Celebrate World Refugee Day

Postcard promoting World Refugee Scrapbook online.
Posted by rrazvi  June 19, 2007

Web-scrapbook launched for world refugee day!

Shortly after 9/11, I began an extraordinary journey in New York City with
twelve resettled refugee teenagers who had fled armed conflict in Africa and
the Balkans. We met every Friday evening for three years, and in this time,
shared stories and pizza, joked and cried, took photos and wrote poetry. Our
constant companion was a video camera, and from all this material and emotion,
we crafted 3 award-winning short films. Moreover, we created—in the words
of one participant—“one family.”

Please join me on the web as I narrate our unique community’s story in a new
digital scrapbook. See nine chapters of photos, drawings, writing and video;
and get a rare inside glimpse of one group’s development.

Such vision has won us prizes and screenings at hundreds of national and international film festivals, conferences and schools. And our work together is a testament that—from the fragments that war heartbreakingly creates—individuals
and small communities have the power and potential to piece together
more beautiful stories, and act upon them for a stronger world.

–Raeshma Razvi, Director and Author

Tags: refugee documentary
Topics: Building Community, Community Media, Immigrant Integration, Media production, Receiving Communities, Refugees, Storytelling, Technology, Youth



Comments

Moving On

Submitted by Beth Mastin on June 20, 2007 - 12:44pm.
I was drawn to the "moving on" section in this wonderfully rich scrapbook and found myself seeing the poignant reflections of teens facing "graduation" as similar to American-born teens teetering on the brink of their futures. They are wistful, connected, ambivalent, empowered. Thanks to everyone who worked on this project for giving these displaced teens the tools for self expression and a safe environment where they can speak about their past and own the future they want to create.
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Insights into Media-Making

Submitted by Gale Petersen on June 20, 2007 - 10:45am.
Thanks, Raeshma, for writing our first "Guest Blogger," entry and more importantly, sharing the story of refugee teens making media about their experiences as new Americans. To me, that‘s the essence of the power of community media -- people making media to tell their own stories to their communities. Gale
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