About the event

As part of Refugee Week, b-side and Dorset Place of Sanctuary are screening 6 short films on Tuesday 18th June at 7pm both in Bridport and on Portland. These short films are from the Moving Worlds programme made available by Refugee Week (produced by Counterpoint Arts).

Responding to this year’s Refugee Week theme ‘You, me and those who came before’, the 2019 collection is divided into the two themes: Past and Present Migratory Paths and New Beginnings and Communities.

The films as a whole examine personal and collective journeys of belonging, stories of finding one’s new ‘home’ and personal testimonies of resilience. The programme seeks to uncover hidden stories of displacement, draw parallels between past and present asylum-seeking trajectories, as well as allow for intergenerational dialogues to emerge.

Drinks will be available to buy.
All proceeds will be donated to the Red Cross.

Calling Home

Directors / Producers: Marcelo Starobinas & Maria Eduarda Andrade

For most Londoners home is both in the city and somewhere else… at the other end of a phone line.

This short documentary, entirely shot inside phone booths in cheap international call centres, is a gripping, emotional portrait of long distance relationships between immigrants and their families in Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe and South America.

Feeling of a Home

Directors / Producers: Io Chaviara & Michalis Kastanidis

Idomeni, in 2016; In this small village on the Greek-Macedonian border, an old lady recounts stories about locals who crossed the borderline and never came back. While her narrations reconstruct the History of the border, some Palestinians from Syria, living in the refugee settlement that has been built right next to the village, decide to set up a kindergarten. Thus, instead of waiting passively for the border to open, they exist in the present, they envision the future and they create conditions that bring them closer to a feeling of a home.

HAMSA

Directors: Caroline Spearpoint & Miriam Thom

Interviewed by the BBC towards the end of her family’s perilous four-year journey from war-torn Syria to Germany, Hamsa’s spirited determination caught the attention of two filmmakers. Beginning a new life in the small German village of Schnega, Hamsa welcomes the filmmakers into her family’s home to tell them their story, revealing how they have adapted to their new surroundings and how the village have worked to welcome them into their community. Hamsa’s radiant smile and boundless love for her children shows the untold story of Syrian refugees searching for a safe place to call home.

Little Old One

Hedaya and her young sister have lost their home, friends and brother in the battle of Darraya. They have found safety as refugees in Istanbul but Hedaya being the only Turkish speaker member of the family has to act as translator and head of family for her unemployed dad.

This short documentary was made during a SDI workshop in Turkey, organised by the British Council in partnership with Bidayyat for Audiovisual Arts.

Mothers / Anyák

Directors: Mayya Kelova, Andrea Kobor & Adina Tulegenova

Anyák is a story of how two women of different ethnicities, cultures and generations experienced motherhood. Klara is a Hungarian woman in her 70s, a mother of a large family, who brought up her children of various backgrounds in communist Hungary in the 1980s. Sarah is a Ugandan woman in her late 20s, who is raising her daughter Tunde in contemporary Hungary. The story is a reflection on the issues of identity and belonging in Europe in the past and today.

Ululation

Director: Carina Haouchine
Producer: Lindsay Goodall

A filmmaker from Scotland tries to understand what it means to be between two cultures by spending time with the women in her Algerian family.

About Refugee Week

Refugee Week takes place every year across the world in the week around World Refugee Day on the 20 June. In the UK, Refugee Week is a nationwide programme of arts, cultural and educational events that celebrate the contribution of refugees to the UK, and encourages a better understanding between communities.

Refugee Week started in 1998 as a direct reaction to hostility in the media and society in general towards refugees and asylum seekers. An established part of the UK’s cultural calendar, Refugee Week is now one of the leading national initiatives working to counter this negative climate, defending the importance of sanctuary and the benefits it can bring to both refugees and host communities.

The aims of Refugee Week are:

• To encourage a diverse range of events to be held throughout the UK, which facilitate positive encounters between refugees and the general public in order to encourage greater understanding and overcome hostility
• To showcase the talent and expertise that refugees bring with them to the UK
• To explore new and creative ways of addressing the relevant issues and reach beyond the refugee sector
• To provide information which educates and raises awareness of the reality of refugee experiences

More information on the Refugee Week website here.

Chapel in the Garden
49 East Street
Bridport
DT6 3JX