For #MyEscape we collected videos filmed by refugees themselves – mostly with their mobile phone – during their escape journeys to Europe.

The mobile phone for a lot of refugees is an essential tool to organize their escape: They use it as a GPS, to get information or exchange information in groups, to contact smugglers and keep contact to family members and friends. Some use as a “reporter tool”.

ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE

For #MyEscape we edited material filmed by refugees. Only in depth interviews after their arrival were filmed by us. This different perspective is visible in the documentary: It is not a professional film crew filming a broken refugee boat from a safe guard boat. The camera is in the hand of a refugee on a broken boat when suddenly a boat is approaching to rescue them. The camera is also inside an empty trunk, searching for a small hole, for air or hidden while filming traffickers who take the decision on the future of the person, who is filming. It is “my escape” not “their escape”.

HOW

Mid November 2015 we launched a call on our facebook page in several languages, presenting our idea and asking refugees for their material. The call was also spread by groups and NGO´s and we put it on the walls of refugee camps. Our team with members from Syria, Afghanistan and Eritrea used networks within their communities to spread the call.

Soon the first people contacted us or uploaded material on our facebook page. Our team members kept contact with them in their languages, and visited some of them.

More and more videos arrived in Berlin. We started loading the material into our editing system and tried to structure it. We also found material on youtube and tried to find the persons who had filmed it or were on it.

Some people had filmed their entire journeys. At some point we decided to tell a limited number of escape journeys from the beginning until the arrival, but use the other short clips on our facebook page and for general parts of our film like “crossing the Mediterranean” or “walking through Eastern Europe”.

We started to reconstruct the journeys with the help of the refugees who often visited us in our office. We structured their material and little by little the journeys became visible.

Then we did in depth interviews in which we asked them to comment and explain their videos.

We started editing in January 2016. Again often refugees would come to assist us and help us understand their material. Some of the team members did pre editing, some final editing, some continued researching.

#MyEscape was first broadcasted on February 10 on WDR and after February 13 in 3 parts on Deutsche Welle. After that it is participating in festivals around the world. Groups or teachers also use the film to create awareness about the issue.

Team form left to right

Ghafar Faizyar (Research & Interviews Syria), Arefayne Hagos (Research & Interviews Eritrea), Janine Dauterich (Editor),

Luisa Dahringer (Research), Sarah Stinshoff (Research), Marcus Zahn (Music & Sound Design/ Data Wrangler & Editing Assistant),

Sophie Elmenthaler (Research), Tobias Pleban (Post-Production Assistan/ Photo & Picture Processing),

Rama Jarmakani (Research & Interviews Syria), Elke Sasse (Director), Lina Schuller (Additional Research & Translation),

Julia Jasjunas (Social Media Management)

Elke Sasse – Director 

Her films centre on people from all walks of life: refugees living in Germany, East Germans who moved to the West, children who battle with dyscalculia and dyslexia. She takes to the road with bin men and septic pipe cleaners, ethic Germans from Russia stranded in Eastern Europe, refugees and contract workers. Her films have documented the everyday lives of garlic growers in China, Berbers in East Germany, wedding musicians in New York and dancing senior citizens in Berlin. She has entered the world of the mentally ill, reconstructed the stories of former forced labourers, and tried to understand our general sympathy for gangers and other scoundrels.

Stefan Pannen – Producer

STEFAN PANNEN began his career at the German School for Journalism. After the fall of the wall he worked as a free lancer for the newly founded ORB and other broadcasters in Germany. In 1995 he founded his first production company.

He is award winning director of over 100 documentaries and executive producer of more than 500 films. He is a member of the German and European Film Academy.

Janine Dauterich – Editor

Freelance Editor // Studied Montage at the University of Film and Television »Konrad Wolf« Potsdam Babelsberg // Works as in-house editor for advertising at a post-production company // Editing internships for TV and Industry films

A gripping documentary using footage shot by refugees on their mobile phones intercut with interviews that connect the outer journeys they went on with the ones that took place within.

Elke Sasse | Germany | 2016 | Documentary

WHEN	WHERE
15./16.3. 20:00	WIEN Campus der Universität
24.3. 20:00	POTSDAM Projekthaus Potsdam-Babelsberg
15.4. 21:45	BOLZANO Filmfestival Bozen/ Bolzano
27.5. 19:00	KARLSRUHE Dokka Filmfestival
29.5. 14:00	ZÜRICH Mobile Motion Filmfestival
13.6. 09:45	SHEFFIELD DocFest Filmfestival
17.6. 19:30	BERLIN Moschee Flughafenstraße: Nächte des Ramadan
20.06. 20:00	FRIEDRICHSSTADT Weltflüchtlingstag
21.6. 22:00	PALERMO Sole Luna Docfestival Palermo
25.6. 15:30	RICCIONE Dig Awards Festival Riccione
5.7. 19:00	PARIS Forum des Images : 100% Doc
6.7. 18:00	HOHENHEIM TMS Uni Hohenheim
16.7. 16:00	POTSDAM Hans Otto Theater Potsdam/ Festival „Stadt für eine Nacht“
6.8. 10:30	MALGACO, PORTUGAL Filmes do Homem Filmfestival Malgaco
4.8.-30.10	MÉXICO: PUEBLA, VERACRUZ, OAXACA, CHIAPAS, MORELOS, GUERRERO MICGénero, Mexiko
24.+25.8.	LÜTZERATH Klimacamp
12.9.	TREVISO Sole Luna Doc Film Festival Treviso
12.10.	GLASGOW SMHAFF Festival
14.10. 19:00	KÖLN Filmfestival Cologne
18.10. 18.30	BELFAST Belfast International Arts Festival
19.10	NEU-BRANDENBURG Kino Latücht
20.10.-2.11.	São Paulo International Film Festival
24.10. 19:00	BRUSSELS Festival des Libertés
28.10. 19.30	HAMBURG Gemeindehaus Hamburg Klein-Borstel
4.11.	RETZHOF, AUSTRIA Amnesty International Österreich, Jahrestagung
6.11. 19:00	PARIS Pressenza at La Ruche
7.11. 14:00	PARIS Jean Rouch International Film Festival, Musée de l'Homme

UPCOMING

14.11. 19:00	LONDON Goethe-Institut
21.11. 22:00	BARCELONA Human Rights Film Festival
25.11. 18:30	BERLIN Nachbarschaftsheim Schöneberg
29.11. 20:30	BERLIN Dokfilmsalon in der Privatwirtschaft, Immanuelkirchstraße 20 Prenzlauer Berg
4.12-11.12.	TEHERAN, IRAN „Cinema verité“ Iran International Documentary Film Festival
9.12 – 15.12	WARSAWA, POLAND 16th International Film Festival WATCH DOCS

2017

8.2.2017	KINO FREISTADT, AUSTRIA Wanderkino
14.2.2017	KINO WELS, AUSTRIA Wanderkino
15.2.2017	KINO GMUNDEN, AUSTRIA Wanderkino
21.2.2017	CINÉ-CLUB DE RIXENSART, BELGIUM
01.3.2017	STAATSKANZLEI, DÜSSELDORF, GERMANY
12.-19.3	MILANO, ITALY Sguardi Altrove Film Festival
04.4.2017	REFUGEES IN FILM FESTIVAL, FLORIDA, USA

#MyEscape is available with German, English, French, Italian or Spanish subtitles. There is also a 30 minutes version for schools with young protagonists in German and English.

Initiatives, groups or schools may use the film for educational reasons. To screen the film for bigger groups you should ask for a screening copy or file in better technical quality:

For cinemas:

DCP with English or French subtitles

For other screenings:

Blu-Ray with 5.1 audio or MP4-file (full HD; stereo; 20 GB; ftp-link)

German, English, French, Italian, Spanish subtitles or clean version + English subtitle file to translate into your own language.