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Q2 2020

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53 S U M M E R Q 2 I S S U E F E A T U R E stories. Along with Erb, the Season 1 ed- itors were Geraud Brisson, Hilda Rasula, and Janet Weinberg. For those on the team with direct or close ties to immigrant experiences, the series also presented an opportunity to d raw f ro m p e rs o n a l fe e l i n gs a n d knowledge, and to bring attention to experiences often given short shrift in the media. Rasula grew up in Los Angeles with a Finnish father and Chinese grandpar- ents who ran a laundry near Paramount Pictures. "For me, undoubtedly one of the coolest aspects of this show is that we're telling stories about people that are rarely front and center on American television," she said. "The immigrant experience is something that was not my own childhood story, but was part of family lore and really informed my world view — a certain sort of built-in otherness, which I think is a common sec- ond-generation feeling that also involves a culture clash of the old guard and the new. Eating homemade lo-mein, washed down with Coca-Cola." When Rasula was in middle school, her family moved to a small college town in Canada, and she lived in France for her last year of high school. " I r o n i c a l l y , i t w a s t h e s e t w o non-American experiences that I prob- ably drew on most in cutting 'Little America,'" she said. "Feelings of disori- entation, of homesickness, of loneliness in a new country are all experiences I k n o w w e l l , a n d I t h i n k t h e y ' re a n interesting part of the story that 'Little America' explores." "I remember the first time I discov- ered bacon as vividly as the first time someone yelled racial slurs while pushing me around on the walk home from school, to the day we became American citizens," she says. "That, and all the experiences in between, shaped who I am today. My ex- periences definitely informed my choices when I was cutting 'Little America,' espe- cially for "The Son."" Erb's episode, "The Son," chronicles the journey of Rafiq, a young man who travels from Qatar to Damascus, where he and his friend, Zain, were met with gay slurs on the street. Raf iq's brothers also assaulted Zain for hiding him, leading Rafiq to flee to Jordan, where he waited for asylum to immigrate to America. "While my own experience wasn't that dramatic," Erb said, "I could relate to the hurt he felt with each slur, the loneliness that washes over you as you're trying to build a new life in a country where you know no one, the anticipation for immigration papers, and the wonder mixed with confusion when you first set foot on American soil. In a million years I never would have guessed that I could tap into my own immigrant experience for my work." "Little America" features a broad range of stories: A Nigerian graduate student in economics struggles to adjust to university life in Oklahoma ("The Cowboy"); to build a home, an Iranian family struggles to move a massive rock from an otherwise perfect piece of real estate in Yonkers ("The Rock"); the only daughter to be sent to America from a Ugandan family of 22 siblings finds a piece of the American dream by selling chocolate chip cookies from a basket she carries on her head ("The Baker"); the rarified world of competitive squash is navigated by an undocumented teenager Nena Erb. Hilda Rasula.

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