Into the Fire is being crowd-released today: All over the internet people are embedding Into the Fire on their website or blog. With everyone who participates the audience and distribution network will grow. Are you participating? intothefire.org

A hard hitting documentary which shows the plight of refugees and migrants in recession hit Athens, Into The Fire is a film with a difference.

Shot and edited with sensitivity and compassion, it doesn't pull its punches and makes for harrowing viewing in parts. It is the product of crowd funding, dedication, self-sacrifice and a burning sense of justice.

On 21 April, Into the Fire is simultaneously released on websites, blogs and other platforms around the internet. The film will be available in various languages, including Albanian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian and Spanish. There are a number of public screenings planned in several countries in Europe and Northern America. To participate in the release or organise a screening see intothefire.org/publish

This strategy is being used to maximise the audience, in the hope that the audience will become active participants, commentators and amplifiers when it comes to opposing the conditions visited on the victims in the story.

The premiere of Into the Fire on 29th April, 6:30pm will be hosted by the School of Oriental and African Studies. The filmmakers will be joined for discussion by Habib Rahman of the Join Council for the Welfare of Immigrants.

In times of severe austerity things look bleak for Greek people, but they're far worse for those who have recently arrived. Without housing, legal papers or support, migrants in Greece are faced with increasing and often violent racism at the hands of the growing Nazi party Golden Dawn and the police in Athens. Many are trapped by EU laws and legislation of other EU countries meaning they'd be returned to Greece if they managed to get to another member state, they are desperate to leave the country.

This film gives incredible insights to the reality faced by people who simply want to lead peaceful, normal lives.
Having been to Athens to shoot footage about austerity in April last year, Reel News video activists started talking and working with a young Somalian refugee, they made many contacts in the migrant world and those contacts gave them access to a huge number of untold and shocking stories.

Funded by small donations from friends and organisations, the film makers are once more turning to their supporters and allies in the UK to distribute the film online and through screenings to grassroots groups across the country. No one has been paid to work on this film.

Surely referring to these unfortunates as 'victims' of austerity would infer that they were previously in a position of abundance,

"...NOT being shot at, raped or possibly butchered by savage machete wielding tribal militants is a positive, no? "

Yes.

Unfortunately this isn't the case in Athens. Athens has it's own "militant tribe" to deal with them.

They were a shitload better off before the austerity measures aye.,

You'd know that if you paid attention to the course of events over the past few years.

oioioi wrote:
Yes. Golden Dawn; i'm well aware of their violent activities and political scapegoating.

Ah, it's just by expressing the opinion that by reaching Europe they are somehow safe from "militant tribalism" came across as though you were uninformed/ignoring facts.

My apologies.

oioioi wrote:
Thanks, but there's no apology required.
Perhaps I could of elaborated a little further; although golden dawn are indeed a violent and repugnant bunch, I'm reluctant to draw a comparison between Greece's various social cataclysms and the sheer volatility of the ongoing Somalian civil war. By this, I do not mean that the barbaric behaviour of tribal racists like golden dawn is insignificant in any way, quite the contrary in fact; GD are a serious problem that needs to be dealt with, but in comparison to the level of militarisation in Somalia, the problem of GD is certainly manageable. A 'movement' I am a member of is actively recruiting patrol groups (Greek or internationals), to invigilate on the streets of Athens, and intervene in and prevent racist attacks by GD. There are a few of us out there now, but nowhere near enough.
The point I was making is that there seems to be little sense in separating the immigrants and identifying them as a 'special' victim group within a larger group of people who are also suffering under the weight of the same policies. It's disproportionate to seperate in this context. Unity is the only answer to the GD question. Unity is the only answer to the tribalist question. Any form of seperation undermines unity.