“We Will Live” Through the Eyes of an Immigrant
In 2020, the Raymond J. Christensen Foundation set out to actively engage with the documentary community in Minneapolis. In speaking with the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation, we were steered towards a project we felt had a far-reaching impact, not only on the Twin Cities, but on our Somali community and the greater communities throughout the United States.
Hamse Warfa, Director of “We Will Live”, is a social impact leader, entrepreneur and an author who works at the intersection of community building, social entrepreneurship, and public policy. He is Deputy Commissioner for Workforce Development at the Department of Employment and Economic Development for the State of Minnesota as well as co-founder and CEO of BanQu, a credit-building company for women, farmers, and refugees around the world.
Hamse has lived the immigrant experience, and for him, the journey is as important as the story. Born in Somalia, Hamse escaped Somalia’s civil war and spent three years living in a Kenyan refugee camp before immigrating with his family to the United States in 1994, and ultimately settling down in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Minneapolis, which has one of the largest Somali-American communities in the United States has seen a significant rise in tensions between the expanding Somali refugee community and the white community.
As a natural peace-builder and storyteller, Hamse launched his narrative for peace initiative, Rumee, to create opportunities for his community to have authentic dialogue on citizenship and belonging. Hamse’s work with the Somali-American community has been replicated globally and he has gone on to become a trusted facilitator and peace-builder. Hamse documented his story in “America Here I Come: A Somali Refugee’s Quest for Hope” which he is turning into a documentary film entitled “We Will Live.”
“The memoir is centered on the intersection of my life as an African immigrant, a refugee and all of the complex identities which comprise who I am at a time of heightened Islamophobia, anti-refugees, anti-blackness and unbridled racism in our country.”
For Hamse, there was always the question of how to explain his history to his children in hopes they can possibly understand their father’s experiences and what has shaped and informed his view of the world.
“I have four children and my children kind of always wondered what does it mean to be a refugee? How did I get here? My book was hard for someone who’s eight years old to fully understand and comprehend, so I wanted to do a cinematic memoir of my book as a feature-length story to my children.”
It’s not just about creating a cinematic memoir for Hamse, it’s a kind of message in a bottle for his children to embrace all of their intersections; being black, Muslim, of Islamic faith, as well as to feel proud to be a Minnesotan and an American.
“As a result, they have a greater understanding of refugees, they understand a bit more of the history of anti- immigration, and Islamophobia and see the challenges they will need to navigate as they grow up.”
“We Will Live” is a love letter from parent to child. It’s a heartfelt story of resilience, strength, and will of character which can be passed down from generation to generation. It’s a new kind of oral history come to life.
“At the core of what I’m trying to achieve in narrative change is identity ownership and story ownership, which is not common in traditional Hollywood where others always tell our story the way THEY want it and not the way we want. We wanted to shift the structure and secure ownership of our own stories to become our own storytellers. I’m hoping it will be a catalyst for change across the art industry.”
“We Will Live” is a love letter from parent to child. It’s a heartfelt story of resilience, strength, and will of character which can be passed down from generation to generation. It’s a new kind of oral history come to life.
“At the core of what I’m trying to achieve in narrative change is identity ownership and story ownership, which is not common in traditional Hollywood where others always tell our story the way THEY want it and not the way we want. We wanted to shift the structure and secure ownership of our own stories to become our own storytellers. I’m hoping it will be a catalyst for change across the art industry.”
As the first project the Raymond J. Christensen Foundation has funded, we found the best approach to this particular project was to set our sights on how we could bring forth the story while allowing the filmmaker the creative and artistic freedom he needed to see his vision come to pass.
“When I first started the film, I was able to get a number of people who wanted to fully invest, but the challenge was they wanted to have full creative control of it. I had to turn down a number of large funding opportunities, in part, because the funder wanted me to hand over control of the story to a big company.”
We reached out to Hamse through the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation because his story and his project aligned so strongly with the core mission of our foundation which embraces the values of community, collaboration and learning. We felt this compelling narrative needed to be heard in the way the artist intended. Through their vision, their journey and their experience, we wish to be the conduits and help others steer their own ships.
“When people ask you to give up your creative control, it’s the antithesis of identity ownership. The funding I’ve received has allowed me to take care of BIPOC, independent artists who found themselves in the midst of the pandemic crisis. So having the support of a foundation like the Raymond J. Christensen Foundation is a huge part of our critical success factor. This work cannot be done without ecosystem support. It’s donors like the Foundation who are making a difference.”
At the Raymond J. Christensen Foundation, we know the importance of giving documentary filmmakers the space and creative control they need to see their projects through to fruition. Our namesake, Raymond J. Christensen, was a documentary filmmaker who saw the usual in unexpected and unusual ways. We seek projects from voices who will carry on that spirit and work to expand the opportunities for others to share their stories, their histories and viewpoints as well as challenge the status quo and open the doors for new, emerging and distinctive voices to shine.
“I tell documentarians we need a new narrative that’s going to take us to the next chapter of our economy, next chapter of our community building, next chapter of dismantling systemic racism. If we’re going to get there, it’s because of documentarians and filmmakers who will help tell the nuanced stories of themselves, their communities, and issues they care about, while empowering others to tell their own stories.”