Journeys into Film

Journeys Festival International moves online

A new digital programme from the UK’s festival of refugee and asylum seeker art.

Journeys Festival International hosts its 2020 edition online from 28 September – 18 October; bringing together its events in Manchester, Leicester and Portsmouth for the first time in a three-week celebration of digital creativity and migrant artists.

We’re excited to see that Journeys Into Film, the festival’s fledging community film programme supported through our Ignition Awards earlier in the year, has found new life through their upcoming digital edition. A new online film programme replaces Journeys' planned in-person events at community spaces across Manchester, and features a line-up of shorts selected in response to the festival's three thematically distinct chapters.

Chapter 1: The World We Live In showcases Erena… Our Eritrea: a documentary following the work Radio Erena - the pirate radio station broadcasting accurate news to the people of Eritrea, a country that ranks as the world’s worst in terms of press freedom.

Solomon’s Stone, a blackly absurdist comedy about a Palestinian man who sacrifices everything he owns to recover a mystery package from an Israeli post office, features in Chapter 2: How We See the World.

And This is Not a Poem, a film-hymn to tolerance and understanding based on the work of Cameroon born and Wales based writer, actor and activist Eric Ngalle Charles, closes the festival’s film programme as part of Chapter 3: Hope and Celebration.

The full festival programme is available to stream via the Journeys' website. Journeys film programmer Reba Martin will host special premiere screenings for each of the shorts listed above, where she’ll be joined in conversation by the filmmaking teams.

See the full schedule

Journeys into Film is supported by National Lottery funding through our Ignition Awards. We’re continuing to support organisations throughout the ongoing disruption to the exhibition sector – contact our team or book a 1-2-1 surgery to discuss how we can help.