Rory Kennedy is revisiting the past to provide timely commentary on the present in a new documentary. The Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning director of “Last Days in Vietnam” will helm an untitled doc exploring a rarely-acknowledged refugee crisis that occurred shortly prior to WWII. Variety broke the news.

“The film will center on the voyage of the transatlantic liner St. Louis in 1939, which was carrying Jews fleeing Nazis but was turned away by Cuba and the U.S. and forced to return to Europe,” the source details. “Later, 254 of its passengers died in the Holocaust. The film will compare that episode with today’s global refugee crisis.”

“Ten years ago I made ‘The Fence,’ a film about the wall going up along the U.S.-Mexico border,” said Kennedy. “Since then I have watched in dismay as anti-immigrant and anti-refugee rhetoric has accelerated, while resettlement quotas have been slashed and barriers have risen up across the globe. Every day the refugee crisis grows more dire. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to make what I feel is a very important and timely film.”

Kennedy received an Oscar nod for “Last Days in Vietnam.” A six-time Emmy nominee, she won for producing “Ghosts of Abu Ghraib,” which she also scored a directing nom for.