Experiencing Interruptions?

The Lives We Leave Behind

Every time we immigrate, we leave behind a different life we could have lived. An animated exploration of my grandmother's, my mother's, and my own history of immigration, this film spans the former Yugoslavia, Germany, Canada, and the United States. We exist in the spaces between borders, seas, forests, and techno bunkers. The Lives We Leave Behind non-chronologically follows the journey of assimilation and imagination one must undertake in order to resettle.

  • Courtney Lassiter
    Director
    Diese Alten Punks
  • Project Type:
    Animation, Short, Student
  • Runtime:
    4 minutes 14 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    April 14, 2026
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Language:
    Croatian, English
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    Yes - Davidson College
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
  • North Carolina Museum of Art Student Short Film Festival
    Raleigh
    United States
    February 28, 2026
    Premiere
    Official Selection
Director Biography - Courtney Lassiter

Courtney Lassiter was born and raised in rural North Carolina, the place and time which served to shape her formative years. Since then, Lassiter has studied as a multidisciplinary artist at Davidson College with a double major in Studio Art and Film, Media, & Digital Studies. Combining her interests in mixed media traditional artwork with the digital landscape has allowed her to document not only her personal mythology and life experiences, but also the lives of those beyond her. Her current projects have included a body of studio artwork exploring techno subculture, her documentary film Diese Alten Punks on the punk movement in 1980s Berlin, and her animated cultural project The Lives We Leave Behind. Her current creative practice has been greatly informed by international perspectives gained through travel for her studies.

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Director Statement

My grandmother fled Yugoslavia by way of Germany to Canada; my mother moved from Canada to the United States. My entire life I've thought about what it means to be a girl raised in the American South with all of these different influences: biscuits, bagged milk, and baklava all a part of my diet. As such, my film began as an exploratory creative project supported by the Davidson Research Initiative, in conjunction with funding from the Halle Foundation, to delve into where I've come from. In the summer of 2025, I traveled together with German Studies peers to Koblenz, Paderborn, and Berlin, as well as solo to my grandparents' hometown in Croatia to research, document, and create. The end result was The Lives We Leave Behind, a project consisting of both my animated film and a travelogue-research essay documenting my first time in Croatia.