AfriDocs, Africa’s only free streaming platform for documentary films, is once again bringing some of the best documentaries to TV screens across the continent. The 2019 edition of Migration Stories sees six powerful and moving documentaries about the various realities of migration from an African perspective.
With the support of the German Government, AfriDocs will once again present powerful stories that reflect the difficulties of migration as faced by thousands of people looking for a better life in Europe.
This diversity of films from Kenya, Burkina Faso, The Gambia, Burundi and Europe bring into stark focus the hardships that drive many Africans to leave their homelands, as well as the stark realities awaiting those who do.
The films are being screened as a way to increase awareness around migration in the communities that are most affected. You can join in the conversation on the AfriDocs social media platforms: Facebook and Twitter. Use #MigrantStories to add your voice to the conversation.
Free to Air TV screenings will also take place in the Horn of Africa and in Nigeria and Ghana during December and January.
The following films are available to stream now on #AfriDocsAnytime
Cinema Dadaab | Kati Juurus | Kenya | 2018 | 58 min
In the asylum procedure in Germany, applicants and case officers meet on only one single occasion – at the personal interview. A decision is then made about who stays and who has to leave.
The following films are available to stream now on #AfriDocsAnytime
Cinema Dadaab | Kati Juurus | Kenya | 2018 | 58 min
Dadaab is a dreamlike place forgotten by the rest of the world: a huge refugee camp on Kenya’s border to Somalia. The refugees cannot leave, but they let their minds escape by going to the cinema to watch films and to dream of other countries.
Special Flight | Fernand Melgar | France | 2011 | 52 min
Special Flight is a dramatic account of the plight of undocumented foreigners at the Frambois detention center in Geneva, Switzerland, and of the wardens who struggle to reconcile humane values with the harsh realities of a strict deportation system. The 25 Frambois inmates featured are among the thousands of asylum seekers and illegal immigrants imprisoned without charge or trial and facing deportation to their native countries, where they fear repression or even death. The film, made in Switzerland, is a heart-wrenching exposé of the contradictions between the country's compassionate social policies and the intractability of its immigration laws.
Espoir Voyage | Michel Zongo | Burkina Faso | 2011 | 80 min
In Espoir Voyage, Burkinabe director Michel Zongo sets off on a personal journey in search of traces of his older brother Joanny. Like many others, Joanny left his village at the age of 14 to go and earn money for his family working on plantations in the Ivory Coast. Nobody had heard from him since he left. Many years later, Joanny’s family received a message saying he had died. How had he lived? Why did he die? Via his brother’s life story, Zongo tells the story of migration within Africa and reflects on its consequences: the solidarity and conflicts between migrant workers and the concern of the families left behind.
Chez Jolie Coiffure | Rosina Mbakam | Belgium | 2018 | 72 min
Sabine works in Matonge (Brussels) as hairdresser in a salon. While she is working, she is at the same time waiting for a regulation of her case. In that place where she use to work, with other girls, they live under threat of national police who chase them. Sabine works no less than thirtheen or fourteen hours per day and sometimes tourists come and visit the place where she works and look at them as in a museum.
Uncertain Future | Eddy Munyaneza | Burundi | 2018 | 70 min
Burundi, April 2015. Demonstrations against Pierre Nkurunziza’s third term bring thousands of people to the streets of Bujumbura. A failed coup d’état further plunges the country into repression and violence. Whole families are fleeing the country. Eddy, director, films the demonstrations, then the first executions and the victims. His artistic and social commitment dislocates his family, who decides to leave without him. Faced with the violence that is gaining ground, he is eventually also forced to flee his country. As a refugee in Senegal, far from his family, he begins an internal journey caught in the images and memories of the crisis that shakes Burundi. Nine months later, he goes in search of his children in Rwanda. On both sides of the border, he meets those who stayed in Burundi or chose the path of exile. Their stories, often fragmentary and brutal, show great uncertainty.
No Way Back | Louise Hunt | The Gambia | 2019 | 8 min
No Way Back' explores the realities of life in Italy for two asylum seekers from Gambia, both called Lamin, who risked their lives to reach Europe in the hope of getting an education and jobs. But since the Italian government changed its immigration laws in November 2018, they are at risk of joining the thousands of undocumented migrants who are forced onto the streets or seek shelter in squalid camps and squats, such as 'The Ghetto', a derelict factory in Rome.
A Walk on the Tightrope | Sandra Budesheim, Sabine Zimmer | Germany 2017 | 52min
Special Flight | Fernand Melgar | France | 2011 | 52 min
Special Flight is a dramatic account of the plight of undocumented foreigners at the Frambois detention center in Geneva, Switzerland, and of the wardens who struggle to reconcile humane values with the harsh realities of a strict deportation system. The 25 Frambois inmates featured are among the thousands of asylum seekers and illegal immigrants imprisoned without charge or trial and facing deportation to their native countries, where they fear repression or even death. The film, made in Switzerland, is a heart-wrenching exposé of the contradictions between the country's compassionate social policies and the intractability of its immigration laws.
Espoir Voyage | Michel Zongo | Burkina Faso | 2011 | 80 min
In Espoir Voyage, Burkinabe director Michel Zongo sets off on a personal journey in search of traces of his older brother Joanny. Like many others, Joanny left his village at the age of 14 to go and earn money for his family working on plantations in the Ivory Coast. Nobody had heard from him since he left. Many years later, Joanny’s family received a message saying he had died. How had he lived? Why did he die? Via his brother’s life story, Zongo tells the story of migration within Africa and reflects on its consequences: the solidarity and conflicts between migrant workers and the concern of the families left behind.
Chez Jolie Coiffure | Rosina Mbakam | Belgium | 2018 | 72 min
Sabine works in Matonge (Brussels) as hairdresser in a salon. While she is working, she is at the same time waiting for a regulation of her case. In that place where she use to work, with other girls, they live under threat of national police who chase them. Sabine works no less than thirtheen or fourteen hours per day and sometimes tourists come and visit the place where she works and look at them as in a museum.
Uncertain Future | Eddy Munyaneza | Burundi | 2018 | 70 min
Burundi, April 2015. Demonstrations against Pierre Nkurunziza’s third term bring thousands of people to the streets of Bujumbura. A failed coup d’état further plunges the country into repression and violence. Whole families are fleeing the country. Eddy, director, films the demonstrations, then the first executions and the victims. His artistic and social commitment dislocates his family, who decides to leave without him. Faced with the violence that is gaining ground, he is eventually also forced to flee his country. As a refugee in Senegal, far from his family, he begins an internal journey caught in the images and memories of the crisis that shakes Burundi. Nine months later, he goes in search of his children in Rwanda. On both sides of the border, he meets those who stayed in Burundi or chose the path of exile. Their stories, often fragmentary and brutal, show great uncertainty.
No Way Back | Louise Hunt | The Gambia | 2019 | 8 min
No Way Back' explores the realities of life in Italy for two asylum seekers from Gambia, both called Lamin, who risked their lives to reach Europe in the hope of getting an education and jobs. But since the Italian government changed its immigration laws in November 2018, they are at risk of joining the thousands of undocumented migrants who are forced onto the streets or seek shelter in squalid camps and squats, such as 'The Ghetto', a derelict factory in Rome.
A Walk on the Tightrope | Sandra Budesheim, Sabine Zimmer | Germany 2017 | 52min
In the asylum procedure in Germany, applicants and case officers meet on only one single occasion – at the personal interview. A decision is then made about who stays and who has to leave.
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