Rose Mapendo, always pushing.

The title of Pushing the Elephant, a documentary about Rose Mapendo, a Congolese refugee who became a U.S. citizen and peace activist, is drawn from a proverb she tells a group of women while touring her homeland: "One person alone cannot push an elephant, but many people together can push an elephant." That may be true, but if this documentary is any indication, Mapendo is doing most of the pushing herself. As the ambassador of Mapendo International and co-founder of Mapendo New Horizons, she pushes for African refugees and at-risk populations, especially women. She pushes to raise nine children at her home in Phoenix, Az., where she has lived since her resettlement in 2000. And she pushes to find a daughter, Nangabire, with whom she was separated during the ethnic violence that overtook their country in the late '90s — violence that included the execution of Mapendo's husband.

So there are a lot of elephants in Pushing the Elephant, which screens tonight at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival in D.C., but directors Beth Davenport and Elizabeth Mandel chose, perhaps wisely, to focus on Nangabire's reunion and assimilation. Nangabire has been living in Nairobi, Kenya, with her grandparents — the only child in the household — and does not speak English. Now, at 17 years old, she's thrust into a suburban American home with nine siblings, an aunt, and her mother — all of whom speak English, and in some cases better than their native tongue. Nangabire struggles to fit in at home, amidst her brash, Americanized siblings, and at the local school where, word by excruciating word, she's learning English. (Having a camera follow her around couldn't have made life any easier.)

Hoping Nangabire will follow in her footsteps, Rose devotes special attention to her daughter, teaching her less about what it means to be an American than what it means to be human. (Rose speaks often of forgiveness.) Though their relationship is touching, the film's most affecting moments instead arise from Nangabire's story, told piecemeal throughout the movie, which never fails to astound — or to draw tears, both in the eyes of Rose and those of us watching.

The filmmakers will be in attendance tonight.