UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, has unveiled the lineup for the 11th annual Refugee Film Festival in Hong Kong. This year, four moving stories will be screened in locations around Hong Kong over the course of 14 days from 7 June, concluding on World Refugee Day on 20 June. Proceeds from ticket sales will support UNHCR’s Nobody Left Outside global campaign; each ticket purchased can provide a family of 5 with sleeping mats at their temporary homes in refugee shelters around the world.
As the global refugee crisis captures headlines, UNHCR believes that film is a powerful medium to present the public with new perspectives on a subject too often misunderstood or misrepresented. Four moving stories will be presented over the course of the Refugee Film Festival, beginning with a red-carpet reception and screening of After Spring (pictured below). Directed by Ellen Martinez and Hong Kong-born Steph Ching, this documentary follows two refugee families in transition as well as aid workers in Zaatari, the largest camp for Syrian refugees. Born in Syria, directed by noted war correspondent Hernan Zin about refugee children moving across Europe, will also screen at the film festival.
Elsewhere, Warehoused explores the plight of long-standing refugees by looking into the lives of those living in the world’s second-largest refugee camp, Kenya’s Dadaab camp run by UNHCR. The Refugee Film Festival closes with The Baulkham Hills African Ladies Troupe (pictured below), an uplifting tale of four African-Australian women, all former refugees and victims of sexual abuse and violence, who take on the risky challenge of creating and performing their stories in a professional theatre production. Director Ros Horin will be in Hong Kong for the closing of the Festival and will participate in a Q&A session after the screening.
Nobody Left Outside campaign
Proceeds from ticket sales of the Refugee Film Festival 2018 will go towards UNHCR’s Nobody Left Outside global campaign. Launched in 2016, Nobody Left Outside calls on the private sector to contribute funds for shelter solutions for 2 million refugees around the world. Forced displacement, most of it arising from war and conflict, has risen sharply in the past decade. Today, some 60 million people find themselves forcibly displaced, including over 20 million refugees who have been forced to flee across international borders to seek protection.
“A shelter – be it a tent, a makeshift structure or a house – is the basic building block for refugees to survive and recover from the physical and mental effects of violence and persecution. Yet around the world, millions are struggling to get by in inadequate and often dangerous dwellings, putting their lives, dignity and futures at risk. Humanitarian funding is failing to keep pace with urgent needs,” says Sivanka Dhanapala, UNHCR Representative in China.
Shelter provided by UNHCR and the Nobody Left Outside campaign offers protection for those forced to flee from their homes, giving them a base where they can recuperate, live as a family and begin to get on with their lives. To date, the worldwide campaign has assisted over 853,000 displaced people.
UNHCR 11th Charity Refugee Film Festival public screening schedule
| After Spring (Opening film) 101 minsFollows two refugee families in transition as well as aid workers in Zaatari, the largest camp for Syrian refugees. Premiering at Tribeca Film Festival in 2016, After Spring remains as powerful and as urgent now as when it was filmed as the Syrian refugee crisis enters its eighth year.Directed by Ellen Martinez and Steph Ching Subtitles: English and Chinese |
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Sunday 10 June |
| Warehoused 72 minsExplores the plight of long-standing refugees with a look into the lives of those living in Kenya’s Dadaab camp, which hosts more than 235,000 refugees who have fled conflict in East Africa, mostly Somalia. See the camp’s inner workings through one man’s journey to do everything in his power to provide for his family.Directed by Asher Emmanuel and Vincent Vittorio Subtitles: English and Chinese |
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Friday 8 June
Saturday 16 June |
| Born in Syria 86 minsTraces the journey of seven refugee children from Syria moving across Europe in search of new beginnings.Directed by Hernan Zin Subtitles: English and Chinese |
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Saturday 9 June
Sunday 17 June |
| The Baulkham Hills African Ladies Troupe (Closing film) 85 minsAn uplifting tale of four African women, all former refugees and victims of sexual abuse and violence. Now living in Australia, they turn their harrowing stories of survival into a joyous theatre of humanity with the help of acclaimed theatre director Ros Horin.Director: Ros Horin Language: English with Chinese subtitles |
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Sunday 10 June
Saturday 16 June
Wednesday 20 June
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