Events

Stars shine for FilmAid fundraising PSA: “Why Film?”

Actors Rufus Sewell, Sarita Choudhury and Sienna Guillory – alongside refugees from Kakuma refugee camp in northern Kenya – are featured in FilmAid’s new PSA, “Why Film?” which launches today at www.filmaid.org/whyfilm

Produced with the support of Ridley Scott Associates and independent filmmaker K. Ryan Jones, the two minute film asks the fundamental question why film and provides compelling examples of the role film, and the work of FilmAid, plays in humanitarian crises.

Shot in New York, London and Kenya, “Why Film?” brings together members of the film community from a variety of backgrounds, lending their voices to help raise vital funds for FilmAid International. Filming in London, Sienna Guillory said, “The work that FilmAid does is vital. The conditions they operate in, and the lengths they go to bring mobile cinemas into refugee camps, are extraordinary. Teaching essential film-making skills to refugees to ensure that life-saving information is shared through the camps, whilst also using film to give people something other than loss they can bond over, and a means to escape their emotional situation is so important. I hope that ‘Why Film?’ helps people understand why film aid is a necessity and not a luxury.” 

Founded in 1999 by award-winning producer Caroline Baron (Capote, Monsoon Wedding), FilmAid is a non-profit, charitable organization with a mission to use the power of film and media to bring life-saving information, psychological relief and much-needed hope to refugees and other communities in need around the globe.

Media Contact:
Chloe Franses, The Global Cause Consultancy
chloe@theglobalcauseconsultancy.com
+44 777 934 5371

FilmAid Film Festival 2014 - Call for Entries is Now Open!

Theme: Untold Stories.

This year’s festival celebrates the numerous untold stories from the refugees and marginalized others from around the world. Showcasing the films of young refugee filmmakers from Kakuma and Dadaab Refugee Camps, the festival also provides an opportunity for filmmakers from across the globe to share the untold stories of the vulnerable and voiceless.

Over 45 million people across the globe are displaced and millions more are marginalized and stigmatized, film is a powerful tool for these communities to tell their own stories and break down the negative and false stereotypes that surround them. Through the power of film, this year’s festival provides the platform for these stories to be told through cinematic screenings and online.

The 2014 festival also coincides with FilmAid’s fifteenth anniversary of informing, entertaining and projecting hope for vulnerable communities, providing an opportunity to revisit stories told past and present. Across countries, languages and classes, film has the power to provide us with a release, an escape, a window into new worlds and new possibilities. Last year, we presented 20 films, including 16 short films from the student filmmakers of FilmAid's Filmmaker Training Program in Kakuma and Dadaab refugee camps, along with 4 feature-length award winning international films.

Film can transcend culture, language and class, providing a window into new worlds and new possibilities. Show us something new; share your stories with us.

Deadline for submission is June 2, 2014.
Festival Contact: Risper Njoki
rnjoki@filmaid.org   |   ph: +254 (0) 722 540 543

Thank You Anthony Russell!

One of Kenya's top visual artists, Anthony Russell, generously donated his piece "Seeking Time" for the auction at our Power of Film Benefit in New York this year. We wanted to take a moment to share more about Russell's beautiful work.

Born and raised in Kenya and the UK, Anthony Russell is an artist, designer, musician, and most of all, mad-keen conservationist with a passion for lions and Maasai culture. In addition to creating eco-friendly luxury safari camps and lodges, Anthony has worked with Richard Leakey, Ian Douglas Hamilton, the Honourable Member of Parliament George Saitoti, Paul Allen and Donna Karan on community design orientation projects and pure wildlife protection projects.

Thank you for your support Anthony, and keep up the amazing work!

Read more about Anthony and check out his artwork here.