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Chasing Asylum
Filmmaker Eva Orner takes us on a personal, gripping and compelling journey to show us how she came to make her documentary about Australia's asylum seeker policies.‘ My work as a filmmaker has taken me to some wild, dangerous places … It's been a crazy, nomadic kind of life, taking me to conflict zones and desperately poor, chaotic, unstable countries. I've been sick, injured, scared and had too many close calls to mention. I spend a lot of time alone, in airports, lugging camera gear, gazing up at flickering departure boards.' But I love it. I love the feeling I get when I am heading into the unknown.'Angry and frustrated with Australia's asylum seeker and refugee policies, Eva Orner, Academy Award-winning filmmaker, returned home after a decade living in the States to make the documentary Chasing Asylum about the issue. Embarking on a tumultuous eighteen months, Eva travelled to Indonesia, Cambodia, Lebanon, Afghanistan and Iran, spending time with and filming asylum seekers, as well as interviewing politicians, activists and commentators including David Marr and Malcolm Fraser. She smuggled a pen camera into an Indonesian jail to interview a convicted people smuggler, she talked to whistle blowers in Australia, and in Iran she met with the family of the man killed in the Manus Island riot.Chasing Asylum is a compelling insight into a filmmaker's journey, and a very personal story of the cost, risks and rewards of putting yourself on the line for a film and for a cause.The Guardian writes of the film Chasing Asylum : 'The full, muscular weight of the feature documentary format has finally tackled the subject with Chasing Asylum , a viscerally intense expose given gravitas by Academy and Emmy award-winning film-maker Eva Orner ... not just successful, but awfully and unforgettably vital, evocative and gut-wrenching.''Eva Orner is no stranger to bravery ... she manifests this steadfastness in relating story after story where pain, violence and horror frame her narrative, interspersed by accounts of the daily life of a filmmaker ... Orner is brave not just emotionally, but also physically, risking imprisonment, illness and violence to uncover the stories of those who have sought refuge ... It is a story that must be told.' Sydney Morning Herald
- GenresNonfiction
304 pages, Paperback
Published April 26, 2016
7 people are currently reading
44 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 27, 2020
Australia's policy on refugees and asylum seekers has been cruel and inadequate for years, especially in relation to those people who were held on Manus and Nauru. This situation is what sparked journalist Eva Orner to make her film: Chasing Asylum and this book covers that time.
The book is her personal account of how the idea of the film came about and then focuses on her journeys across Cambodia, Iran and Afghanistan to interview returned asylum seekers. At times this put her and her crew in danger. The people she talks to have stories that make anyone reading this book angry, sad, shameful and helpless. But it also makes you think.
The experience also had a physical and emotional strain on Eva as well and how she copes with this is a very raw read.
The book will educate many of the experiences of those who are trying to get to Australia and why they are coming. It should also alert many to the fact that even today our government's policies are still failing and our approach to those who need help is completely inadequate
The book is her personal account of how the idea of the film came about and then focuses on her journeys across Cambodia, Iran and Afghanistan to interview returned asylum seekers. At times this put her and her crew in danger. The people she talks to have stories that make anyone reading this book angry, sad, shameful and helpless. But it also makes you think.
The experience also had a physical and emotional strain on Eva as well and how she copes with this is a very raw read.
The book will educate many of the experiences of those who are trying to get to Australia and why they are coming. It should also alert many to the fact that even today our government's policies are still failing and our approach to those who need help is completely inadequate
June 29, 2016
Sometimes just a photo, remember the picture of the corpse of Syrian boy on Turkish seashore, can change global policies and yet Australian medias are largely silent about what’s happening in Nauru and Manus Island detention centres. No one knows what’s exactly going on there and no camera has been allowed to enter and on top of that, based on “Australian Border Force Act” and its whistleblower legislation in July 2015 “anyone who reports to a government agency about events on Manus or Nauru risks going to jail for up to two years”.
Eva Orner is among people that can’t accept such an approach towards refugees and feels the urge to act. and for this Academy Award-winner Australian filmmaker what’s better than making a documentary to reveal what’s happening there through the memories of the ones who had been in Nauru and Manus before.
The book is her story during making the film and it’s especially valuable when it refers to the parts which has not the chance to remain in the final cut of the movie. It’s fascinating, intimate and horrible!
Eva Orner is among people that can’t accept such an approach towards refugees and feels the urge to act. and for this Academy Award-winner Australian filmmaker what’s better than making a documentary to reveal what’s happening there through the memories of the ones who had been in Nauru and Manus before.
The book is her story during making the film and it’s especially valuable when it refers to the parts which has not the chance to remain in the final cut of the movie. It’s fascinating, intimate and horrible!
June 23, 2020
Printed page doco on how a film doco is made, also part memoir.
The author is clearly passionate about the topics she chooses for her documentaries, and must be extraordinarily brave to chase these stories down in difficult situations and dangerous parts of the world.
Candid view of how this topic - Australia's treatment of Asylum seekers - had an emotional impact on her and the rest of the film-making crew.
In some instances, such as handling of passports and visa, Australia seems to be operating in the same way as those countries the asylum seekers have been trying to escape.
Great book, but I will be letting it back into the wild in the hope that others read this copy.
The author is clearly passionate about the topics she chooses for her documentaries, and must be extraordinarily brave to chase these stories down in difficult situations and dangerous parts of the world.
Candid view of how this topic - Australia's treatment of Asylum seekers - had an emotional impact on her and the rest of the film-making crew.
In some instances, such as handling of passports and visa, Australia seems to be operating in the same way as those countries the asylum seekers have been trying to escape.
Great book, but I will be letting it back into the wild in the hope that others read this copy.
June 23, 2016
This book follows the making of a documentary about Asylum Seekers, primarily to Australia. Eva Orner is both the author of the book and the film's producer, and an Australian. It makes rather harrowing reading, the world of the asylum seeker is both tragic and heartbreaking enough and with current Australian policy, virtually non existent.
It was an interesting read, and I look forward to the seeing her film, and meeting the characters she has written about in her book.
It was an interesting read, and I look forward to the seeing her film, and meeting the characters she has written about in her book.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews