An amazing documentary that I recommend everyone watch. Not your typical (if there is one) offering on refugees or ‘boat people’, this film is going to cause discussion and hopefully a mindset change. Consisting of secretly shot and smuggled footage in countries where the film-makers are no longer welcome, Between The Devil & The Deep Blue Sea looks not only at the asylum seekers process, but through interviews in refugee camps and detainment centers it gives a face to the statistics. More than once they raise the all to valid point from the refugees “this is not living.” For the first time you begin to gain a proper understanding of why people are forced in to prison or death situations, and the truth is shocking.
The film makers are Jessie Taylor – who appears in and narrates the documentary – and David Schmidt (behind the camera), both who have risked a lot to bring this to us and whom can’t be praised enough. Learning the fates of the asylum seekers at the end of the film is heartbreaking, though Jessie and David interviewed over 250 asylum seekers in the process, many of whom are now missing or drowned.
Importantly, …The Deep Blue Sea doesn’t preach, but just focuses on real life stories. The tagline “the film Tony and Julia didn’t want you to see” – that’s Abbot and Gillard, the Australian opposition leader and scum PM respectively – couldn’t be more appropriate, especially in an election year. The truth is that this film isn’t going to change policy, but it will affect those who take the time to watch it, and hopefully spark the discussion.
Big ups to all involved in getting this made and distributed. There’s a trailer below, but you can stream or download Between The Devil & The Deep Blue Sea in it’s entirety from the movie’s homepage, a generous move that helps to spread the message. All you need to do is enter an email address for the link: http://deepblueseafilm.com
A 52-MINUTE DOCUMENTARY LOOKING AT THE CIRCUMSTANCES AND DECISIONS THAT LEAD SOMEONE TO BECOME A ‘BOAT PERSON’.
When she was 9, Zainab’s parents made the heartbreaking decision to leave their home in northern Afghanistan. They set out on a journey across the globe, putting the fate of their family in the hands of strangers.
Across borders, behind bars and onto a smuggler’s boat – the family chased freedom.
‘Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea’ tells Zainab’s story, and the story of many others who have trodden the same path.
Jessie Taylor and Ali Reza Sadiqi travelled across Indonesia and met with 250 asylum seekers in jails, detention centres and hostels. Through candid interviews, hidden camera footage and in the words of asylum seekers themselves, the story of the ‘refugee’ is told. What pushes people to leave home? What do they leave behind? What do they fear? Why did they choose this path? And what does it take to turn someone into a ‘boat person’?
Meet the human faces behind the most controversial issue of our time.
The crew behind …The Deep Blue Sea are currently road tripping it around Australia, ending later in the year with a showing in Australia’s capital near Parliament House. If you want to attend a screening or even host all the information’s up here: http://deepblueseafilm.com/national-tour/