During the summer of 2023, I had the privilege to travel to the UK with Professor Robert Knight and one other student. While in the UK, we spent the first week in various small towns in England meeting with refugees whom Knight had previously connected with. We conducted interviews with individuals and organizations, and also attended a protest. I was primarily in charge of filming and photographing while my partner was in charge of recording.

On the second week, our team walked with the organization Refugee Tales for five days that were full of storytelling, music, and laughter. We walked over ten miles each day on public paths through the English countryside and towns. We slept each night on the floors of whatever organization agreed to take us, which were most often churches. In the mornings we rose together, ate breakfast, and began again. In the evenings, once we’d arrived at our destination, there was always an event of some sort. We would all settle in to a big hall and listen to refugees tell their stories, and then local musicians would play, and then we’d all venture out to a local pub.

Strangers in a Strange Land

Our documentary-project, Strangers in a Strange Land and is formatted as an interactive website in which the viewer can explore different shorts each following the stories of various asylum seekers in the UK. The goal aligns with that of Refugee Tales, which is to bring both a broader awareness and a call to end the indefinite detention of asylum seekers in the UK.