Refugee Film Festival

Wow, I just had a really unique morning.

Let me give some background first: Many refugees seek asylum in Hong Kong, but their plight is far overlooked by many in the community. One of Crossroads’ specific focuses is on this need to educate the community on the challenges faced by refugees, not just those with asylum here but also the refugee conditions in the countries being fled. World Refugee Day is June 20, and in conjunction with the UNHCR (United Nations High Council for Refugees) we are hosting a huge awareness event over two days. I actually get to project manage this event, which is incredibly exciting, a huge task, and a great learning exercise for me!!

This morning, Kate and DJ (who oversees most of the work here at Crossroads) invited me to sit in on their meeting with Rosina from UNHCR and also Kiro, a native Russian who currently lives in Tokyo. Kiro has a passion for refugees, and has lived all over Asia and Africa, meeting and living with people of pretty much any background you can think of. His way of informing people on refugees is by showing films on the lives of refugees. Many of these are documentaries, or made by refugees themselves, and others, like The Kite Runner, are more mainstream. He doesn’t make the movies, but has built relationships with filmmakers and for the past three years has held successful film festivals in Tokyo, called the Refugee Film Festival. He wants to bring this festival to Hong Kong, and had spoken to UNHCR, who then brought him to us. So, I was able to sit down with him this morning, and hear some of his stories, and was just amazed at his enthusiasm, his persistence, and his heart for the refugee cause. It really impacted me. As part of our World Refugee Day two day event, he will run a mini film festival all day on 21 June (Saturday). I’m really looking forward to it.

I had never realized the extent of the complicated life of a refugee. I still don’t have the full scope, I know, but I already have learned so much since coming here, and particularly today in speaking with Kiro.

I have so many new things to lift up in my talks with Him now.