Seeking Asylum began almost by accident.

In 2015, Darnell Lamont Walker was preparing to leave the United States for a backpacking trip through Europe when the killing of Freddie Gray in Baltimore and the brutal arrest of University of Virginia student Martese Johnson forced him to reconsider. Walker knew Martese personally as his advisor, making the violence painfully close to home.

He stayed, filmed, marched, asked questions, and eventually traveled.

What began as footage collected during his travels became a documentary exploring the realities of being Black in America and the complicated search for safety, freedom, and peace beyond its borders. Through Walker’s experiences and conversations along the way, Seeking Asylum considers what it means to move through the world with the knowledge that an encounter with police or other forms of authority can fundamentally change, or end, your life.

The film moves between America and Europe, examining race, policing, travel, privilege, fear, and the possibility of leaving. Walker reflects on his own experiences with law enforcement, including being held at gunpoint, while asking a larger question: What does it mean to seek asylum when the place you call home no longer feels safe?

Rather than offering easy answers, Seeking Asylum opens a conversation about safety, quality of life, resistance, migration, and what revolution can look like for Black people in the 21st century.