A short documentary about surveillance in Azraq Refugee camp, Jordan.
Video Editing: Andreas Beissel
Voice Over: Livia Volkov
Footage of Azraq Refugee Camp: Google Maps and AP
Footage of Border Expo: All Gas No Breaks
Calais/Dunkirk 2018-2019
At any given time, there are roughly 2000 refugees sleeping rough on the outskirts of the French cities of Calais and Dunkirk. England does not provide safe and legal routes for people to claim asylum outside the country. This causes a humanitarian crisis in the English Channel area where refugees are forced to risk their lives to cross and claim asylum once there.
Refugees in Calais and Dunkirk organize themselves into makeshift outdoor camps that are evicted by the police every other day. Belongings including phones, papers, and clothing are often taken. Food is often destroyed. The state deploys tear gas and other forms of violence against refugees in the area. Calais and Dunkirk have also become fortresses of hostile architecture and surveillance in the process.
A vigil on Calais Beach for refugees who died in Europe and the Mediterranean.
A gendarmerie officer prevents a man from recovering his belongings during an eviction.
Tents that were moved out of an eviction zone by refugees prior to the police operation.
A wall made of slabs from Belgium erected around a gas station to prevent refugees from using the store, and bathrooms and from getting onto trucks headed to England.
A sleeping bag left over following an eviction
Gendarmerie officers preventing refugees and volunteers from entering a mass eviction zone. 500 people were evicted at this site in April 2019
Flowers left by the sea during a vigil for refugee deaths.
A protest by refugees and volunteers against deportations and police violence.
A protest by refugees and volunteers against deportations and police violence.
A protest by refugees and volunteers against deportations and police violence.
A protest by refugees and volunteers against deportations and police violence.
Volunteers protesting an eviction in April 2019
A protest by refugees and volunteers against deportations and police violence.
Waiting for the police to show up. A routine eviction was scheduled at a nearby camp. The police always gathered in this parking lot prior to conducting the operation.
A vigil for Mawda Shawri, a 2-year-old Kurdish girl killed by Belgian police while her family was crossing the France/Belgium border. Her family was in a van when Belgian police shot into the van to stop it.
A vigil for Mawda Shawri, a 2-year-old Kurdish girl killed by Belgian police while her family was crossing the France/Belgium border. Her family was in a van when Belgian police shot into the van to stop it.
From 2019 to 2021 I worked as the video assistant to the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace, and Security. Specifically, I created content for their Profiles in Peace Oral History Project, linked here: Profiles in Peace
This a collection of social media highlight clips that I created to promote the project.
There is also a video created for a separate event on combatting sexual violence in The Democratic Republic of Congo
The first Queer Liberation March in the summer of 2019. The QLM was founded in response to the police presence at and growing corporatization of the LGBTQIA+ pride parade. Many marchers I spoke to said that they no longer felt the regular pride parade represented them as marginalized people and excluded the hardships trans and especially trans POC experienced.
