Sanctuary is a DVD collection of 24-short monologues based on true stories of people who have sought asylum and received refuge in Ireland, performed by Irish actors and writers. The stories depict narratives of individuals stuck in legal limbo in the asylum, triumphing against the odds to forge new lives in Ireland.  Sanctuary stages stories of loss, survival, tragedy and perseverance and is inspired by staged readings of asylum monologues by the English theatre group Ice and Fire (www.iceandfire.co.uk.)

Sanctuary has been distributed internationally to storytelling organisations in  Norway, England, Scotland, Germany, Switzerland, Jordan, Sweden, Italy, Greece, France, Wales, U.S and Canada.

In association with Storytellers of Ireland and the Irish Refugee Council, Sanctuary has been screened and performed live in cinemas, festivals and cultural events nationally and internationally.

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Filmed over a five-year period, Promise and Unrest is an intimate portrayal of a migrant woman performing caregiving and long-distance motherhood, while assuming the responsibility of providing for her extended family in the Philippines. Through struggle and sacrifice migrant women often stand as sole breadwinners in the transnational family, as was the case for Noemi Barredo who left the Philippines and her seven-month old daughter Gracelle for work in Malaysia before arriving in Ireland in 2000.

Through the camera lens, the film observes the everyday contours of Noemi and Gracelle’s relationship, their subsequent reunion in Ireland through the `right to family reunification‘, and the beginnings of a domestic life together in the same country for the first time. The film’s narrative arc is shaped by the mother-daughter voiceover scripted by Noemi and Gracelle themselves, deliberately staged in two languages: the mother tongue Waray dialect spoken by Noemi in dialogue with an emerging adolescent and accented English – a new and acquired idiom that Gracelle is forced to learn in a new country.

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Commissioned for a conference organised by the Immigrant Council of Ireland, The Richness of Change was initially conceived as a ‘vox pop’. However, it grew into a series of short documentary vignettes, highlighting the diversity of origin and of profession, amongst Ireland’s immigrant population with a focus on individuals contributing across a variety of sectors and to broad swathes of economic life and culture.

A collaboration between FOMACS and the Immigrant Council of Ireland, this video has been used by our partner in a variety of public briefings and conversations.

The Richness of Change was broadcast on RTÉ as ‘one-minute wonders’ in April 2008.

Shot over a period of three years and part-funded by the Irish Film Board, Here to Stay is an intimate portrait of Filipino nurse Fidel Taguinod. Fidel leads the viewer through a series of migrant-led events, the political mobilisation of overseas nurses and how trade unionism develops in a rapidly expanding multiracial Irish society. The film captures the evolution of political process over time, highlighting critical debates in Section meetings and within INO conferences.

Fidel’s world outside the hospital environment, his domestic life where he lives with his Irish partner, is further explored, alongside his negotiation of a gay identity in public performances such as ‘Miss Alternative Philippines’ and ‘Diva Manila’, in which he playfully mixes gay politics with migrant and multicultural issues.

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