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Far From Home

  • Felicia Taylor
    Director
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Short
  • Runtime:
    23 minutes 56 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    March 1, 2020
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    Senegal
  • Language:
    English, French, Wolof
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
  • Doc Edge International Film Festival

    New Zealand
    June 28, 2020
    International Premiere
    Best International Short Documentary
  • IMDB Independent Shorts Best Documentary Nomination 2021
    Los Angeles
    United States
  • Indie Shorts Awards Cannes
    Cannes
    France
    October 27, 2021
    Official Selection
Director Biography - Felicia Taylor

Felicia Taylor is a 25-year news veteran.

From correspondent at the Financial Times in London, to anchor at CNBC, NBC and CNNI, she covered pivotal moments in history from the Gulf War to the aftermath of 9/11 and other financial, natural and man-made disasters. She interviewed many influencers from Margaret Thatcher to Donald Trump; Jack Welch to Carolina Herrera, over the decades, leading her to conceive of and launch the sponsored series “Leading Women” on CNNI. The series told the “backstory” of women in leadership and sought to empower women from all backgrounds. Her love of storytelling brought her to Senegal where she met the Talibés and documented their plight from climate change in her award winning documentary film “Far From Home.”

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Director Statement

When you look in the eyes of a child who is starving, may have no shoes on his feet, no bed, no running water, a corrugated tin roof over head at night and only one t-shirt and shorts to wear, that face never leaves your heart. Watching children forced to beg on the streets all day, for money or a handful of rice, anyone may be left to ask, “How do we stop this?” That’s what happened on my first trip to Senegal.

There is a centuries old, time honored tradition in some Muslim countries, where extremely poor boys are sent to religious clerics to learn to read and write. In the beginning, they earned their “keep” by farming the land. This practice helped these boys grow into young men with skills to take back to their villages after eight years of study. But a severe drought 50 years ago, ravaged the land in Senegal and forever altered the tradition.

There are well over one hundred thousand of these boys who need a voice so their story can be seen. Far From Home is a documentary film that will hopefully enlighten and elevate the consciousness about what is happening in our world and remind us of the cruelty that takes place at all levels, in every walk of life. When it is happening to children, it is unforgivable. When you see fear and sadness in the face of a child, something has to change. No child deserves to grow up this way. Nature’s devastation is a rampant problem that is jeopardizing the very existence of mankind.

We have to ask ourselves, “Why do we continue to do this?”

I hope Far From Home inspires people to take back their power and change the world in which we live.