Come and celebrate Refugee Week with us at the Refugee Film Festival!
We have 5 amazing films from around the world with special Q&A guests including cast members, directors and many more. All films are being held at the beautiful Cinema Nova in Carlton.
Sunday 17 June, 6.30pm - OPENING NIGHT!
HOPE ROAD - A film by Tom Zubrycki
Join us for our Opening Night screening of Hope Road with an exclusive Q&A session after the screening with the film makers!
A refugee from the Sudanese civil war, Zacharia (one of the ‘lost boys’ of Sudan) lives in Sydney, Australia, with his partner and daughter. He desperately wants to do something for his village, now in the newly created nation of South Sudan. His dream is to build a much-needed school, and he enlists the backing of numerous well-intentioned Australians. Janet, a dedicated supporter, joins him on a 40-day charity walk from the Queensland border to Sydney to raise funds for this venture. Will this strategy raise the funds they need? Thwarted by escalating conflict back in South Sudan, and shocked by a broken relationship, Zac must decide what’s important in his life.
Hope Road was an official selection at the Melbourne International Film Festival and in competition at the Sydney Film Festival.
This screening, will also include a pre-show short film 'Undercurrent' - A film by Patrick Fileti.
Tuesday 19 June, 6.30pm
STOP THE BOATS + Q&A with filmmakers & Iranian Journalist currently on Manus Island, Behrouz Boochani
SOLD OUT
Stop the Boats tells the story of how Australia used a three word slogan to demonise people seeking asylum, fleeing war and persecution; condemning them to indefinite offshore detention and torture in prison camps on Manus Island and Nauru. The story is told by people seeking asylum including children from within detention centres, secretly filmed in Nauru and Manus .
The film features among others Manus Island detainee Behrouz Boochani, children detained in Nauru. Dr Munjed al Muderis, Julian Burnside QC, Ben Doherty, Phil Glendenning, Dr Ai-Lene Chan, Dr Peter Young, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, Andrew Willkie MP and the late Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser.
This screening, will be followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers and Iranian journalist Behrouz Boochani, via telephone.
It will also feature a pre-show short film called Same Drum. The film features a group of young migrants from multilingual backgrounds as the stars of a new music video that calls for all cultures living in Australia to be united and live in happiness and peace. Their song Same Drum delivers a strong message to other migrants about embracing life in Australia, while never forgetting where you come from.
Wednesday 20 June, 6.30pm - World Refugee Day!
WATAN - Sold Out!
Join us for the Premiere screening of Watan, a film by James L Brown and Bill Irving with an exclusive Q&A session after the screening.
The film features a series of interwoven portraits of Syrians eking out lives in the major refugee camps and cities of Jordan. Their struggle shows the human face of the refugee crisis, the first steps beyond their escape from imminent danger. The stories from the camps reveal a very real struggle for normalcy and dignity in a situation that is anything but.
Watan seeks to inspire action through connection, empathy and recognition, in a way that allows these people to speak for themselves. It shines a much-needed light on the human stories at the centre of the global debate of immigration and asylum, giving a voice to the Syrian refugees in Jordan.
This screening, will also include a pre-show short film 'Undercurrent' - A film by Patrick Fileti
Watch the Trailer
Thursday 21 June, 6.30pm
HUMAN FLOW - Sold out!
Ai Weiwei is a renowned artist and one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world, known as the director and producer of Human Flow. An unforgettable journey into our current global refugee crisis, capturing the suffering and pain felt by refugees worldwide. This documentary is impossible to ignore as the camera lingers through the film as a forceful way of humanization.
Ai Weiwei re-paints those who have been painted without a face and reduced to an economical statistic. The documentary gives the voiceless a voice, illuminates the struggles of 65 million people around the world who are displaced victims to the cruelest practices exercised against a human being: a denial of their basic human rights and a deprival of their security.
Friday 22 June, 6.30pm
Rifles or Graffiti
This film chronicles Morocco's 40 year occupation of Western Sahara and the Sahrawis' struggle to continue their nonviolent activism and pressure Morocco into complying with a UN sanctioned referendum on self-determination.
This is the incredible tale of the protest movement in Western Sahara. Followed by a Q&A with the Australian Western Sahara Association.
The screening will also feature a pre-show short film called Same Drum. The film features a group of young migrants from multilingual backgrounds as the stars of a new music video that calls for all cultures living in Australia to be united and live in happiness and peace. Their song Same Drum delivers a strong message to other migrants about embracing life in Australia, while never forgetting where you come from.