Before… And… After
Remember that hovel in District 9? For months, dozens of Chinese migrant workers lived in filth in the middle of Singapore’s poshest neighbourhood. And then, one very brave man decided to say something. His little video triggered outrage on the internet. It even led to a petition for better living conditions for ALL migrant workers...
J Is For Justice… And Journalist… And Just Go Away
We were watching Waltz With Bashir when the message arrived. It was Mohsin, the journalist who had worked with us on The Human Trade and Migrant Dreams. He had been beaten up by four manpower agents (one of them, Rahim, appears about 7 minutes into The Human Trade). Could we please come now? We ran...
October 18
I wish I could say 18 October 2009 was a brilliant day for all of us at Team Hope. Everything was in place. Sparkling blue skies. Music. Laughter. An amazing sense that finally, after months of fundraising and planning, our little project was taking off. I wish I could say everyone left on a high,...
By Popular Demand – More From Our Shoot In North Korea
Street advert, North Korean style. Misty morning along the Taedong River. The structure in the distance is the Juche Tower, built in 1982 to mark Kim Il-Sung’s birthday. Pyongyang has its own Arc de Triomphe. Apartment block. Young ladies on a school excursion. We had a great time chatting in sign language. At the Korean...
Happy World Habitat Day – Let’s Visit A Hovel In District 9
Location, they say, is everything. And in Singapore, living in District 9 means you’ve got it all – posh condo, swanky car, cushy job. You know, all the good things life has to offer. The guy who made the video below should know. He left China for a job here. And his boss was kind...
Scenes From Our Shoot In North Korea
And… we’re filming! Her name is Ri Yun Mi. And she wants to be a famous actress. We spent an afternoon hanging out with students from the Pyongyang University of Dramatic and Cinematic Arts. Bright young things. More bright young things. Kim Un Bom comes from a family of film workers. Dad’s a director, Mum,...
Pyongyang, Again
Folks, it’s official. We’re going back to Pyongyang. This time, we’re taking a camera, and lighting kit, and sound gear, and a shooting schedule. That’s right. We’re making a film in North Korea. It’s taken us a year of negotiations to get here. We’re still pinching ourselves. Can’t quite believe it. We leave tomorrow. Back...
Team Hope
2006 was an amazing year for us. That was the year we got to know Hung, Lung, Chor Pat and Tung and the rest of the Dawn Team. It was the year that opened our eyes to a side of Hong Kong we never thought existed. It was the year we journeyed to South Africa...
Goodbye, Abu Sama
Those of you who’ve watched Migrant Dreams might remember Abu Sama. He’s the little guy who ran away from his company after being slapped on the ear by his supervisor. The wound – a perforation in his eardrum – took months to heal. He was frightened and overwhelmed when we first met. Scruffy, nursing a...
To The People Who Care
So we finished Migrant Dreams and The Human Trade and thought we’d hibernate for a bit. Rest. Recharge. Get a full night’s sleep. But sleep’s been tough. Post-production stress, maybe. The relentless pace of the past few months finally catching up on us. But it’s not just the work. It’s the fact that the problems...
The Human Trade
When were were making Migrant Dreams, one question that kept popping up was just why so many workers had to pay so much money for their jobs. The Human Trade documents our quest for an answer.
