AfriDocs Launches Informative & Engaging Series Of Documentary Films That Tackle The Complex Issues Of Immigration And Migration

AfriDocs, Africa’s only free streaming platform for documentary films, is launching an informative and engaging series of films that tackle the complex issues of immigration and migration that will be broadcast on select TV channels –across Africa and streamed for free on the AfriDocs platform.

Using the art of storytelling and the power of documentary filmmaking, AfriDocs will be focusing on the important issues and debates around irregular immigration. AfrDocs will showcase stories told from the perspective of African migrants during their harrowing attempts to make it to Europe in hopes of a better life.

Take a journey through film that shows the realities, the honest feelings and the facts about attempting to make it across land and sea at all cost.

These films, many of them produced from an African perspective, offer a window into the diverse experiences of refugees, migrants, and those left behind. With the aim of both debunking many of the rumours that exist about immigration and migrants, as well as to humanize the people so often objectified through the West’s portrayal, these six films will be broadcast on a range of free to air television stations in Nigeria, Ghana, Somalia and Ethiopia, as well as on the AfriDocs streaming platform.

Watch the trailer below:

With the support of the German Foreign Office, AfriDocs will present these films as part of outreach to migrants, and those considering migration in order to enable them to make more informed and empowered decisions.

Life TV in West Africa and Silverbird TV in Nigeria, TV3 in Ghana, as well as Kana TV in Ethiopia will screen the films listed below over the next few weeks starting on Saturday November 24th, while AfriDocs Migrant Stories can also be streamed ANYTIME FOR FREE: here or on the AfriDocs YouTube Channel.

The following films will be screened in key territories as per the schedule listed below.


When Paul Came Over the Sea | Jakob Preuss | Germany | 2017 | 97 min
Paul has made his way from his home in Cameroon across the Sahara to the Moroccan coast where he now lives in a forest waiting for the right moment to cross the Mediterranean. This is where he meets Jakob, a filmmaker from Berlin, who is filming along Europe's borders. Soon afterwards, Paul manages to cross over to Spain on a rubber boat. He survives - but half of his companions die on this tragic 50-hour odyssey. When Paul decides to continue on to Germany, Jakob has to make a choice: will he become an active part of Paul's pursuit of a better life or remain a detached documentary filmmaker?
Life TV (West Africa) November 22nd 23h00 (GMT+1)
Silverbird TV (Nigeria) November 24th 06:30am (GMT + 1)

My Escape, 90 minutes, Elke Sasse, 2016 

The mobile phone, for a lot of refugees, is an essential tool to organize their escape: They use it as a GPS, to get information or exchange information in groups, to contact smugglers and keep contact to family members and friends. Some use as a “reporter tool”. Made up from mobile phone footage of migrants or refugees from Syria, Afghanistan and Eritrea during their escape journeys to Europe, plus interviews after their arrival in Germany (or Europe).

For #MyEscape the filmmakers edited material filmed by refugees with only the in-depth interviews after their arrival were filmed by the filmmakers themselves. This different perspective is visible in the documentary: It is not a professional film crew filming a broken refugee boat from a safe guard boat. The camera is in the hand of a refugee on a broken boat when suddenly a boat is approaching to rescue them. The camera is also inside an empty trunk, searching for a small hole, for air or hidden while filming traffickers who take the decision on the future of the person, who is filming. It is “my escape” not “their escape.” Silverbird TV (Nigeria) Saturday 24th November 09.30 (GMT + 1)

Days of Hope, 55 mins, Dittte Haarløv Johnsen, 2014
Three immigrant stories interlace to offer a portrait of the brave souls who leave Africa for Europe but who always stay connected with home. We rarely see immigrants on the move as humans. Do they have lives separate from the process of immigration? But in fact in a globalised, connected world immigrants are as we are. As the narrative unfolds we learn that each of the three characters has motivations very similar to those that drive us.

Silverbird TV Sunday 25th November 25th 08.00 (GMT+1)

Revenir (To Return), 78 mins, David Fedele and Kumut Imesh, 2018
REVENIR is a collaboration between the filmmaker and Kumut Imesh, a political refugee from the Ivory Coast in West Africa, currently living in France. Part road-trip, part memoir, part journalistic investigation, this film follows Kumut as he returns to the African continent and attempts to retrace the same journey that he himself took more than ten years ago when forced to flee civil war in his country …. But this time with a camera in his hand.
Silverbird TV Saturday 1st December 06.30 (GMT+1)

Those Who Jump | Moritz Sebert | Morocco, Spain | 2016 | 80 min

In northern Morocco lies the Spanish enclave of Melilla: Europe on African land. On the mountain above, live more than a thousand hopeful African migrants, watching the fence separating Morocco and Spain. Abou from Mali is one of them – the protagonist in front of the camera, as well as the person behind it. At the fence, they have to overcome the razor-wire, automatic pepper spray and brutal authorities. After every failed attempt, they return to Mount Gurugú, scouring for food in the nearby villages, trying to uphold some sort of order in the camp, and building up their confidence again.

Life TV (West Africa) November 29th 23h00 (GMT+1)
Silverbird TV Saturday 1st December 09.30 (GMT + 1)

Aji Bi, Under the Clock Tower | Raja Saddiki | Morocco | 2016 | 66 min
The film follows the small community of Senegalese women who are living and working in Casablanca, in limbo between "regularisation" in Morocco, or attempting to "cross" to Europe. With humour and sensitivity, the film documents their daily life, as well as their struggles - trying to organise themselves and survive in a Moroccan society that is at the same time generous and hostile.

Silverbird TV Sunday 2nd December 08.00 (GMT + 1)

Join in the social conversation with #MigrantStories and your story here or on twitter @afri_docs.