SBS: Refugee Week: guide

SBS has partnered with the Refugee Council of Australia to support Refugee Week (June 20-June 26), with content across all its platforms: SBS ONE, SBS TWO, Online and SBS Radio.

Matt Campbell, Director of Television and Online Content, says: ”SBS has a long and proud history of supporting the communications needs of new arrivals to Australia. It is why we were created.

“This year’s partnership with The Refugee Council demonstrates our commitment to bringing stories about Australia’s diverse heritage to SBS Television, Radio and Online.”

Paul Power, CEO of the Refugee Council of Australia adds: “SBS has an unequalled record in the Australian media for promoting awareness of the contribution of former refugees to Australian life and the plight of displaced people around the world. SBS’s support for refugee week is particularly important given their long and proud history of supporting cultural diversity in Australia.”

Refugee Week 2010:

SBS ONE
Sunday, June 20 from 11am
Tales from a Suitcase
Series One (Episode 8 and 16) Keith Stodden.

Sunday June 20 at 12 midday
Destination Australia: Bittersweet Freedom
Teenager Rashiq has recently arrived in Australia; nine years after his father fled Iran and was put into detention in Australia. His freedom is bittersweet.

Sunday June 20 at 1pm
Tales from a Suitcase
Series Three (Episode One) George Gittoes.

Monday June 21 at 3.30pm
Destination Australia: A Family Divided
Olivia Mensah is larger than life with a heart and wisdom to match. This is her story, a mother of seven, former broadcast journalist and political prisoner, Olivia is on a mission to get a container of much needed supplies to her old refugee camp in Ghana and to reunite with her fractured family.

Monday, June 28 at 3.30pm
Destination Australia: Bridge between Two Worlds
The struggles and triumphs of three refugee children as they prepare to leave the safety of an English language school, and take their first tentative steps into mainstream Australian society.

Monday July 5 at 3.30pm
Destination Australia: The Graduate from Sudan Victoria Achut, a refugee from Sudan and mother of three, fights for her dream to become a doctor.

SBS TWO
Sunday June 20 at 11.30pm
Film: Kandahar
Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s award-winning film about an Afghani-born Canadian resident who goes to Afghanistan in the midst of war in search of her sister.

Monday June 21 at 11.30pm
Film: Baran (pictured)
A racist, naive Iranian labourer falls in love when he realises that the Afghan boy who stole his job and whom he was angry with, is actually a girl. It is directed by one of Iran’s most celebrated directors, Majid Majidi and stars Hossein Abedidi and Mohammad Reza Naji.

SBS Online – How Far We’ve Come
SBS Online has sourced video interviews and footage from the SBS Television archives that features refugees and are now re-interviewing selected individuals about their current lives to present a “How Far We’ve Come” project.

These stories include:
Guan Wei, Chinese Refugee
For Guan Wei and many in China, Tiananmen Square was a turning point. Shocked at the brutal government crackdown and fearful of working in an atmosphere of fear and repression, Guan Wei used his contacts in the Australian art world to flee China.

Bun Heang Ung, Cambodian Cartoonist
Bun Heang Ung, a Cambodian cartoonist, considers himself one of the lucky ones. He and his wife Phiny survived four years living under the murderous Khmer Rouge regime while most of their friends and family died.