The Fon Project
We need your help. Documentary productions are expensive and time-consuming. This project requires international travel to 6+ countries in South and Central America with cast and crew. Oliver and Mirabell are not financially secure, and need support in order to commit their time to this important work.
Please consider donating to one or more of the following funding categories. Recurring donations are encouraged. Thank you for your generosity and support.
*All donations to this category are made through the CU Foundation and are tax deductible. Please ensure you select “Center for Documentary and Ethnographic Media Fund”. Funds will only be used to cover direct project expenses. If asked to provide a comment or purpose for your donation, please indicate “The Fon Project”. Write to eric.coombsesmail@colorado.edu if you have any questions.
Current goal: $100,000
Raised (as of 12/25): $59,917
**All donations to this category will go directly toward supporting the Fon Family's living expenses for the duration of the project. Donations to this category are not tax deductible.
About
This feature-length documentary project tells the story of the Fon family. Oliver, Mirabell, and Kylie fled their homeland due to the ongoing civil war in Cameroon to claim asylum in the United States. Braving extortion, human smuggling, the treacherous jungles of the Darién Gap, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and finally, cancer and the US medical system, their story illuminates the politics of migration and offers new ways to think and feel about the people who make the difficult decision to flee.
Re-tracing their steps, the story starts in Aurora, Colorado where the Fons now live. Recently laid off from his position working in refugee resettlement due to funding cuts, footballer and table tennis champion Oliver left Cameroon in 2016 during mass protests and violent government crackdowns. Embarking on his own and hoping to be granted asylum, he intended to secure passage for the rest of his family upon arrival. What followed was a harrowing journey across the world, traversing eleven countries by air, sea, bus, and foot, braving the treacherous jungles of the Darién Gap. When Oliver arrived at the US-Mexico border in Tijuana, he claimed asylum and was incarcerated in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention. Shipped from state to state, he arrived in Colorado where his asylum paperwork was processed almost a full year after he first left.
Oliver succeeded in bringing his daughter, Kylie, to the US – but he could not do the same for his wife, Mirabell. Faced with the difficult choice of whether to follow in Oliver’s footsteps, she navigated a route notoriously dangerous for women. Against all odds, Mirabell succeeded and was reunited with her family, only for Oliver to be diagnosed with stage 4 lymphoma.
Now in full remission, Oliver is intent on telling his story. Both personal catharsis and cause, he is committed to promoting new understandings of what it means to flee one’s homeland, and to counter false and damaging rhetoric about the long tradition of human migration across the world.