IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Photos and text from wire services States and Europe currently face a backlash with the rise of neo-nationalism and often are the targets of blame for demographic uncertainty and economic anxiety. “These films are giving viewers human stories that show how we’re more closely related to people from different countries than we actually know,” Bennett said.

That’s why Bennett and his co-director Talya Tibbon sought to present the terror the Nabi family face in refugees camps across Europe in “Sky and Ground” along with mundane concerns. As refugee Guevara Nabi seeks to lead his family through Serbia and Austria while avoiding police, the young travelers also worry about bathing or a doll that never leaves their side.

Juliana Schatz Preston, a Colombia-American filmmaker who co-directed “Los Comandos,” said the unaccompanied minor migrant crisis was at its peak in the U.S. in 2013 when she joined the project.

“I wanted to do something that was happening on the ground at its nexus point,” Preston said. “What would the conditions have to be to provoke you to leave?”

That’s how Preston stumbled upon a group from a volunteer emergency medical unit. In filming 16-year-old Mimi, at first Preston said she was hesitant to compare her mother’s family’s plight from violent Colombia of the 1980s.

PBS VIA AP This image released by PBS shows a scene from the documentary “Sky and Ground,” about the plight of refugees in the Middle East.