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IRC’s Refugee Film Festival – June 10: Paradise Without People
June 10, 2020 @ 6:30 pm
Join IRC for a celebration of international film, with education on issues facing displaced people and inspiration to get involved. Event details:
WHAT: IRC’s Refugee Film Festival
WHEN: June 10, 17, and 24. Doors open at 6pm.
WHERE: Museum of Photographic Arts (MOPA) at Balboa Park
TICKETS: Single Tickets & Festival Passes available here
Women are at the forefront of the global refugee crisis. Yet, their stories are rarely shared. This year, we are changing that.
IRC’s Refugee Film Festival will shed light on the unique lived experiences of women whose lives have been reshaped by conflict and displacement. Join us to see three award-winning documentary films that reflect the journey, struggle, and resilience of women around the world. Each screening is followed by a discussion with an expert on the film’s subject matter. 100% of each ticket purchase will go to the IRC’s Women’s Resilience Center, the first-ever center for refugee women in San Diego.
Content Guidance: These films may contain themes/material that could be intense for some viewers. Viewer discretion advised.
Paradise Without People is an award-winning documentary produced by TIME Studios.
Paradise Without People | June 10 | 6:30pm
Synopsis: Taimaa and Nour are two pregnant Syrian refugees who find themselves navigating fresh marriages as they each enter motherhood while held in temporary camps. Competing with thousands of other refugees in Greece for resources, Taimaa and Nour find that parenting comes easier than either bureaucratic answers or marital bliss. Both women make desperate decisions, some with disastrous results. A feature debut from Time magazine, this portrait offers a truly distinct lens on the worldwide refugee crisis.
THE IRC is joined by Francesca Trianni, Director of Paradise Without People. She is also an Emmy-nominated senior producer at Time Magazine.
Directed and produced by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Ellen Goosenberg Kent and Talos Films, this intimate 40-minute documentary followed those families for nine months after they fled life-threatening conditions in their home countries to seek asylum in the United States.
Torn Apart: Separated at the Border | June 17 | 6:30pm
Synopsis: In 2018, nearly 3,000 families with children were separated at the U.S.-Mexico border. Torn Apart: Separated at the Border offers first-person stories of how the immigration crisis has affected two of those mothers and their young children, who were separated from each other for months. After escaping in Honduras, María is detained and separated from her 10-year-old son Alex for 70 days. Vilma, fleeing from her abusive husband in Guatemala, is placed in ICE detention, separated from her 11-year-old daughter, Yeisvi. The film tracks both women as they navigate a complicated system, fight orders of deportation and try to find their children, who were placed thousands of miles away.
THE IRC will be posting a panel, featuring U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw, who in 2018 ordered a massive family reunification effort in San Diego, resulting in approximately 2,100 children being rejoined with parents, in conversation with Donna Duvin, Executive Director, IRC in San Diego.
“Look no further than The Cave for a portrait of true heroism. Provides astonishingly immediate and gripping footage of the collective effort to survive. The Cave ranks among the best of films to portray the tragedy of the Civil War in Syria and the resilience of the everyday people who keep the spirit of the nation alive.” – POV
The Cave | June 24 | 6:30pm
Synopsis: Oscar nominated Feras Fayyad (Last Men in Aleppo) delivers an unflinching story of the Syrian war with his powerful new documentary, The Cave. For besieged civilians, hope and safety lie underground inside the subterranean hospital known as the Cave, where pediatrician and managing physician Dr. Amani Ballour and her colleagues Samaher and Dr. Alaa have claimed their right to work as equals alongside their male counterparts, despite the patriarchal culture and norms that exist above ground. Following the women as they contend with daily bombardments, chronic supply shortages and the ever-present threat of chemical attacks, The Cave paints a stirring portrait of courage, resilience and female solidarity.