Prepared by Alexei and Izzy, January 2023
When deciding to focus our project on refugees regaining agency through publishing their stories, we initially thought of books as a prime example. This was inspired by reading We Are Displaced: My Journey and Stories from Refugee Girls Around the World by Malala Yousafzai (2019), as well as Nof Nasser-Eddin and Nour Abu-Assab’s conversation Decolonial Approaches to Refugee Migration (available on the Moral Panics subsection). Malala Yousafzai’s book is now included in the Women Refugee Experiences section of this archive, and several other books have been included by us in other sections of the website.
However, while there are many fascinating books that have been published by refugees, books are not easily accessible by all. They require several hours of free time, they presuppose a certain level of literacy by the user, they often introduce a paywall and waiting time into the archive, and many people feel a greater sense of connection with the protagonists when they watch a story than read one on a page.
Therefore, in order to make the archive as accessible and decolonial as possible, we broadened the scope of our project to include refugees reclaiming agency through film. In order to narrow down what was included, we limited our selection to documentaries, primarily by independent and international filmmakers, in order to maximise the sound of the voices of the refugees that were included. Furthermore, all the films included were available, at the time of writing, to stream for free on the internet. They range from a six-minute documentary video of a Calais refugee-camp set to W.H Auden’s 1939 poem ‘Refugee Blues’, to several full-length feature films, covering topics from the global climate-change induced refugee crisis to unaccompanied child refugees integrating within the school system in post-pandemic Greece.
So, grab some popcorn and a notebook, and we hope that you enjoy the show!
The Forgotten Refugees (2005)
Directed by Ralph Avi Goldwasser and Michael Grynszpan 
Synopsis: A film about the mass exodus of up to one million Jews from Arab countries. In 1945, up to one million Jews lived in the Middle East outside of the Palestine Mandate and in North Africa. Within a few years, only a few thousand remained. This is the story of the thousands who fled their homes, who endured in refugee camps, and who today quietly carry the memory of a destroyed civilization. The Forgotten Refugees explores the history and destruction of Middle Eastern Jewish communities, some of which had existed for over 2,500 years. Featuring testimony from Jews who fled Egypt, Libya, Iraq and Yemen, these personal stories of refugees are interspersed with dramatic archival footage, including rescue missions of Yemenite and Iraqi Jews.
Length: 49:02
Available to watch in full at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHuo0Bw3tgQ
Synopsis from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHuo0Bw3tgQ
Image from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Forgotten_Refugees
Climate Refugees (2010)
Directed by Michael P. Nash
Synopsis: There is a new phenomenon in the global arena called “Climate Refugees”. A climate refugee is a person displaced by climatically induced environmental disasters. Such disasters result from incremental and rapid ecological change, resulting in increased droughts, desertification, sea level rise, and the more frequent occurrence of extreme weather events such as hurricanes, cyclones, fires, mass flooding and tornadoes. All this is causing mass global migration and border conflicts. For the first time, the Pentagon now considers climate change a national security risk and the term climate wars is being talked about in war-room like environments in Washington D.C.
Length: 01:23:04
Available to watch in full at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bgVdo48VTY
Synopsis from http://www.climaterefugees.com/about.html
Image from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_Refugees
Refugee: The Etritrean Exodus (2015)
Directed by Chris Cotter
Synopsis: Follow Chris Cotter, an American traveler, as he explores a common migration path through Ethiopia and into Israel, tracking the plight of Eritrean refugees. Chris and his crew visit several refugee camps, including the never-before-documented Afar region. The refugees tell stories of oppression, torture, and survival. Searching for solutions, Chris speaks to various NGOs and experts, including Assistant Secretary of State, Anne Richard. The outlook is bleak, but the spirit of the Eritrean refugees is hard to ignore.
Length: 01:04:00
Available to watch in full at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjouQhlllLY (part one) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WHlK12IOG8 (part two) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkDeHGb8uWA (part three) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqP2DQe34wo (part four) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqS6AadI4rk (part five)
Synopsis from https://www.theeritreanexodus.com/about-the-film/
Image from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4829048/
Refugee Blues – A Documentary Poem (2016)
Directed by Stephan Bookas and Tristan Daws
Synopsis: Set to the verses of W.H. Auden’s 1939 poem, ‘Refugee Blues’ charts a day in ‘the jungle’, the refugee camp outside Calais. More intimate and unlike much of what has been seen in the mass media, this documentary poem counterpoints the camp’s harsh reality of frequent clashes with the French riot police with its inhabitants’ longing for a better future.
Length: 06:10
Available to watch in full at: https://www.stephanbookas.com/refugee-blues
Synopsis from https://www.stephanbookas.com/refugee-blues
Image from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5499622/
Refuge (2016)
Directed by Matthew K. Firpo
Synopsis: “I don’t think the human mind is able to understand the suffering we’ve experienced,” says a man in Matthew K. Firpo’s short documentary, Refuge. Filmed on location in 2016 in four different refugee camps across Greece—outside Athens and on the islands of Lesvos and Leros—the film allows victims of the Syrian Civil War to share their experiences. One man describes how his sewing factory was completely destroyed, leaving him penniless and starving. Another man says he was jailed and tortured for attempting to distribute food; his brother was killed shortly thereafter. Some lost everyone and everything. “Wherever I went in Syria, I saw the injured and the dead,” yet another refugee recounts. For Firpo and his production team, Refuge was a passion project fueled by “wanting to know more about the people living these headlines. I wanted to know more about their stories, about what they had lost, what they had left behind, and where they hoped their lives were headed. While news coverage focused on the problem, it often forgot about the human being.”
Length: 20:01
Available to watch in full at: https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/541620/refuge-syrian-refugee-short-film-movie-matt-firpo/
Synopsis from https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/541620/refuge-syrian-refugee-short-film-movie-matt-firpo/
Image from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5671954/
Zain’s Summer: From Refugee to American Boy (2016)
Directed by Joshua Seftel
Synopsis: Zain’s Summer depicts the sunny side of the refugee experience. Zain and his siblings and mother fled Pakistan 11 months before the period the film covers, a six-week summer language program to prepare young, new immigrants for the start of school. The possibility of a new life in America, relatively free from fear of violence and persecution, represents the very best of America in director Joshua Seftel’s telling. Zain’s openness to what the U.S. offers is old-fashioned and inspiring.
Length: 13:04
Available to watch in full at: https://vimeo.com/222692007
Synopsis from https://www.mountainfilm.org/films/zains-summer-from-refugee-to-american-boy/
Image from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5825632/
Humanity Last: Refugees Still Hope (2018)
Directed by Molly Calliste
Synopsis: This documentary shadows a group of volunteers as they try to provide and care for a large group of refugees that are stuck at the France/UK border in Calais. It aims to tell the stories of both refugees and volunteers with impartiality, allowing the viewer to see their lives through an unfiltered lens. As it happened during filming, is precisely how it is presented.
Length: 01:24:49
Available to watch in full at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-m7l9f_Yx8
Synopsis from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-m7l9f_Yx8
Image from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9349878/
The Voiceless Refugees (2020)
Produced by Iran International TV
Synopsis: A documentary on the visit of Yasmine Pahlavi [the wife of Reza Pahlavi, the last crown prince of the former Imperial State of Iran] from the Iranian refugee camps in Greece. Some prominent internationally recognised Iranian artists like Arash Labaf, musician, Navid Negahban, and Shaun Toub, Hollywood actors, join her in this trip.
Length: 52:39
Available to watch in full at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dI6TkEH42zQ
Synopsis and image from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dI6TkEH42zQ
Agape (love) is the Most Beautiful Word in the Greek Language (2021)
Directed by Gina Georgiadou
Synopsis: Unaccompanied minor refugees. Where do they come from; how and why? What are their needs and dreams? Do they go to school like other children of their age? If they go, how do they feel there? And if they don’t, where are these children during the hours that their peers are at school? These and many other questions unfold in the documentary. There are no easy answers; nor remedies. Every one of us is trying to figure out the answer to the main question “Whose children are these?”. This answer will determine the future, -not only- of unaccompanied minors, but for all children.
The film was completed as part of NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY project “Teaching to Hope: Saving the education of refugee teens during and after the pandemic’s school shutdowns”. The project involved teachers implementing the integration of unaccompanied minors into the public schools of six different host countries: Jordan, Greece, Germany, Guatemala, Mexico and the USA. This documentary was the contribution of the Greek volunteer team “Foster Teachers”. It is the result of collective work and voluntary offer, no money has been spent for any material or remuneration. The movie was realized in compliance with national and international rules for the protection of minors and their personal data.
Length: 01:20:44
Available to watch in full at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0t-NHWgE0s