Best movie connoisseurs: On Friday 15th of April our short film Elegy will be shown in the local film talent program during the International Film Festival Gorinchem. It is a very rich program from almost all over the world shown across movie halls in the most beautiful fortified city in the heart of the Netherlands. You can also book tickets online. This is the direct link to the short film program: https://www.iffg.nl/festival/programma-2022/lokaal-talent-programma/ See you there!
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ELEGY – our short film shot and edited in 2021- is part of CINE LUSO filmfestival CINE LUSO is a creative and philosophical encounter aimed at tackling contemporary issues. With more than 100 films screened during the first three years, the project is now in its fourth edition for which it aspires to convey the realities specific to the cultures of various Portuguese-speaking countries (countries with Portuguese as an official language), by using audiovisual language as an analysis tool. As of 2019, non-Portuguese speaking countries were invited to join the program with the aim of broadening the reading and understanding of the world through different realities and their implications. More than an event, the project is presented as a search for dialogue and the construction of content in a collaborative way. The theme chosen for the fourth edition highlights the contradictions of the world through two main notions: FREEDOM AND POWER. The growth of social and political extremism, the limitation of human rights and the abuse of power reverberate through various parts of the world as a symptomatic and synergistic wave. Faced with this scenario, approaches that encourage discussion have been put in place within the framework of this project […]
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Jildo-Tim Hof, part of Just People Films and Moonfilm productions, has been selected for FRESH EYES 2020 (a photo book with the 100 greatest emerging photographers in Europe). Two images are part of the ‘STRANDED’ series, including a portrait of Zahra, one of the protagonists from the film Labyrinth and an exterior shot from the streets of Exarchia. For this last image, the photographer was inspired by Edward Hopper’s 1928 painting “Night Windows”. FRESH EYES gives fresh talent a platform and helps them take their first steps in the real world. FRESH EYES aims to filter out the greatest talents and to give an overview of what is currently happening in photography in Europe.” Powered by GUP magazine.
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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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The Our House project has been supplying food, medical aid, clothes, tents and sleeping bags for over the last few years in Athens. But because of Corona their hangout location Café Patogh, cannot operate as usual. People who live on the streets are now given plastic bags as you can see in the short film, which was narrated by Arash Hampay, founder of Our House. Video link We know that life on the streets of Athens is really tough for both the Greek and refugees who have no support from the government or any NGO’s. OUR HOUSE is making that little but very important difference in these hard days. Your donations are directed to them. Click on the donate button (top) for details.
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In Athens lies the Exarchia district, known for its students, artists, its left activism and his solidarity with refugees. There is a lot of vacancy and, partly due to the economic crisis in Greece, little is being done about it. The city of Athens has become a place where many refugees are stranded; stuck in bureaucratic procedures, hoping for a better future. There is too little housing and employment, too much racism and a deep sense of uprooting. The left-wing Greek activists have squatted many buildings in the Exarchia district over the years. These were also opened to migrants in solidarity with refugees who had fled the camps on islands to Athens. Due to the recent political shifts, since July 2019 almost all squats were vacated in Exarchia where there were refugees, with a lot of police and military dominance and aggression. Refugees have been taken from Exarchia and squatters have been arrested. As a result tension in the neighborhood has increased. Many Greek residents are opposed to a new movement that wants to clean up the left-wing solidarity of Exarchia and make room for gentrification. However, solidarity among the less fortunate in the neighborhood remains strong. Finissage at Black […]
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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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