Building Belonging
Building Belonging
In the summer of 1998, I moved my family to Moscow to serve in a orphanage. I was expecting to help children in need. Instead, I discovered a deeper calling—one shaped not by charity or heroics, but by fatherhood.
Context Statement
Building Belonging tells the story of a small, overlooked bathing room in a struggling village near the Ukrainian border—and the quiet decision to rebuild it. Through cracked tile, cold water, and institutional neglect, this film explores how dignity is constructed through ordinary materials: warmth, presence, stability, and love.
Set against the backdrop of post-Soviet Russia, this personal narrative reflects on empathy as something tangible. Not abstract. Not political. But physical. Practical. Built by hand.
At its heart, the story asks a simple question:
If every child deserved to feel safe and valued, what would we build differently?
What Others are Saying
About Building Belonging:
This is more than good enough to have been aired as a small special on television, I feel like I saw something just like this on PBS in the early 2000s.
–Jacob Wingo
"Dignity is built out of ordinary materials” was a line that got me good. Had many great pull quotes like that! The before and after pictures of the bathroom were stark and illustrative.
–Ally Kaman
I think the shift toward focusing on the kids and your connection to them, that makes this story incredibly relatable. I loved that you took your time with certain images and let the audience stay on that emotion when needed to. Fantastic and pleasant music choice, also for the story you told.
–Venkat Ram Saran Tummala