Fatima, her father and me in the background Radio broadcast from the Netherlands on the latest film ELEGY which needs the public’s support. We speak of a beautiful cooperation between 22 artists and how I came to direct a short film about them, the refugees involved and foremost the family members of late Ali , who decided to end his own life at the age of 14. After fleeing Syria it took him and his family years to find a safe place. But evictions from the Netherlands – several – preceded his final act. His sister Fatima wrote us a candid letter which we incorporate in the film ELEGY. As artists we need to come together with the family members and create a solid and sound place for young refugees. We will spread their message and words, so Ali did not pass for no reason.
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For years scores of internationally operating NGO’s and civilian groups- such as We Gaan Ze Halen from the Netherlands – have protested against an upcoming man made disaster, which has occurred on Lesbos 10 days ago, when camp Moria burned down to the ground. It leaves 12.000 people- refugees from Afghanistan, Syria, Iran, Somalia a.o.- homeless, whereas they had virtually close to nothing in camp Moria already. Camp conditions were worse then anywhere. The pressure and heat is rising even further within the EU to overcome issues that Greece has been facing in relation to overpopulated camps on islands such as Lesbos, Samos and Chios. With Covid-19 added to the range of dangers action by the entire EU is imperative. But real directed political action to solve issues appears to be obsolete, still. How can civilians team up and build bridges towards refugees on the islands of Greece? S.O.S. Moria is one of the ongoing protests. Here is an edited video sequence of last Saturday at the Museumplein, Amsterdam, with speaker Rikko Voorberg, shot by the Just People Films team.
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Why is it no difficult to grasp that for many refugees in Greece integration is terribly hard a task? If you forget the issue of the language barrier because of the Greek writing, but look solely at what people around the world need to keep a simple life on track, we usually agree that (according to the pyramid of Maslow – 1943) everyone must first acquire the following: – a safe environment – a minimum basic income – the possibility of education – social setting of like-minded people – medical basic care and above all…psychological rest & stability Okay, and if all of this is not successful, or if it is always only partly planned over a period of years…then you can expect that integration will not work out. And that refugees want to continue to flee to countries such as the Netherlands, Sweden, UK or Germany. We give you a picture of locations (Malakasa Camp & an empty university building without basic facilities) where refugees gradually crumble, where they have to sleep on the cold ground or in a tent, where they are not provided with basic needs, which everyone needs to achieve mental and financial development. Integration is […]
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Dear Audience: We have started on our first mission in 2020 bringing aid to several of the refugee community ‘hotspots’ of Athens. Today we will visit a large number of Congolese refugees sheltered in an old school. The women of one of the couples living there, will have to give birth to a baby soon: we will visit MSF (Doctors Without Borders) today with them. Yesterday there was nobody at MSF to help us, which is the case for many of the NGO’s operating in the city center on the 1st of January. Our aim is to assess what the direct and urgent needs of the entire Congolese group are and specifically how we can facilitate a safe birth for the baby and mother. Over the next week we will bring warm clothes, shoes, and basic food supplies to people living on the street in front of Eleonas refugee camp. These people have no access to that camp, and are living in terribly poor conditions on the side of a busy road ,where large trucks pass by every minute. Refugees in the camp (see photo below) help us in solidarity with those highly vulnerable refugees outside the camp. A new […]
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Guest lesson at the School for Journalism faculty/direction crossmedia in Utrecht (NL) on Just People Films: exchanging ideas on how to create individual characters, make a production work efficiently and what to do or prepare and what to leave out: Ergo: ‘Which are the elementary issues a documentary filmmaker faces when working abroad in difficult circumstances?’ . ”And how to deal with crossing borders between personal and professional matters in relation to the protagonists involved. How to successfully screen a group of characters and make their lives, thoughts, feelings visible and their voices heard..?” Thanks to Christine Steinhäuser for a nice time! Photos by: Jildo-Tim Hof
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I left Syria when I was 17 years old because of the war. Said goodbye to my family and the tears in my eyes but it is hard in life that you have no other choice. I left my family and I do not know whether I will see them again or not. I went to Turkey and I felt that It’s only a dream and I will wake up one day I faced the hardships of life and I am very young but I had no choice. I used to work from morning to evening with a little money to make living but again I had no choice . I decided to go to Europe and I was afraid of drowning but again I had no other choice . When I arrived in Greece I had no house or money and again I had no other choice . I lived in the street for 6 months and then in a deserted school for 6 months and when I knew that I couldn’t leave this country and go to my destination, I decided to stay and work to make my dream come true. And also, I had no another choice. […]
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Photo: Gert Jan Kole Imagine: You are an 18-year-old Syrian refugee from a family of 5 children , your father can barely see because of a genetic defect and as a family you got stuck in the heart of Athens, where the UNHCR policies will evict your entire family from a home you have known for over a year and you, your parents and siblings will be homeless, within 2 weeks.. Then, you would probably, most likely go crazy, lose hope in humanity or simply become terribly angry. Not Zahra, who has come to the Netherlands and has traveled through Germany to find means and ideas on how to solve the issue above. After two weeks up north, she will have to face the music again and help out with her family in Athens. She has seen a totally different climate and culture and had never flown a plane before. All on her own she will be pivotal in deciding along with her family where they will move to. This decision will influence their entire lives to come. They are without any future study, work, medical prospects in Greece, so there are only a few options avoiding poverty […]
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A letter from Greece. A group of Dutch citizens organised the action and website ‘a letter from Greece’. https://aletterfromgreece.eu They want to raise awareness about the dire situation of refugees stuck in Greece. Their action includes almost 1000 personal letters, written by people in camps or other locations, telling about the situation they are in, expressing their feelings, their hopes and dreams, their questions to people in Europe. The team strongly believes that the stories of the many refugees living in Greece must be heard (read) and that the best way to tell them is by the people themselves. They went to Greece and talked to many refugees in Lesvos, Samos and Athens. Refugees were invited to write and tell ‘the world’ about their current life. Many refugees didn’t hesitate and took the opportunity. The team could’t promise any quick change in their situation but shared their hopes that in the long run, the action might influence the political will and would indeed improve the situation in the future. After collecting and translating the letters these were shared with the Dutch public in different locations along the coastline and during the Capital Event in Amsterdam. The letters were […]
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It's still happening, but it's not big news anymore. Refugees are still flooding into Europe - especially to Greece. Nearly 13000 arrived on the islands in 2019! Here in Ireland we don't talk about them much anymore.
It's now 4 years since the image of of a little boy swept up on a Turkish beach motivated me to sling my rucksack on my back and head off to the island of Lesvos to do what I could to help the thousands of precious men, women and children who had miraculously made it safely across the Aegean Sea in flimsy, over-crowded boats. A life- changing experience for me!
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