“Songs That Never End is a fascinating, compelling, and mesmerizing film. It focuses on seemingly small events inside small spaces to pose big questions about how people struggle with the hand that history has dealt them in a time of devastation, dispossession, and displacement. Filmed in cinema verité style, yet brilliantly shot, framed, and paced by director, camera operator, and interviewer Yehuda Sharim, Songs That Never End revolves around the everyday life experiences, events, injuries, and aspirations of an Iranian immigrant family living in a small apartment in Houston. Across nearly two hours of cinema, it sutures together a series of short scenes that convey chaos and unpredictability in the lives of these refugees who never find refuge, these exiles for whom exile never ends…….Sharim’ s eye for detail leads the film to present a series of memorable images replete with evocations of cultural conflict, contrast, and coalescence. Samira wears a t-shirt that features Minnie Mouse. Hana wears one that proclaims “after this there’s pizza.” The children are charged with shining shoes that somehow never become quite clean. Farsi melodramas compete for audibility with songs by Justin Timberlake. Hana playfully wears a blonde wig that brings home the contrasts between who she is and the value system of the society in which she lives. Hana runs back and forth in the parking lot of the apartment complex where she lives as if to simulate the dialectic of mobility and immobility that hovers over the family. The film ends with lingering looks at the damage done from flooding in Houston neighborhoods caused by a hurricane. These scenes metaphorically represent the damage done on a large scale to people and the planet by global catastrophes that compel people to deal with loss and start over in the ways that the family featured in this film has been forced to do.”

In “Songs that Never End”, Film artist and scholar Yehuda Sharim weaves a beautiful tapestry illustrating the beauty and bleakness in the lives of one refugee family, who are dealing with the trauma of escaping political unrest and persecution while finding themselves in the midst of an uphill journey to adjust to American life in Houston, TX. Although it’s easy to interpret Professor Sharim’s film as a glimpse in to a refugee family’s daily travails, that take would be incredibly simplistic and unfair. What unfolds in this family’s stories are within-family struggles that are clearly microcosms of larger societal and cultural issues that each family member faces….Perhaps the most important aspect of Sharim’s film is that it is a brutally honest depiction of refugee life in America. The complexities and consequences of diaspora, especially for individuals and their families, are laid out in their raw forms. The depiction of the psychological and practical complexities of refugee life makes the work a“must-see” piece of scholarship for any student in the fields of social justice and equity.Indeed, I am requiring my own students, both undergraduate and graduate, to view this film. Although many of my students are also children of immigrants, as time passes, the tragedies and triumphs of those who came before us lose their vividness, and perhaps, their poignancy. The fading of those experiences is probably the blessing of healing and resilience, even if we need to remember and honor those experiences. However, Sharim’s film will be an enduring reminder of the experiences of all of our forebears face: hardship, coping, and a strong need to make sense of the world. As is true for everyone, sometimes they succeeded and sometimes they struggled. However, despite the hardships and hurdles, like the Dayan Family, they also experienced moments of wonder, dances of innocence, giggles in jest, and sing songs that can’t be ignored.”

Screenings

2020

World Premiere
International Documentary Film Festival Vienna, Vienna, Austria
May 7-14: https://www.ethnocineca.at/en/songs-that-never-end/

Mimesis Documentary Film Festival, Boulder, Colorado
August 12-18

Harlem International Film Festival, New York, NY
September 10-13

Houston Premiere, Rice Cinema, Houston, TX
September 24-25: SONGS THAT NEVER END - Best US Documentary 2020 (Runner-up), Williamsburg International Film Competition

Gallup Film Festival, New Mexico
September 24-26

Virginia Tech
October 8

University of California, Santa Barbara
October 14

Mainz, Germany
October 22

University of California Merced
November 13: https://rb.gy/nqdknk

Mainz, Germany
November 14-19: http://www.obama-institute.com/nov-14-21-nov-19-yehuda-sharim/

‍Berlin, Germany
November 24: https://www.hu-berlin.de/en/service/veranstaltungen_neu-en?vk_id=8113&stat=show&cat=&iter=&page=&date=

Athens Ethnographic Film Festival, Greece
November 26-December 4th: https://www.ethnofest.gr

‍Wuppertal, Germany
October 29-30