15/03/2007
I was living in Andalusia, which is the European gateway for immigrants coming from Africa. As a photographer for a Spanish newspaper, wanting to report on the immigration drama I saw around me seemed natural.
I started telling the story about the daily challenges of immigrants here in Spain. Unconsciously I had begun to retrace their journeys, only mine was in the opposite direction.
I knew the background to George Sunday’s story, having followed the news about mass deportations of illegal immigrants by the Moroccan goverment which resulted in the detention and living without water or food for thousands of Sub-Saharians deep in the Sahara desert . George had managed to hide his cellphone from the police and few days later he was able to phone for help from the UN. You can read the story of this episode covered by the press at the time in this link: http://tinyurl.com/george-journey
I managed to get in contact with George by e-mail and set up an interview with him in Morocco. One year later he finally managed to make it to Spain. Nowadays he works in my city selling tissues to the eople in their cars sitting at the traffic lights.
Both of us, George and I, share a feeling of frustration and impotence – I was unable to find anyone in the media interested in publishing the multimedia story I had made. Even the newspaper that I was working for at the time wouldn´t do it despite helping me with some of the resources to make it and having the rights to publish the work. I’ve have always tried to do right by the work, by George and I feel I have tried hard to live up to that.
Now I’m attempting to put together a follow-up to this film, the “second part” of George’s story, here in Spain. But it troubles me that I don’t have a clear and optimistic answer for George when he asks me. “For who is this for? Who is listenning?”
(Running time: 13mins 50sec, Format: Quicktime Movie. File size: 66mb)
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