Please join African Studies and CMU's International Film Festival for a timely screening of "Between Fences," which tells the story of refugees (mainly from the Sudan and Eritrea) seeking asylum in Israel. Director Avi Mograbi and Chen Alon meet African asylum seekers in the Holot detention facility in the middle of the Negev Desert where they are confined by the state of Israel. Together with the African asylum seekers, they question the status of refugees in Israel using “Theatre of the Oppressed” techniques. What leads men and women to leave everything behind to go towards the unknown? Why does Israel, land of refugees, refuse to take into consideration the situations of the exiled? Through the power of theater and its proximity to film, Between Fences explores these questions in order to portray the true stories of migrants with no legal status seeking safety in a country refusing to accept them. Though based in Israel, the story of men, women and children fleeing their homes for safety in other lands is a common one shared by many people around the world today-- in the U.S and in Europe.

Distinguished Israeli filmmaker, Avi Mograbi began his career as a director in 1989. In 1999 he began teaching documentary and experimental film at Tel Aviv University and the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem. He is an activist as well as an artist, known for his commitment to cultural, political, and social justice in the Middle East, and is actively involved in "Breaking the Silence“, an organization dedicated to collecting the testimonies of Israeli soldiers who served in the occupied Palestinian territories.

This event will be held at the Regent Square theater and will have appetizers and a post-film talkback.

Please contact Katherine Mooney at kwm18@pitt.edu for more information or https://www.cmu.edu/faces/betweenfences.html.