We are Somewhere Films, a collective of female filmmakers from London to Los Angeles. Our objective is to create beautiful productions with a documentarian slant, exploring art, culture and current events within our borders and beyond.
What are we doing?
We’re shooting a feature length documentary on refugee repatriation.
The cornerstone to the 1951 Refugee Convention is the concept of non-refoulement. This means that refugees cannot be forcibly returned to the country they are fleeing. But the scope of the situation has pushed funding to the limit.
Donor fatigue has resulted in reductions of aid for camps. Countries attempt to shirk responsibility by paying asylum seekers hard cash to withdraw their claims. Many are caught between living in a country without dignity versus returning to a country without security.
What does “voluntary” mean when none of your options are good? Is the present climate incentivising sending people back into harm’s way?
The Filmmakers:
Both projects will be co-produced by Shireen Hinckley, as Editor and Anna Dobos, as Director of Photography, with other members of Somewhere Films contributing when and where they can.
Anna’s work has been published in Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, the New York Times and she is a video contributor at Getty Images.
Shireen, a USC alumni, has worked on PSAs and promotional pieces for non-profits like The Nature Conservancy and Great Public Schools Now, and has experience creating documentary films about refugees, and feature length projects covering art and film.
What will your donation go towards?
All of our projects have thus far been self funded through savings and freelance work. In order to continue them in a way that will do justice to the subjects and ensure the safety of everyone involved, we’re now looking to you, patrons of the arts and humanities, to lend us a helping hand!
Your donations will go towards production and post production costs. Sometimes these are as basic as food and accommodation, but mostly the money will go towards more complicated needs such as hiring local fixers and translators at reasonable day rates, security if necessary, video transcription, subtitles, scoring and color grading.
Learn More: http://www.somewherefilms.com