Using the film Returns from West Africa to revolutionize the script on migration Movies

Dakar, Senegal – Aïssata Ndiay shuddered at the last thing she could remember before waking up in a Moroccan hospital when she saw her friend Khadija – a young mother – wandering away in the Mediterranean. The inflatable ship they were trying to cross the sea had just overturned. Ndiaye was just one of the few who managed to get back on board.

Ndiay, then just 21 years old, paid a woman more than one million CFA francs (about $ 1,700) to secure her passage from Tangier to Spain. When he arrived he was hoping to go to college.

“I’ve experienced a lot of pain,” Ndiay said. “I dreamed of traveling around the world, and I did, but not the way I wanted to.”

Every year, thousands of people find suitable ways to travel from various parts of sub-Saharan Africa to try to cross Europe in search of a better life and escape conflict and persecution.

According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), about 2,400 people died or disappeared in the first nine months of this year while trying to migrate to Europe, more than in the whole of last year. About 1,200 people were reported dead on their way from Libya to Italy. Others remain in work camps or random locations in remote areas of North Africa.

On average, more than half of the Mediterranean crossings are unsuccessful.

During Ndiaye’s 2019 trip, four of his friends were killed. He finds himself alone and says he was tortured in Morocco, then sent to Algeria and beaten there and sent to Niger. Eventually, he managed to return home to Senegal with the help of the IOM.

Now, the 23-year-old, along with other returning refugees and asylum seekers, has turned to film to explore the complexities of migration. Their work is on display at this year’s IOM Global Migration Film Festival, which is currently being held in 13 countries in West and Central Africa. It will run until December 18, when the winners will be announced on International Migrants Day.

“We always see migration images made by Europeans or Americans,” said Tabara Ly Wane, co-producer of the documentary La Maison Bleue, which competes in the festival’s main category. “It is necessary for Africans themselves to talk about their stories, to tell their experiences.”

For the first time, the IOM project “Migrant as Messengers” is hosting a special film competition for people like Ndiaye who volunteer.

His film, Sous Mes Pieds (“Under My Feet”), was seen at a community screening last weekend in the Yaraax district of Dakar, where an informal outdoor area was packed with children and youth.

“Cinema has the advantage of immediacy,” said Senegalese art critic Magueye Kasse, who chose the jury for the festival. “It puts you ahead, surprises you with an image, and makes you think of images.”

An inaugural photo exhibition of the festival showcased their work as Migrants Messengers volunteers as part of their outreach campaign. [Portia Crowe/Al Jazeera]

The idea behind the Migrants as Messengers initiative is to overcome potential mistrust of institutional messaging, instead using messages similar to those of returned migrants. The program trains volunteers in photography, theater, journalism and video production, and works with them to initiate conversations in their communities.

The IOM said the aim is not to encourage people to travel, but to raise awareness of the dangers of irregular migration and to promote safe routes. Christopher Gascon, the organization’s West and Central Africa regional director, knows this is not always realistic.

“When you’re dealing [with] despair, it’s very hard to say, ‘Oh, why don’t you look for the usual way?’ ”he said. “There are common travel options, but all of them are related to what you’re well-prepared for, which has to do with development and education.”

However, he wants to let people know “what can be waiting”.

Migration again became a major issue in Europe recently when thousands of people gathered on the border with Belarus, encamped in the freezing cold. This week, at least 27 people drowned in the English Channel as their ship capsized in an attempted crossing from France.

And for those who do, things usually don’t get any easier.

Zeidy Dabo, a Malian, traveled to Italy by boat in 2017 with his wife and three children, but they lived in a shop on the outskirts of Paris. Four years later, he is still awaiting a response to an asylum application and is not allowed to work.

Director and translator Fatou Guet Ndiaye Mantoulaye answered questions from the audience after his film was screened at the opening of the festival. [Portia Crowe/Al Jazeera]

Although her family now lives in a safer shelter, and her children are in school and well, she does not recommend the path she took. “I would not encourage anyone to cross the Mediterranean, not even my worst enemy,” Dabo said.

There is also the stigma that refugees and asylum seekers suffer when they return home. Fatou Guet Ndiay, who directed the film Mantoulaye, said he had to repeat a school year after his travel attempt.

As a teenager, he boarded a wooden fishing boat on his way to the Canary Islands, but had to return six days later when his captain was lost. Her parents were depressed.

“They scolded me, they even beat me up, because they told me it wasn’t appropriate for a high school senior to leave all that and go to Spain … in a canoe with the boys,” she said.

As for Aïssata Ndiaye, who says she wanted to be a filmmaker since she was a child, she hopes the film festival will help her build a career in the industry.

If he wins the competition, he intends to use the award – new film equipment – to launch more projects and “show his talent” to the world.

“I know I will continue to focus on migration,” he said. “I have a lot to tell you about migration; it’s so wide, so vague, there’s so much to tell. ‘