεραποστολή στη μέση της ζούγκλας και προσηλυτίζει τους ιθαγενείς στον χριστιανισμό. Ένας κυνηγός κεφαλών μετανιώνει για τη ζωή του κι ενώνεται με την αποστολή. Όταν οι Ισπανοί πουλάνε την περιοχή στους Πορτογάλους, όλα αλλάζουν και η αποστολή βρίσκεται σε κίνδυνο. Μετά από χρόνια πάλης μαζί, βρίσκονται σε αντίπαλα στρατόπεδα σε μια δραματική μάχη για την ανεξαρτησία των ιθαγενών. Ο ένας θα εμπιστευτεί την δύναμη της προσευχής. Ο άλλος θα πιστέψει στην δύναμη του σπαθιού.

Ενώ βρίσκεται σε αποστολή στα βάθη ενός αρχέγονου δάσους, η δασοπόνος Gabi τραυματίζεται και δύο επιβιωτιστές της σώζουν τη ζωή και την περιθάλπουν. Το αγόρι με τον πατέρα του έχουν τη δική τους πίστη, την δική τους μυστηριώδη σχέση με τη φύση. Η ύπαρξη και η επιβίωσή τους μέσα στο δάσος έχει πολλά σκοτεινά στοιχεία και η Gabi δεν αργεί να αντιληφθεί τη σκοτεινή συμφωνία τους.

Στα τέλη της δεκαετίας του ’50 του Οντάριο, ο επτάχρονος Saul Indian Horse είναι αποχωρισμένος από την οικογένεια του Ojibway και βρίσκεται σε μια από τις πασίγνωστες καθολικές σχολές κατοίκησης του Καναδά. Σε αυτό το καταπιεστικό περιβάλλον, ο Saul στερείται της ελευθερίας να μιλάει τη γλώσσα του ή να αγκαλιάζει την ιθαγενή του κληρονομιά και γίνεται μάρτυρας παντός είδους κακοποίησης από τους ίδιους τους ανθρώπους στους οποίους ανατέθηκε η φροντίδα του. Παρ ‘όλα αυτά, ο Saul βρίσκει σωτηρία στο αγαπημένο καναδικό χόμπι, το χόκεϊ. Γοητευμένος από το παιχνίδι, κρυφά διδάσκει τον εαυτό του πως όχι μόνο να παίζει αλλά αναπτύσσει μια μοναδική και σπάνια ικανότητα. Είναι σαν να έχει τα μάτια στο πίσω μέρος του κεφαλιού του και να βλέπει το παιχνίδι με έναν τρόπο που κανένας άλλος παίκτης δεν μπορεί. Το ταλέντο του τον οδηγεί μακριά από τη δυστυχία του σχολείου σε ένα πρωτάθλημα του Βόρειου Οντάριο. Αλλά τα φαντάσματα του παρελθόντος του Σαούλ θα τον κυνηγούν πάντα.

A well-bred young English lad living in lower Manhattan tries to gain acceptance from his not-so-well-bred peers at school.

Krotoa, a feisty, bright, 11-year-old girl is removed from her close-knit Khoi tribe to serve Jan van Riebeeck, her uncle’s trading partner and the first Governor of the Cape Colony. She is brought into the first Fort established by the Dutch East India Company in 1652. There she grows into a visionary young woman who assimilates the Dutch language and culture so well that she rises to become an influential translator but ends up being rejected by her own people as she tries to bridge the gap between the two cultures about to collide.

As a Sikh man with a full beard and turban, AMRIT SINGH is often the target of racial profiling. But when he sees his dreams of becoming Chief of Surgery at a state-of-the-art transplant center dwindle because of his appearance, Amrit goes against a tradition he's maintained his whole life and cuts his hair. Hiding this decision from his girlfriend and family in Toronto is only the start of a series of compromises Amrit finds himself making as he deals with hospital politics and health care injustices. When his compromises result in the death of a patient, Amrit begins to reexamine the value of the religious traditions he'd turned his back on.

The Curse of Quon Gwon is the oldest known Chinese-American film and one of the earliest American silent features made by a woman. Only two reels of the film survive, and no intertitles are known to exist, making it difficult to parse out the exact plot. An article in the July 17, 1917 issue of The Moving Picture World states that the film "deals with the curse of a Chinese god that follows his people because of the influence of western civilization." The film also touches on themes of Chinese assimilation into American society. Formally premiering in 1917, no distributor was willing to purchase a Chinese-American film without racial stereotypes. Considered a devastating financial failure, the film was only screened two more times until its rediscovery in 2004. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2005.

Having arrived in Paris in 1985, Hector did everything to be like “them”. In a notebook he finds in his flat, he crosses out a list of things he should do or pay attention to if he wants to become part of the French elite. In a painful dialogue with Martin, his alleged son, Hector notices himself in Martin; a young man full of dreams and ideals that turn out not to be matched by reality. Metropole is a film about migration, about assimilation, about the haunting of one’s past. It is a film about identity; lost, assumed, false. Metropole tells the story of millions of people out there who leave their homes behind in order to find a new one.

People from different ethnic backgrounds with "difficult" names by Western standards share their experience with moving through the world with an identity that challenges others to simply just say their name. A short social docu-film by Mariam Meliksetyan, “Say My Name” is a meditation on identity, otherness, assimilation, community, and ancestral roots.

An offbeat, irreverent musical documentary that tells the story of a group of Jewish songwriters, including Irving Berlin, Mel Tormé, Jay Livingston, Ray Evans, Gloria Shayne Baker and Johnny Marks, who wrote the soundtrack to Christianity’s most musical holiday. It’s an amazing tale of immigrant outsiders who became irreplaceable players in pop culture’s mainstream – a generation of songwriters who found in Christmas the perfect holiday in which to imagine a better world, and for at least one day a year, make us believe.

“I want to be a tiger. I am an atheist from Iraq and I am seeking asylum. About my hallucinations… It’s difficult. Horrible monsters. I hope I can help those who need help.” An episode of the animation series Mental images by Antonia Ringbom. The aim of these animated documentary short films is to reduce the stigma toward mental health problems and psychological disorders.

A childhood story is narrated while home movie footage is displayed. The narrator recounts her assimilation experience: moving to America, learning English, giving up your culture and a part of yourself.

A mockumentary following a Brown man who no longer identifies as a person of colour.

Escaping war, a Syrian writer seeks asylum in Germany with his family. On the escape route he lost his wife so that only he and his daughter are left. Once they are settled in a refugee camp, he is forced to give his daughter to a German family. A moving story of forced assimilation and the struggle of the refugee in the modern world.