Join us at Kingston School of Art, Kingston University, for an inspiring celebration of the experiences and stories of refugees in our community and beyond through the lens of cinema. Through screenings of short films, we will explore themes and cinematic techniques employed by refugee and migrant filmmakers to represent stories of migration and displacement. The screening of films will be followed by a discussion with experts in the field, filmmakers and the audience.

We are honoured to warmly welcome displaced Ukrainian filmmaker Olha Petruk, a talented Filmmaking graduate from the National Film and Television School who will be sharing her personal experience.

We will also be joined on Teams by Zozan Yasar, an exiled Kurdish journalist/filmmaker based in the UK. Zozan produced the documentary My (Refugee) Life and co-directed We Depend on Each Other. A graduate of the University of Oxford Refugee and Forced Migration course, Zozan has conducted significant projects focusing on refugees in Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. 

Director Bediah will participate to the event by presenting her film A Swing in Atayfiyah in the memory of homes and friendships left behind in Iraq.

Connecting with us from Italy, Afghan journalist Rahel Saya will contribute to the discussion, offering her personal insights into her experience of migration as a refugee from Afghanistan. Rahel is a Biagio Agnes award-winning journalist and women’s rights activist studying Global Humanities at La Sapienza University in Rome. 

We welcome students, faculty members, and the wider community to join us in this meaningful celebration of the work and experiences of refugees. Your participation will make a difference, so please join us to engage with the impactful work of refugee artists and contribute to a more inclusive society.

The screening is curated by Other Cinemas, and consists of short films that explore the theme of “Our Home.” Home can be more than one place and finding it can be a journey, as it is for so many of us who have to leave our countries and rebuild our lives. Sometimes we can find home in a single person. Other times it’s in a whole community. And often, it’s in a single gesture of care and welcome. From the places we gather to share meals to our collective home, planet earth, the selected films invite us to celebrate the diverse meanings of our home(s).

I look forward to seeing you all at Kingston School of Art on Monday 17th June.

If you have any questions, please contact Dr Valentina Ippolito v.ippolito@kingston.ac.uk

In solidarity with refugees,

Dr Valentina Ippolito