NEWS & UPDATES FROM THE LAB

WELCOME BACK

IT HAS BEEN A WHIRLWIND OF A YEAR SO WE Wanted to bring you up to speed on all things ReFOCUs with a MONTHLY UPDATE to keep you informed and engaged in what comes next.

Right from the start we knew this would be a year to remember when every photographer’s dream came true with ReFOCUS featured in National Geographic!!!

but the big breakthroughs kept on coming, so scroll down for more amazing news.

VISIT OUR NEW ReFOCUS SHOP

3 MEDIA LABS AND COUNTING

LESVOS- ATHENS- CRACOW

OUR INTERNATIONAL NETWORK OF MEDIA LABS CONTINUES TO EXPAND. OUR CURRENT LABS IN LESVOS, ATHENS AND CRACOW ARE HOT BEDS OF MEDIA CREATION, AND WE’RE HOSTING UNIQUE WORKSHOPS AND PRODUCING ORIGINAL FILMS ON LOCATION IN AMSTERDAM, BERLIN, AND PHILADELPHIA. GET IN TOUCH IF YOU’D LIKE TO TALK ABOuT WAYS TO ESTABLISH A NEW REFOCUS MEDIA LAB IN YOUR COMMUNITY.

FEATURE STORY NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

FEATURE FILM-
“ALONG THE WAY” BY MIJKE DE JONG
WORLD PREMIERE #IFFR ROTTERDAM

“RISK-TAKERS” FEATURED PROGRAM
ALLIANZ FOUNDATION

The Allianz Foundation supports risk takers from civil society, from art and culture or environmental movements. After all, free spaces for effective commitment have to constantly be won – especially in light of increasing nationalism and authoritarianism, even in Europe. The fight for climate protection and social justice requires courage, conviction and alliances. WE’RE PROUD AND HUMBLED TO BE FEATURED AS AN ALLIANZ FOUNDATION “RISK-TAKER” PROGRAM.

-ReFOCUS ORIGINALS-
MOVIES THAT MATTER FESTIVAL

We launched our ReFOCUS Originals film series with productions of original film concepts written, directed and produced by our artists.

“Dancing Bells” and “Dead End”, both filmed on location in Berlin and Athens, kicked off a brand-new partnership with Movies That Matter Film Festival, Buddy FIlm Foundation and the European Cultural Foundation. BOTH FILMS ARE ON THE FESTIVAL CIRCUIT, SO STAY TUNED FOR TRAILERS AND PRESS KITS!

ORIGINAL PODCAST
“FRACTURED” S1

ReFOCUS ORIGINAL
MUSIC VIDEOS

Back on Lesvos our filmmakers put their skills into action with new collabs on official music videos for rising international Hip Hop stars.
“Erantzun (Vandalismo)” with Zekan Askalari, and “Interview” with Mo Hussein, has quickly established ReFOCUS as a go-to production house.

STAY tuned for links to both music videos when we launch!

OUR PARTNERS

Thanks to truly generous grants from Allianz Kulturstiftung in Berlin, Choose Love in London, continued support from the #LeaveNoOneBehind campaign, and strengthened existing partnerships with our hosts One Happy Family and Better Days, we re-opened our Media Lab on Lesvos , and of course are offering daily classes in our home at One Happy Family. We’re also supporting numerous independent media artists from the refugee community here on Lesvos, supporting our alumni, and also teaching a new group of young Greeks who are eager to learn photography and filmmaking.

EXHIBITIONS
FILM FESTIVALS

But the start of the fall has been electric with our students’ work showcased and celebrated at the Human Rights Film Festival Berlin in September.
Our multimedia exhibition “Trapped in the Playground” was the centerpiece of their “Art of Change” exhibition, helping to promote our 2nd feature film of the same title (currently in post-production).

That alone would have been enough to celebrate, but Katja Riemann’s film about ReFOCUS “...and here we are, a film school in Moria” also had a world premiere. It was truly amazing to have a huge group of our former students and citizen journalists in person with us at the premiere and exhibition.

And just a week later we were back up in Berlin to premiere our latest film “Nothing About Us Without Us” at Gorki Theater. The film, which serves as a call to action for mainstream media to develop a new standard of engagement with the communities they report upon, was co-directed by Yaser Akbari and Nazanin Foroghi, two of our senior citizen journalists (and now fully employed teaching artists).

The film was commissioned by the Allianz Kulturstiftung and kicked off the Berliner KorrespondenzeN annual debate series.

IT Was a true honor to share the stage with Afghan filmmaker Sahraa Karimi and Forensic Architecture founding director Eyal Weizman for a deep dive into how the media represents refugees and communities in crisis.

As they did in their film, our students and fellow filmmakers delivered powerful and honest statements, clarifYING the extreme need for change in how the media functions WHEN ENGAGING WITH IMPACTED COMMUNITIES LIKE OURS.

If you missed it you can catch the livestream here, but read on first.
https://kulturstiftung.allianz.de/de_DE/projects/berliner-korrespondenzen/berliner_korrespondenzen_break_up_1.html

EXPANSION

As expected, there was a tremendous amount of energy and support swirling around us, and as a result we’ve been able to establish new labs in Athens, cracow, and a brand new collab with rough cut media and makeshift in philadelphia.

there is significant interest in replicating our model in berlin, amsterdam and beyond, but we’ll need support to activate these new communities.

join us by donating today!

UPDATES FROM THE FRONTLINES

While we wish this update could remain wholly positive, the grim reality is that it has become even harder than ever to operate here on Lesvos. Our students struggle on the daily just to get out of camp and come to classes, deal with racial profiling on the streets, and regularly fall victim to segregationist practices under the guise of covid/public health concerns despite being vaccinated.

We haven’t even mentioned the extreme human rights violations in the form of push backs at sea and along the land borders at Evros, and now in the forests between Poland and Belarus. Lives are being lost every day, which means our citizen journalism program is more important than ever. despite the increased engagement and support for refugees throughout Europe, governments of EU member states continue to flout international rule of law without recourse.

VOICES FROM INSIDE

the level of human rights violations unfolding each day are simply unimaginable. and so we will continue to ring the alarm, and train a new wave of young activists and citizen journalists to ensure their stories are told, and that they are the authors.

Please stay tuned for new reports from the borders of Europe, as well as our new series “voices from inside” where brave independent journalists inside afghanistan continue to report, and collaborate with our journalists in exile to produce critical reports where international media simply isn’t bothering to create.

ReUNITE WITH THE FAM

Moving forward, as we expand we’d love to have you back with us in any capacity you feel makes sense- be it on the ground in one of our labs as a teaching artist, as an instructor online for the students who are no longer living on Lesvos or near one of our new labs, or just as an advocate and ambassador to help us continue to grow.

We’re sure you’ll have many questions along the way, so please don’t hesitate to reach out for clarification, and know we’d love as much of your creative energies and ideas to help this campaign succeed.

We’re so excited about what comes next, and this really does start with all of us working together to make this dream a reality!

Missing you all, and wishing you the very best,
Douglas, Sonia, the entire ReFOCUS Crew (and our newest teaching artist teodoros!!!)

ReFOCUS PROMO