Music, Movies, and Magic

There's something magical about the combination of film and music.  Some of the most popular FilmAid screenings in the camps consist solely of silent footage -- of a cartoon cat and mouse, or a little black-and-white tramp with a cane; pure, escapist slapstick.

But the music that accompanies it elevates it, and the minds of those who watch it, just as the words of a particularly poignant song can add resonance to the images on the screen before you.  To that end, we'd like to point you once more in the direction of Soundcheque, the wonderful original music for film service which has been providing gems like our recent 'Love Online' with music. 

That combination can work even more magically in the form of a call to action or to raise awareness of real events and embed their significance in the mind of the watcher.  Right now we're impressed with Ellie Goulding's latest collaboration with Save the Children, an initiative which sees sales of her amazing song I Know You Care going to help the organization with its work with Syrian children.  Goulding had teamed up with Universal Records and Save the Children through digital marketing agency STEAK to ensure that downloads of the song, originally made for the filmNow Is Good starring Dakota Fanning, go to the appeal.  

All of which comes as a 'by the way' to remind you of our fabulous contest to produce a music video for us. In collaboration with creative crowdsourcers Talenthouse, we are looking for a music video that tells the stories of refugees, set to the haunting track 'Home Again' by Michael Kiwanuka.  Fantastic prizes are on offer to the winner and the winner of the popular vote.  This is your way of helping us tell the story of the individuals we work with.  Please get involved and spread the word!

Success in Kakuma: Another Report from Kenya

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This blog entry has been reposted from Mountain Film. Stash Wislocki, the producer of Mountainfilm in Telluride, is in Kenya right now with FilmAid. This is his second installment from his experience. ( Read his first report from Kakuma Refugee Camp.)

We left Kakuma Refugee Camp this morning after an intense two weeks of helping the FilmAid students and staff produce the 2012 FilmAid Kakuma Film Festival. By all accounts, it was a success.

At night, we moved about, screening films in the different camps. The students worked hard, and it paid off with fantastic shows and great attendance. Everyone loved the student films. These screenings left me impressed by the powerful impact of FilmAid's work.

As I leave Kakuma, I realize that the refugees, especially the students, have taught me far more than I taught them. The takeaway lesson from this trip is that if these people can be optimistic in this place, then I have no reason to ever be pessimistic. Conditions here are always dusty and insanely hot, and the refugees live on scant food rations. Everyone at Kakuma is here because of extreme circumstances: I’ve met children whose parents were killed in war, kids who were soldiers and people fleeing famine. Despite being pushed to the brink, the FilmAidand students are cheerful and sweet. Most of them cling to the hope that someday they will get relocated to America.

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Yes, the American dream hasn’t lost its lure, and it’s actually refreshing to feel proud to be an American. Our taxpayer dollars are hard at work here. Funds from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Health and Human Services are being well used. Workers from the U.N. and the States say that the U.S. takes more refugees from here than any other country (and could take even more if they could cut through the U.N. red tape).

With a heavy heart, I said goodbye to all of my new friends at Kakuma and am now in in Nairobi, working at the FilmAid office and, hopefully, headed soon to the Kibera slum.

Here’s a recent video made by the Kakuma FilmAid refugee students and another the students helped make a few months ago. They rock. We will upload films from the festival when we get a faster Internet connection.

A Story from Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya

About eight years ago I traveled to a refugee camp for the first time. This was Kakuma refugee camp in northern Kenya, by then home to about 100,000 refugees, majority of them from South Sudan, with a significant number from Somalia, Ethiopia and the Great Lakes region. By then, my perception of the refugee camp had been informed by images that I had mostly consumed from the media. I saw the emaciated malnourished children and depressed adults as were filtered through my television screens. I saw people without hope, stripped off any vestiges of humanity, waiting to be either helped or to die. So as I made my flight from Nairobi to Kakuma refugee camp, that is what I expected to find.

Among the first refugees I encountered was a Congolese man called Michael. And as is wont with most Congolese men, he took great pride in how he dressed. His shirt was elegantly ironed out and neatly tucked into his trouser. His black shoes, though they were starting to get covered by a layer of Kakuma dust, was apparent that they had been well polished earlier in the morning. I sensed a whiff of cologne around him and noticed that he had a clean cut. All that was missing from him was a tie and he might as well have been working in a corporate office in Nairobi city. His face was lit with a welcoming smile, and with optimism and hope, confidence and expectation. On the contrast, I had faded jeans on, a simple t-shirt and shoes that looked that they had seen better days. My face was lit with hesitation, and betrayed someone who was not too sure what to expect. From that point, it was obvious that I was beginning my re-education.

Yes, it is true that there is disease, hunger and malnutrition in refugee camps, just as there is in other parts of rural Africa, or in slums around the big cities of the world. Yes, it is true that I met eyes that betrayed despair, eyes that I have seen in lots of other places as well. As I worked and developed friendships with refugees over the years, I slowly learned that there were absolutely no differences between refugees and ‘others’ in terms of their aspirations, dreams and ambitions. I met a lot of young men and women like Michael, those that dreamed of becoming doctors and teachers and models, some who played football and basketball every evening and dreamed of being sport stars. I met poets and actors and music composers. I met men and women who ran small businesses, provided services to their communities and wanted to soak in all the knowledge they could muster. The only differences is that unlike you and I who face our struggles in either our natural environments, or environments that we choose to, these are people who have been forced to flee their homes and pursue their aspirations in foreign places. But one thing they all wanted was to leave the refugee camps and go back home. And the best way people like me can help them is to sustain that hope that they will get back home some day – and make sure we never force someone else to flee their home.

Charles Otieno Hongo is Technical Adviser at FilmAid, Kenya.

FilmAid’s screening series and filmmaker training project targets refugees and their host communities in refugee camps and urban areas across Kenya, with the aim of easing ethnic, racial and cultural tension and conflict by creating opportunities for young refugees and non-refugees to tell their stories.

FilmAid is one of the winners of the 2013 Intercultural Innovation Award. 

Link to original article: www.interculturalinnovation.org/a-story-from-kakuma-refugee-camp-in-kenya/