Film is a growing factor in shaping the public perception of refugees. Documentaries and biographical films have become a powerful way to raise awareness and foster empathy for displaced individuals. Let’s analyse two films that have shaped this reality.

Three Songs for Benazir (2021)

Three Songs for Benazir is a short documentary film made by Elizabeth and Gulistan Mirzaei. It won 13 awards and was nominated for the 94th Academy Awards. It follows the story of Shaista and Benazir, a newly married young couple living in a camp for internally displaced people in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Rather than an abstract depiction of war, the film takes us into refugees’ everyday lives. We see Shaista pursue his dream to join the national army and struggle to find direction in a place with so few options. The camp is filled with hundreds of displaced people living in mud houses. And yet, there is love. Children laugh and play outside, young men gather to dance, and Shaista sings to Benazir. In the midst of all their struggles, he serenades her with love songs as she shyly giggles behind her headscarf.

This documentary is, first and foremost, a love story. It shows us the humanity of displaced people beyond the statistics and impersonal clips we see on TV. Unlike most observational documentarians, Elizabeth and Gulistan do not take the fly-on-the-wall approach. Although they did not appear in the film themselves, they were close friends with Shaista and Benazir for three years before they ever started filming.

In a 2022 interview with Ms. Magazine, Elizabeth Mirzae stated; “Our films come out of friendship. But I think that you do have to, as a filmmaker, always self-interrogate and have these ethical audits.” This is a refreshing departure from the dozens of exploitative documentaries that frame refugees as one-dimensional caricatures of suffering.

Even though the film centres on the interpersonal experiences of refugees, it still subtly keeps you aware of the very real danger of war. In several scenes, you can see a US surveillance balloon ominously suspended in the sky above the camp. The filmmakers are aware of the risks of this pursuit, but they believe it is one worth taking. Despite the difficulty of filming in these circumstances, the Mirzaes succeeded in telling a beautifully nuanced and humane story.

The Swimmers (2022)

The Swimmers is a biographical film directed by Sally El Hosaini who co-wrote it with Jack Thorne. It is based on the real-life experiences of Syrian sisters Sarah and Yusra Mardini. The teenage sisters were competitive swimmers before they escaped the Syrian civil war in 2015, and fled to Greece on a battered overcrowded dinghy. In the middle of the Aegean Sea, the motor stopped. The sisters got off, strapped themselves to the leaking dinghy and swam until they reached the Greek shore. They made the rest of their journey to Germany over land while facing discrimination, sexual assault and endless bureaucracy. Yusra fights to continue her swimming career in Germany and competes in the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Most of the film is factually accurate due to the close collaboration with the sisters. Heavy research was made before storyboarding the scenes and careful casting was done to ensure authenticity. Real-life Lebanese sisters Nathalie and Manal Issa played the Mardine sisters. Several of the supporting cast were refugees, some of whom had made the Aegean crossing themselves.

It was a powerful choice to not centre the film on only Yusra who made headlines at the Rio Olympics. We learn about Sarah, who chose not to compete, and their male cousin Nizar who was their chaperone on their journey. Not everyone can be an Olympian, but every individual refugee has a unique story worth hearing. The scenes of urban Syrian teens dancing in clubs and hanging out with their friends before the war broke the monolithic stereotype of the Arab refugee.

By striving for accuracy and painting a full picture instead of zeroing in on a media heroine, these filmmakers showed us a side of the Syrian war that is often missed.

Ultimately,

Filmmaking is an art as much as it is a political and social expression. With enough patience, resources, and skill, filmmakers can craft brilliant stories that amplify the voices of displaced people.

Also Read: Sustainability Is Never a Boring Topic, See How Chinese Young Filmmaker Hong Ning Perceives ‘Global Sustainability’ Through Images

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Here are five 5 must-watch documentaries to get you started.

Deep Web

Deep Web is a 2015 documentary film directed by Alex Winter, chronicling events surrounding Silk Road, bitcoin and politics of the dark web. The feature documentary that explores the rise of a new Internet; decentralised, encrypted, dangerous and beyond the law; with particular focus on the FBI capture of the Tor hidden service Silk Road, and the judicial aftermath.

Elián

Elián recounts the story of a Cuban boy named Elián González who, on Thanksgiving Day in 1999, was found floating on an inner tube in the Florida Straits, an event that set in motion a bitter custody battle between Elián’s Cuban father and US relatives. Set to the backdrop of a tense and acrimonious relationship between the US and Cuba, the documentary features a wealth of contemporary news archive and gives unprecedented access to key players in the saga, including an exclusive interview with the boy himself, now a 23-year old man.

Project Nim

Project Nim is a 2011 British documentary film. It focuses on Project Nim, a research project that was mounted in the 1970s to determine whether a primate raised in close contact with humans could develop a limited “language” based on American Sign Language. Equal parts hilarious, poignant, and heartbreaking, Project Nim not only tells a compelling story masterfully but also raises the flag on the darker side of human nature.

Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia

In Gore Vidal’s America, the political coup has already happened. In this film, Gore Vidal’s acerbic, opinionated and informed approach rips away at the facade of the new America. Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia is a 2013 documentary film about the life and career of author Gore Vidal. Anchored by intimate one-on-one interviews with the man himself, Nicholas Wrathall’s new documentary is a fascinating and wholly entertaining portrait of the last lion of the age of American liberalism.

The Last Animals

The Last Animals is a story about an extraordinary group of people who go to incredible lengths to save the planet’s last animals. The documentary follows the conservationists, scientists and activists battling poachers and criminal networks to protect elephants and rhinos from extinction. From Africa’s front lines to behind the scenes of Asian markets to the United States, the film takes an intense look at the global response to this slaughter and the desperate measures to genetically rescue the Northern White rhinos who are on the edge of extinction.

Visit www.BirdBox.Film to check out more thought-provoking films, critically-acclaimed films.

Also Read: What Happens To Your Brain When Watching A Horror Movie

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Who doesn’t love a good documentary? They offer informative and intriguing glimpses into the world that surround us. But the best documentaries are not just talking heads reciting information at you. The best documentaries are the ones that take you on a journey and leave a lasting emotional impact on you.

And with Netflix having a treasure trove of documentaries available at your fingertips, today I’m recommending five documentaries, both films and TV series, for you to queue up and watch as soon as possible.

Five Came Back

Netflix has created many engaging original documentaries, but today I am giving special mention to two. The first being Five Came Back, which chronicles the lives of influential filmmakers William Wyler, George Stevens, Frank Capra, John Huston and John Ford, and the film industry that surrounded them, before, during and after World War II. Beginning with the first rumblings of the second world war and how Hollywood dealt with it, to many of the men seeing active service. Through their involvement with American propaganda and how the war impacted their careers after coming home. The series is a gripping and intensely personal character study of how the directors’ wartime experiences shaped them and their films. All the men’s stories are captivating. Their personalities are conveyed so well through archival interviews and insight from modern filmmakers, who share common traits, that you forget the documentary’s retrospective nature and become completely absorbed in the experience. The use of music and the directors archival battle footage makes the series as gripping as any war film and shows that art isn’t merely escapism. It helps us process the world around us. And is essential to the healing process of both artists and society.

Planet Earth

This entry can apply to any of David Attenborough’s documentaries. Many are available on Netflix and all are worth watching. But for the definitive Attenborough wildlife documentary, look no further than Planet Earth. Being one of the world’s foremost natural historians you know that Attenborough knows what he is talking about when it comes to the subject matter and he delivers information in a way that is easy for all to enjoy. His smooth and authoritative voiceover invites the viewer in and makes the information easily digestible, which would be enough to recommend a documentary alone. But when combined with some of the most stunning wildlife footage ever captured, that gets up close and personal with the storied lives of earth’s tiniest insects, most feared predators and even endangered species from across the world. It makes for the definitive wildlife documentary series.

Senna

I’ve never been a big sports fan but I love sports documentaries. Because the best sports documentaries help you understand and empathize with the people who participate in these global events. And one of the best examples of this is Senna. Senna tells the story of Brazilian Formula One driver, Ayrton Senna. From how he won the F1 world championship 3 times in his careers through to his tragic death in 1994. What makes this documentary stand out is that it’s made up entirely of archival and home movie footage/voiceover about Senna. Which gives the movie an authentic feeling as everything is rooted in recorded history. What is truly impressive is how the film builds such a comprehensive picture of Senna, his life and his mindset while also being as thrilling and engaging as any fictional sports movie. Proving that learning about history doesn’t need to be boring and that real life really can be just as exciting as fiction.

13^th

Now for my second Netflix Original choice. 13^th is a film that looks at the history of the USA and posits that slavery never actually went away. Though ownership has gone, the USA’s judicial and governmental system is still so poisoned against minorities and black people in particular, that many are now locked up and used for free labour for having the audacity to defend themselves and demanding a fair trial. From that description, it’s easy to see why 13^th pushed so many people’s buttons. It is not an easy topic to think about, nor should it be. But the film delivers this difficult subject matter in a way that is easy to understand and showcases some truly disturbing material that has resulted from this oppression, but in a way that feels purposeful rather than exploitative. It is a polemic but it is incredibly successful at being one and at best stimulates a conversation that is worth having. As a good documentary should.

Paris is Burning

Finally, we go for an older documentary which is altogether more uplifting though in places no less sad. Paris is Burning documents the New York underground drag scene at the end of the 1980s. Looking at the competitions that bring the community together and the personalities of the contestants that take part. Paris is a fascinating time capsule. Although it could be looked upon as a glorified home movie, it holds significance because of what it represents. It is a glimpse inside a culture that, at the time, was very marginalized. As a result, the unprofessional and grainy presentation makes the film feel real and reflects its underground subject matter. It also doesn’t coyly skirt around discussions of transvestism, racism and homosexuality within the 1980s either. Focusing on how the community formed itself under the oppression, brutality and indifference of the culture. And although the subjects have their doubts about themselves and their place in the world, you ultimately come out feeling uplifted, for the film’s celebration of love and beauty in a marginalized group.

So there are five documentaries available on Netflix to get you into the world of non-fictional entertainment. Of course, there are many other documentaries available on Netflix. Both old and recent, and covering a range of different subjects. Do you have a favourite Netflix documentary you would like to recommend? Then please mention it in the comments. And help us discover more real-life stories to treasure.

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