Short Documentary: Refuge Among Refugees

Documentary Project Overview

In 2012, Maya Paley, a human rights activist, approached us to produce a two-minute video to bring awareness to the institutionalized and illegal mistreatment of South Sudanese asylum seekers in Israel. Upon viewing the two hours of interview footage she collected from Sudanese refugees as a researcher in Israel and researching the situation for ourselves, we knew that two minutes was not enough time to tell the complicated but extremely important story of these people.

We ended up producing a 30-minute documentary that spurred the formation of the coalition of Right Now: Advocates for Asylum Seekers in Israel to bring. The goal of the documentary was to paint an honest picture of the situation that was based on facts rather than rhetoric or sensationalism.

Prior to production, we conducted comprehensive research about the situation in order to understand the story inside and out, and from multiple perspectives. We constructed the film from compelling moments of two hours of existing video interview footage with South Sudanese asylum seekers in Israel, as well as articles, pictures, footage from activists in Israel, and well-articulated calls to action, in an effort educate and create a call to action for all viewers.