Synopsis

CLOSER TO HOME (formerly entitled TRANSPLANTED) is an hour documentary chronicling my journey to my childhood home, Uganda. When I return for the first time in almost three decades, I will explore the beauty of this country as well as its violent history, and I will visit my fellow Ugandans who choose to return to help rebuild their shattered country.

The aftermath of the war that overthrew Amin destroyed all economic and social stability. I stayed in Uganda for nine months after the overthrow of Idi Amin. In December 1979 my parents sent me to America. I was 14.

It was March 29th 1979. I do not recall any explanation being given to me for what was happening. The day we left it was about getting the little we could grab and go. My parents had not planned for this day. Our neighborhood was being bombed. We just drove to my uncle’s house not too far from our house and we then followed him to his wife’s family house in a small village outside Kampala where we would stay for two weeks.

CLOSER TO HOME is a story told in the first person, filled with my memories and my discoveries as I make this journey back in time. I will reconstruct the chaotic period of Amin’s overthrow and the dark days that followed before my parents sent me away. Unsure of what I will find, and begin to retrace the life I was forced to leave behind when I was just a child.

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