After Migration - Calabria
Documentary / Fashion FIlm
Directed by Walé Oyéjidé & Jake Saner
Cinematography and Editing by Jake Saner
Play Video:
• Vimeo Staff Pick
• Acquired by Criterion Channel
• Black Star Film Festival Official Selection
A triumphant portrait of a boy who left his home in The Gambia at the age of 15, and a Nigerian single-mother who birthed her child in a refugee camp, as they transcend their difficult histories while integrating into a quiet region of southern Italy.
Too often, stories about irregular migration are centered on trauma, and depict seekers of asylum as hapless victims in need of rescuing. This film subverts this commonly accepted narrative by illuminating the regality of those whom we commonly disregard as outsiders.
Combining culturally representative fashion design with story-telling, the "After Migration" project celebrates the lives of refugees in ways that dispel tropes which cast them as unfortunates. In this work, subjects of irregular migration are shown as nuanced contributors to their new societies, while journeying in search of safe places to call home.
Filmed in Calabria, Italy in 2019 with the support of National Geographic Society, Open Society Foundations and Ikiré Jones.
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