{"id":5978,"date":"2015-02-24T21:11:42","date_gmt":"2015-02-24T21:11:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/munkhafadat.com\/en\/?p=5978"},"modified":"2015-02-24T21:11:42","modified_gmt":"2015-02-24T21:11:42","slug":"5978","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/munkhafadat.com\/en\/uncategorized\/5978\/","title":{"rendered":"West Chester man documents plight of Eritrean refugees"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Natalie Smith<\/strong><\/p>\n

For Main Line Suburban Life<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Eritrean Exodus follows the path of the refugees from Eritrea to Israel. This is one of the villages in Ethiopia the refugees typically pass through. (Photo courtesy Chris Cotter)<\/p>\n

It started because Chris Cotter knew he had to be more than a traveler.<\/p>\n

Growing up comfortably in Avondale, Cotter\u2019s family owned a food distribution company, and the busy work life meant no vacations. So after graduation from Avon Grove High School, Cotter, who now lives in West Chester, was itching to see the world. \u201cI\u2019m sure it contributed to wanting to travel,\u201d he said of his childhood.<\/p>\n

Cotter\u2019s explored at every opportunity: Asia, Europe, Central America, South America and the United States. He\u2019s even climbed the 19,000-foot Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, about which he said with a laugh, \u201cPeople aren\u2019t meant to be that high.\u201d When not on a world trek, Cotter owns and operates Tailor Made Media and TribeSound Records in West Chester, where he is a video and music producer.<\/p>\n

But it was during his many travels that it became starkly clear to Cotter the disadvantages of others and that as a \u201cFirst World\u201d resident, \u201c(I\u2019m) super lucky to be born in this body.\u201d And it was with this realization and humility that he began forming the idea of using his professional skills to make a documentary film, shining some light onto an untenable situation somewhere else in the world.<\/p>\n

At first Cotter started doing research about human trafficking in Cambodia and Vietnam, but he was running into roadblocks. It was then a friend\u2019s father \u2013 Mark Bowden, former journalist and author of books including \u201cBlack Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War\u201d \u2013 suggested Cotter look into the plight of Eritrean refugees.<\/p>\n

The State of Eritrea is a small country in the Horn of Africa that shares its border with Ethiopia in the south. Thousands of Eritreans have left their country and ended up in refugee camps in Ethiopia, on their way to hopefully receive asylum in Israel.<\/p>\n

Cotter knew theirs was a story he wanted to tell. The refugees report overwhelming oppression committed in their country under the government of President Isaias Afwerki, Cotter said, with disappearances, torture and inhumane imprisonment not uncommon. Even if they do make it to Israel, they aren\u2019t necessarily welcomed. Cotter wanted to follow the typical path from start to finish.<\/p>\n

He also wanted very much to tell their story because he believed the story of their plight was underreported.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to find anyone who\u2019s even heard of the country,\u201d Cotter said, let alone the problems for the refugees.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou find very little when you search for (information about the refugee camps),\u201d said Joe Acchione, a director\/producer at Tailor Made Media who worked on the film. Even Reporters Without Borders, the international nonprofit that champions freedoms of information and the press, didn\u2019t have much posted on its website about the refugees, he said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Cotter was especially interested in talking to those living in camps in the Afar region of northwest Ethiopia, which is among the hottest places on Earth.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a pretty clear mission,\u201d the filmmaker said.<\/p>\n

So Cotter, cameraman Scott Miller and a lot of camera equipment, flew to Ethiopia. There they retained a guide, translator and driver. They had to be careful, because \u201cIf people are found talking to a journalist, they could be imprisoned or fined.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a film trailer, Cotter shows the audience people living in shacks in a hot, barren, dusty landscape, many of them children. In an interview clip from the film, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Anne C. Richard says Eritrea had \u201cone of the most repressive governments on Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richard says she had experience visiting many kinds of refugee camps all over the world, but she was \u201cshocked at how many children there were and at about how bad the ratio was of adult supervision to children.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the same clip, a young boy tells Cotter, \u201cThere are so many children with so many problems. We need somebody to look after us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cotter said, \u201cWe interviewed a kid 15, maybe 16, who had been in the refugee camp for three years. He walked there. His mom was disabled; his dad in the military \u2026 his brother was conscripted into the army. There just wasn\u2019t enough money to go around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another film clip has Cotter reporting that \u201cchildren as young as 8\u201d take deadly risks by making the trek, including being shot, tortured or \u201ceven having their organs harvested.\u201d<\/p>\n

They report on a man who hadn\u2019t seen the sun for 2\u00bd years, after being imprisoned underground.<\/p>\n

During the course of the film, Cotter and his company have had critics, stating that the filmmakers are racist and the film is a Western campaign against the country. They have received emails, said Acchione, to which they have responded in thanks and invited the writer to respond. The filmmakers had heard nothing back at the time of the interview<\/p>\n

Editing 50 hours of film down to an hour has been difficult, but the biggest obstacle Cotter said he has faced is having enough money to complete the film. After using their own funds, and getting some help from family and friends,\u201cit\u2019s 80 percent done,\u201d Cotter said. The filmmakers have turned to Kickstarter, an online donation site, which had allowed thousands to contribute toward its completion.<\/p>\n

In the future, Cotter hopes to make more documentaries. \u201cBut the next time,\u201d he said, smiling, \u201cI\u2019ll do one where they speak English.\u201d<\/p>\n

More information and the film trailer is available at www.TheEritreanExodus.com<\/a>. To make a contribution to the Kickstarter campaign before the Feb. 25 deadline, log on\u00a0www.kickstarter.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Source:\u00a0Main Line<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Natalie Smith For Main Line Suburban Life The Eritrean Exodus follows the path of the refugees from Eritrea to Israel. This is one of the villages in Ethiopia the refugees typically pass through. (Photo courtesy Chris Cotter) It started because Chris Cotter knew he had to be more than a traveler. Growing up comfortably …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5979,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8,1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nWest Chester man documents plight of Eritrean refugees | ELL<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/munkhafadat.com\/en\/uncategorized\/5978\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"West Chester man documents plight of Eritrean refugees | ELL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Natalie Smith For Main Line Suburban Life The Eritrean Exodus follows the path of the refugees from Eritrea to Israel. This is one of the villages in Ethiopia the refugees typically pass through. 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