Event listing Film Screening: A Syrian Love Story

Event:

A Syrian Love Story

16 June 2016  | 6:00pm–8:00pm | Click here to book your free ticket
Londonewcastle Project Space | 28 Redchurch St, London E2 7DP

Comrades and lovers Amer and Raghda met in a Syrian prison cell 15 years ago. When McAllister first meets their family in 2009, Raghda is back in prison leaving Amer to look after their 4 boys alone; but as the ‘Arab Spring’ sweeps the region, the family’s fate shifts irrevocably. Filmed over 5 years, the film charts their incredible odyssey to political freedom. For Raghda and Amer, it is a journey of hope, dreams and despair: for the revolution, their homeland and each other.

Known for his unique and intimate portraits, maverick director Sean McAllister (Liberace of Baghdad) received the Grand Jury prize at this year’s Sheffield Documentary Festival for this “Bergmanesque portrait of a relationship and love”.

Please note this is event is free, but pre-booking is essential due to limited capacity.

This event is part of our exhibition, Call me by my name: Stories from Calais and beyond, exploring the complexity and human stories behind the current refugee crisis, with a particular focus on the Calais camp.

 

Re-blo from MRN: Charity premiere of La Pirogue to kick off the “Our Day 2013 campaign”

re-blogged from Migrants’ Rights Network –  Charity premiere of La Pirogue to kick off the “Our Day 2013 campaign”

The dangers that confront migrants attempting the hazardous sea voyage from Africa to Europe have been brought home with tragic force in the news of the deaths of as many as 300 people off the Italian island of Lampedusa last week.

For a brief moment the conscience of many people in the destination countries has been stirred by the graphic imagery of television and newspaper accounts. What is needed to drive this encounter with the grim realities of migration even deeper, so that it becomes a permanent part of Europe’s reflection on the consequences of its laws and policies?

Migrants’ Rights Network, in association with Portland Green, is organising a charity premiere screening of La Pirogue (The Boat) at the Riverside Studios on the 17 November.

La Pirogue was acclaimed at the recent Cannes Film Festivals as one of the most important works to come out of Francophone African cinema during the last year.

Directed by a Senegal’s Moussa Toure, it tells the harrowing tale of an attempted boat journey from West Africa to the Spanish territory of the Canary Islands. This, and similar journeys from North Africa shores, is the route attempted by tens of thousands of men and women each year, often accompanied by children, intent on finding work in Europe’s industries and services.

They venture out on seas heavily patrolled by coast guards and naval vessels which aim to close down the safest of these routes, with the effect that the dangers are multiplied for those who feel compelled to take the risk.

The screening of the film will be followed by a panel discussion led by prominent writers and commentators on contemporary migration, including Hsiao-Hung Pai, whose recent books include Scattered Sand: The story of China’s rural migrants and Dr Hein de Haas, the Oxford University authority on African migration. Other contributors will be there to talk about the role of cinema and film in telling the story of migration in the world today.

This film screening will be opening event in the 2013 Our Day campaign. Our Day unites supporters of migrants and their fight for rights in four weeks of activity which culminates on 18 December, the United Nations International Migrants Day.

Full article – –  Charity premiere of La Pirogue to kick off the “Our Day 2013 campaign”

For more information about the screening, and to book your ticket, go to Riverside Studios Booking.

 

 

You are cordially invited to the screening of:

‘Beyond the Streets’

The screening will take place on:
Friday 12th April 2013
6.00pm- 7.30pm
Stratford Circus, Circus 2,
Theatre Square, Stratford,
London E15 1BX

Join us on the night and meet the young people involved in the research and the filming. Following the screening, there will be a Q & A session with the young researchers involved in this project. Light refreshments will be provided.

As part of a peer-led research project looking into why young migrants might get involved in street crime and identifying solutions, young migrants from the Refugee and New Migrants Project, part of The Children’s Society New Londoners Programme, produced the following short film in partnership with Kazzum to illustrate the research findings.

For more information and to RSVP please contact Agnieszka Walsh on 020 7474 7222 or at alw@childsoc.org.uk

Event: Screening of ‘NORMAL – Real Stories from the Sex Industry’ film at Raindance Film Festival 5-6 October, London

*** Apologies for Cross Posting ***

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

I am delighted to inform you that my documentary film NORMAL was selected at the 2012 Raindance Film Festival and that it will be screened in London on:

Friday 5 October 15:45

Saturday 6 October 17:30

Tickets are available on the festival webpage, which now includes a brand new trailer:

http://www.raindance.co.uk/site/index.php?id=595,8920,0,0,1,0

There will be a Q&A session with me and some of the actors and crew after the Saturday afternoon screening.

You can follow news and events related to NORMAL on Facebook and Twitter so… Watch this space!!!

FACEBOOK:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Normal-Real-stories-from-the-sex-industry/258256334278153

TWITTER:

https://twitter.com/normaldoc

Please come join us and pass this message to all interested colleagues and friends. I am pasting below a short description of the movie.

Looking forward to seeing you at the screening!

Best,

Nick Mai

————————————————————————-

Normal

Normal is a 65 minute creative documentary that brings the real life stories of male, female and transgender migrants working in the sex industry to the screen. Drawing on original interviews with people working in the sex industry in Albania, Italy and the UK, documentary director and anthropologist Nicola Mai reveals their unheard voices.

In Tirana we meet Besnik, an Albanian young man who uses violence to stop his women getting under his skin. In Rome, Catalin is a Romanian minor selling sex to other men as it’s the best job he’s ever had. Having used violence in the past, Adrian, a Romanian young man, now respects his working girl to keep himself safe and out of jail. In London there’s Candy, a Romanian young woman who loves her trafficker to the point of getting convicted for controlling. Alina, a Moldovan woman, decides to work independently in the UK sex industry after having been trafficked. We also meet Cynthia, a transgender woman selling sex to feed her estranged family while waiting to fix her papers.

These voices often go against the grain of popular expectations that most migrant sex workers are exploited and forced to sell sex against their will. Confronting these attitudes, Normal uncovers a layered, human story of migration and sex work. What we hear are unexpected, disturbing, sometimes moving and often contradictory life stories. The viewer is continually challenged by the truth of their words, their dreams and the lives that they lead. All the characters are portrayed by actors, guaranteeing the anonymity and safety of the original interviewees and emphasizing the inherently performative nature of selves.

—
Dr Nick Mai
Reader in Migration Studies
ISET Institute for the Study of European Transformations
Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities
London Metropolitan University
166-220 Holloway Road
N78DB London
Tel: +44 (0) 207 133 4305
http://londonmet.academia.edu/NicolaMai

My 3 latest publications:

Mai, N (2012) Embodied cosmopolitanisms: the subjective mobility of migrants working in the global sex industry. Gender, Place and Society, forthcoming. Available online as iFirst article DOI:10.1080/0966369X.2011.649350. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0966369X.2011.649350#preview

Hickman, M, Mai, N and Crowley, H (2012) Migration and Social Cohesion in the UK. Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming (April 2012) http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?pid=384252

Mai, N (2011) Tampering with the Sex of ‘Angels’: Migrant Male Minors and Young Adults Selling Sex in the EU. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 37(8): 1237-52 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1369183X.2011.590927

 

Event: Esther Rantzen presents charity screening of film on heroic WWII rescue of Jewish children

*** Apologies for Cross-Posting  ***

Esther Rantzen presents charity screening of film on heroic WWII rescue of Jewish children

(Source: Refugee Council, 19 April 2012).

The Refugee Council will hold an exclusive charity screening of Nicky’s Family on 31 May, which tells the story of Sir Nicholas Winton who rescued 669 Jewish refugee children from persecution by the Nazis in Czechoslovakia in 1939. Esther Rantzen who features in the film, and Lord Alf Dubs, who was one of the children rescued by Winton, will speak at the event at The Liberal Jewish Synagogue in St. John’s Wood, London.

Originally from London, Sir Nicholas Winton, now 102 years old, arranged six trains to bring the children to the UK after seeing them in refugee camps, and persuaded the UK’s Home Office to allow them in. The 2011 film by Slovak director Matej Minac is due to be released later this year.

The screening, which is open to the public, is one of a range of events taking place to celebrate the 18th birthday of the Refugee Council’s Children’s Section in 2012. They have supported 18,000 refugee children since the service was set up in 1994, and all proceeds from the event will go towards continuing this work.

Esther Rantzen said:
“I first came across Sir Nicholas Winton’s incredible story when I was presenting That’s Life. His extraordinary achievement in saving so many children from the Holocaust is an inspiration to us all. Since that time, tragically, there have been millions more innocent victims of war and genocide, which is why I feel so strongly about the great work the Refugee Council is doing to support refugee children and adults to this day.”

Sir Nicholas Winton, whom the film is based on, said:
“I saw first hand the difficulties children were facing in refugee camps in Czechoslovakia before World War II, which spurred me into action. I am delighted the Refugee Council is showing this film to mark the work they too have been doing with refugee children. The world has changed a lot since 1939, but children coming here today from war torn countries, with no family or belongings, need all the support they can get, which is why I hope the Refugee Council can continue its great work with refugee children.”

Donna Covey, Chief Executive of the Refugee Council said:
“We are delighted to be screening this film about Sir Nicholas Winton’s extraordinary rescue mission for Jewish refugee children all those years ago. While the circumstances facing refugee children coming here today are very different, they face similar challenges in starting again in a strange country, far from family and friends. This year we are celebrating 18 years of supporting thousands of refugee children, and we are grateful to all those coming to this event to help us raise vital funds so we can carry on with this important work.”

Bob Kirk, President of The Liberal Jewish Synagogue, said:
“Our Synagogue has a long and continuing tradition of involvement with the plight of refugees. In the 1930s our then Senior Rabbi arranged for dozens of German-Jewish refugees, especially children and young people, to come to Britain. Both my wife Ann and I arrived here in 1939 when, following Kristallnacht, almost 10 000 unaccompanied children were brought to this country from Germany and Austria through the Kindertransport. A number of them – including Ann – were sponsored and given a home by members of the congregation. Today we are delighted to be able to host this event at The LJS, and wish the Refugee Council every success in its work.”

Details of the event:

Date: 31 May, 2012
Time: 7pm for drinks reception and screening
Venue: The Liberal Jewish Synagogue, 28 St. John’s Wood Road London, NW8 7HA
Tickets: £15 (under 18s free)

Buy tickets here: www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/nickysfamily

Follow the discussion on Twitter at #childrefugees

ENDS

Notes to editors

For further information please contact:

Philippa McIntyre, Refugee Council Media Officer
020 7346 1214/ 07956 636 219
Philippa.mcintyre@refugeecouncil.org.uk

Caroline Bach, Executive Director, The Liberal Jewish Synagogue
020 7286 5181
ljs@ljs.org

About the Refugee Council
The Refugee Council is the leading organisation working with refugees and asylum seekers in the UK. The Children’s Section has been supporting separated children since 1994, to help them navigate the complex asylum system, and offering projects and activities to enable them to integrate into British life. Their work also includes supporting young people who are wrongly being treated as adults and are being held in detention centres, and victims of trafficking.

About the Liberal Jewish Synagogue
The Liberal Jewish Synagogue is located in St. John’s Wood, North West London. It is the oldest and largest Liberal Jewish community in the UK, having celebrated its centenary in 2011, and has been acclaimed as one of the world’s leading congregations. It is the founding congregation of Liberal Judaism in the UK and is allied to the World Union for Progressive Judaism – the world’s largest synagogue organisation with over 1.5 million members.