Survivors attend discussion on child trafficking

The third session of Ajyal Talks, at the ongoing Youth Film Festival, followed the screening of Kate McLarnon and Sky Neal’s documentary film, Even When I Fall (UK/2017) and further explored the issue of the illicit global trade in child captives, the Doha Film Institute (DFI) has said.The discussion, titled ‘Not For Sale: A Focus on Child Trafficking’ included Qatar University Law professor Dr Mohamed Mattar, documentary filmmaker Sky Neal, producer and programmer Elhum Shakerifar, and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime representative Jenna Dawson-Faber, also the moderator.Also in attendance were Sunita Sunar and Bijay Limbu, two of the Nepali child survivors profiled in the film, who are members of Circus Kathmandu, the circus/rehabilitation camp that helps child survivors of circus trafficking.Mattar congratulated Qatar for its adoption of human trafficking legislation and its work on identifying potential victims.“Human trafficking is a gross violation of human rights, a violation of children, a crime against the state and a crime against humanity,” he said. “While children account for only 28% of all trafficking cases, they are in many ways the worst cases.”Neal, who began making her film in 2010 and has a performing arts background as an aerial artist, said that when she first heard of children being trafficked to circuses, she was shocked to discover that a world she loved so much had such a dark side.“Even if they get rescued, these children are stigmatised and often rejected by their families. They have such amazing, incredible skills but they are ashamed of them,” she said, suggesting that this was kind of triple punishment: first by being trafficked and abused, then by being rejected and then by self-loathing.Limbu, who was rescued at the age of 12 after spending four years indentured to a circus, said that even after his rescue, he found it difficult to interact with other circus survivors.“We all felt humiliated by our experience and were depressed as a result. We treated each other badly, we were angry and harsh with one another. It was only after we started the workshops at the camp that I began to realise we could have different lives,” he said.Sunar, who spent eight years in captivity, said that not a single day went by without her hoping a friend or a family member would rescue her.Both teens said that they agreed to tell their stories on camera in the hopes that the film might help save other children from their experience.Shakerifar stressed that with the film, she wanted to reframe the narrative, saying “these children are not victims, they are survivors.”“Circus Kathmandu teaches about trafficking by storytelling. We felt the film should do the same. And because film can travel, it gives these stories a chance to reach new audiences, whether we are with it or not,” she added.The second session of Ajyal Talks, held as part of the Ajyal Youth Film Festival 2017, sheds light on how periods of struggle can lead to the rise of powerful social movements and inspire compelling works of art.Broadcast journalist Shoug Shaheen, artist and Qartoon co-founder Abdulaziz Youssef, Sarajevo Film Festival director Mirsad Purivatra shared their experience of this phenomenon during a discussion entitled ‘Overcome: How Art Beats Adversity’. It was moderated by Moeed Ahmad, a journalist with Al Jazeera.Prior to the Talks, a screening of a short film captured the response of Qataris and expatriate residents to news of the blockade that the country is currently experiencing.Then the film focussed on the spontaneous response of the country’s creative community, talking to the artists, writers, musicians and filmmakers who produced many of the films, digital artworks and installations that are currently on display at Katara building 19 as part of festival.The exhibition, LeBlockade, features work that was created for the most part in the immediate aftermath of the unjust blockade on Qatar. It captures the artists’ common desire to defend their country and to present its position accurately, particularly as propaganda and fake news began to spread.Ahmad introduced the speakers by talking about the ‘soft’ power of Art and its ability to change perceptions at home and around the world.“As one of the people in the film mentioned, art was reborn in Qatar because of this blockade,” he said, “and this is at the heart of what tonight’s discussion is all about”.Shaheen began by recalling her initial reaction to the news and how it made her want to make the world understand Qatar’s position.“I discovered so many new artworks as a result of the blockade. Let’s look at the positive side. It revived art and united the people even more. The greatest evidence is that we are all here tonight,” Shaheen said.Youssef talked about how he turned to art and began to draw caricatures when he knew about the blockade. Normally, he said, he might draw one in a day.But that day he drew 30. “I understood that I had a lot to say,” he explained, adding that the unfairness of the blockade gave him the energy to work harder and faster. “Before it used to take me two or three weeks to draw a 30-second animation. Now I do the same thing in two to three hours.”Purivatra, who lived through the four-year siege of Sarajevo in the 1990’s said that the way that he heard people in Qatar talk about the blockade and the way he had seen them react, especially the creative community, reminded him of what his generation had done during the war years in Bosnia.“When the National Library in Sarajevo was bombarded, artists, musicians, writers, actors and film directors realised we had to be united, that we had to do something,” he said.This began with installations at the city’s badly damaged Cultural Centre, which gave residents something to look forward to and culminated in 1995, in the creation of the Sarajevo Film Festival, in the middle of the siege.“Twenty-three years later, we are the biggest film festival in Europe and the people who started it are still together, united, working without arguments. We wanted to tell the world that even with no electricity, water or food, Sarajevo would face them with dignity,” Purivatra added.Moeed Ahmad, Mirsad Purivatra, Abdulaziz Yousef and Shoug Shaheen speak on stage at the ‘Overcome: How art beats adversity’ talks ‘during the Ajyal Youth Film Festival. PICTURE: Tim P Whitby/Getty Images