LEEDS: Refugee Film Fest

Tuesday 17th June
6.00pm speakers

hana fazal leeds refugee council
testimony from an Iraqi refugee

6.40pm films

tasting freedom (50 min, Ch 4 Television, 1994)
Documents the struggles of asylum seekers in Britain for recognition of their basic human rights. Investigates abuses on asylum seekers in detention centres and prisons. A startling account of how people who have come to Britain to find freedom are instead persecuted and end up killed in prison.

leila (16 min, UK 2002, Scottish Screen, BBC, BFC)
Leila is a young Iranian asylum seeker who comes to live on a Scottish housing estate with her mother, gran and baby brother. Based on the writer's own experiences, the film looks at the resilience of this young girl and her determination to fit in with her new surroundings.

holiday camp (45 min Australia 2002, drive-by shooting)
Shows the dramatic footage of the Easter 2002 outbreak from the Woomera detention centre when 53 inmates escape during a protest, supported by hundreds of outraged Australians. Connects the issues of indigenous dispossession, genocide, and the incarceration of refugees. It explores the implications of the mandatory detention system and the construction of national borders.

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Thursday 19th June
6.00pm speakers

testimonies from Iraqi & Congolese refugees

6.30pm films

situations vacant (29 min, BBC Scotland 2003)
Over 5,000 asylum-seekers live in Scotland, all banned from working, costing the taxpayer thousands of pounds. The film exposes the scandal of highly-qualified refugees forced to live on benefits and vilified as scroungers, when they could be a godsend for a country that’s crying out for skilled workers.

waking up the nation (82 min, Australia 2002, VideoTeppista)
During the Australian summer of 2002, a group of people concerned about the human rights abuses of asylum seekers inside immigration detention centres embark on a 2-month/10000 km journey around the continent on the Refugee Freedom Bus to visit as many camps as possible, and create awareness among communities en route. We watch how this strange mix of anarchists, housewifes, teens and hippies have their run ins with overzealous cops, burly detention centre guards, and angry small town locals. The film exposes some of the human rights abuses at the hands of the private corporation which runs the camps and the government which supports it.
more info on www.videoteppista.nomasters.org/wutn.htm
including online videos & information on the situation inside australia's hell holes.