Migrant Dreams – Ismail’s Story
Migrant Dreams, the first of our two documentaries about the plight of Bangladeshi migrant workers in Singapore and Malaysia premiered on Al Jazeera English today. Some of you might have already read about Mohamad Ismail here, here and here. Our film documents Ismail’s last days in Singapore and follows his journey home. I wish we...
Cookie
We found her in a box, in a garbage heap one day. A scrawny, mewling thing. One tiny handful. Eyes barely opened. Hungry. Someone had obviously left her there to die. We weren’t sure what to do. We already had a dog. And another cat, Muffin. Of course there wouldn’t be space for another. Were...
What thelittlepinkcamera Saw
You’ve probably never heard of Sutha’s. Why would you? It’s just a little restaurant in Little India that serves, well, Indian food. The offerings are run-of-the-mill, the service, so-so. But for thousands of desperate migrant workers in Singapore, the restaurant represents a bit of hope. This is where TWC2 runs its free meal service, where...
What Is Invisible To The Eye
The Maestro And His Daughters from Lianain Films on Vimeo. We had the honour of spending an afternoon with a truly amazing family during a recent trip to Bangladesh. Ustad Afzalur Rahman is perhaps the country’s most famous classical musician. A living treasure. A master of the sarod. He’s also blind. Has been since he...
Wahab Must Be Resting A Little Easier Now
First of all, thank you. All you generous people who got in touch after reading my previous post. I had hoped to raise S$300 for Nasrin. I now have S$720. Thank you. So much. We will send Nasrin the S$300 she needs for sewing lessons and a sewing machine, and donate the rest of the...
An Appeal, And A Thank-you Note
Women in Bangladesh are a cloistered lot. Most look after the house and take care of kids while their husbands go out to work. Some husbands, we’ve discovered, leave and never return. Or they leave and come back, dead. Or they leave, come back, and die unexpectedly. What happens then? Some women fall apart, get...
A Little Bit Of Hope
Three months ago, I wrote about a Bangladeshi worker who left his village for a job in Singapore, and returned home in a coffin. His widow, Maloti, was a mess when we met. She had sent her two older children to an orphanage. And she could barely take care of her youngest. Amazing how the...
Would You Accept A Job With No Annual Leave?
Insane, but true. Of the 170,000 foreign domestic helpers currently working in Singapore, more than half do not get a regular day off. Imagine being on duty round the clock, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Imagine the relentless stress. No weekends to look forward to. No time or space to just chill....
Wahab Goes Home
In the end, the pressure of going home proved too much for Abdul Wahab. 26 days after touching down in Dhaka, he died. His wife says he had heart problems. Wahab had been stressed out and depressed. Unable to deal with the loansharks who hounded him constantly. He withdrew into himself. Lost weight. And it seems, eventually, lost hope. His story sounds...
Boreak, All Grown Up
Our friend in Siem Reap sent us some photos of Boreak yesterday. He was a kid when we last said goodbye. A skinny little bundle of energy who couldn’t stop talking. Look at him now, all grown up. Here he is with Khan, who translated for us during the making of Aki Ra’s Boys. Back...
The High Commission
The Bangladeshi High Commission in Kuala Lumpur sits on a leafy road near the Petronas Twin Towers. It’s a posh-ish area, for posh-ish people. No wonder officials feel compelled to call in the police whenever they see too many workers camping just outside their gate. All those grasping people. What would the neighbours think? They’ve...
At Long Last… Homeless FC, The DVD
Produced in collaboration with the good people at Sinema. The very first one’s for Tung, whose been nagging us to get our act together and send him a DVD already. Yes, we know it’s taken some time (OK, an inordinately long time) and we’re very sorry for the delay. What can we say? It’s been...
