‘Whose Story?’ at the Glasgow Film Theatre was a nice change up after the excitement and buzz of the Refugee Week Scotland Opening Concert, giving the audience a chance to hear from the people behind projects such as Making It Home and Stop Destitution campaign film.
Making It Home is a particularly interesting project. Developed by the Refugee Survival Trust, it came about through a collaboration of women from vastly different backgrounds – refugees women supported by Maryhill Integration Network in Glasgow and local women from Women Supporting Women in Edinburgh.
Last man in Red Road
As well as watching the short films, documentary maker Chris Leslie spoke about his current project about the last remaining resident in Glasgow’s iconic Red Road flats. The resident is an asylum seeker named Jamal who faces homelessness as the last high rise flats are scheduled to be demolished later this year. We were lucky enough to be shown a small rough cut, which has makings of a fascinating film.
Speakers
It was a great opportunity to hear about the issues faced by asylum seekers in Scotland today. After the films we were given the chance to ask questions to a panel of speakers that included producers and participants in each project.
I liked seeing a project that brought refugees together with local women and promoted understanding and friendship.
The panel acted as a great platform for questions and queries, and there was a real atmosphere of united effort and enthusiasm to promote and widen the distribution of these short films. We were very privileged to be sharing the theatre with participants in the projects as well as audience members who were keen to see the films distributed to Scottish schools, film festivals and online.
Celebrating similarities
After the busy, festival feel of the opening concert, this was a really refreshing evening and reassuring to see that locals Scots and refugees alike, are enthusiastic and willing to learn about each other, celebrating not differences but similarities. I was really struck by this desire to share, and was very happy to hear that the only complaint of the night was that more people should have been there!
