Category: Art and Design
A Return Home
December 04, 2025 Written by Natasha Kapadia | Photos by Maria Errico
Professor’s poignant documentary about refugees premieres at UD
What was supposed to be a two-day workshop on refugee experience turned into an eight-year international collaboration that premiered as a black-and-white cinéma vérité documentary at the University of Delaware’s Gore Recital Hall, located at the Roselle Center for the Arts.
Directed by Jon Cox, associate professor in the Department of Art and Design, “A Return Home” features the evocative photography of Andy Bale, visiting lecturer of art and art history at Dickinson College.
The documentary follows Ukrainian journalist Nataliia Ruda as she meets fellow Ukrainian asylum seekers rebuilding their lives in Ireland.
The debut event included a live performance of Patrick Long’s original score by Jennifer Blyth, professor of music at Dickinson College, and a panel discussion about refugees led by Knight Sor, former Department of Justice peacemaker for the mid-Atlantic region.
The evening opened with remarks by Caleb Everett, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, who praised the project as a model of “what’s possible when scholarship, creativity, and collaboration come together with purpose.”
He reflected on how the program “explores migration, resilience, and belonging–what it means to seek and create home amid displacement.”
Cox described the project as “a reminder that empathy grows through shared stories,” while Bale added that “the camera becomes a bridge between experience and understanding.”
When asked about the total amount of footage collected, both Cox and Bale confirmed that “there is easily over 20 plus hours of footage that we cut down to 26 minutes and 46 seconds,” emphasizing the careful editing process required to capture the most meaningful moments of the refugees’ stories.
Additionally, Blyth, when asked about her engaging live performance, added that “live music makes the experience more interactive, especially in today’s time, it brings a sense of urgency and presence to a film.”
During the project, Cox worked with the film’s subjects to create cyanotype prints on a specific theme. Prints from UD’s “Culture Project” class were also on display in the lobby, extending the evening’s reflection on identity, loss, and the enduring human search for home.
