Stories from Refugee Youth: bringing together ten young people from refugee backgrounds to tell their individual stories through the medium of film as part of The Heartlands 2016 Arts Project.
The young storytellers shared their view from a wide range of countries including Somalia, Burma, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Sudan, and Syria.Each story highlights passions, hopes, dreams, reflections and unique journeys which together form a series of engaging and emotionally connected short films.
The organisers of Heartlands say the project aims to give a cinematic insight into some of the communities who have found a safe haven in Australia in recent year. Transcending cultural barriers, the project reveals the challenges, success and everyday lives of people who make up Melbourne’s refugee communities.
In each of the films the young people tell stories about their lives and their peoples, while celebrating a sense of togetherness in their shared circumstance as refugees.
Currently, the world is witnessing the largest refugee crisis in history with the number of displaced people around the globe now more than 60 million – a greater number than at the end of World War II.
Young filmmaker Abdul Ibrahim, who fled the civil war in Somalia as a small child, said “Heartlands is a fantastic opportunity for me to share the story of my community – its achievements and its challenges – with a wide audience.”
Heartlands 2016 launched at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) on Wednesday 8 June 2016. The films began screening at Footscray Community Arts Centre from Friday 17 June 2016, screened at ACMI on Tuesday 21 June 2016, and will tour Victoria until the end of August 2016.
Find out more about other screening times and locations at the AMES Australia website.
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AMES Australia
Tel: 13 26 37
Website: www.ames.net.au
Part of an AMES Australia arts project, the film exhibition is held in the lead up to Refugee Week 2016 and will screen at cinemas across Victoria.