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It Will Be Chaos

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It Will Be Chaos
Film release poster
Directed byLorena Luciano, Filippo Piscopo
Produced byLorena Luciano, Filippo Piscopo, Nancy Abraham (Executive Producer for HBO)
CinematographyFilippo Piscopo
Edited byLorena Luciano
Music byAndrew Byrne, Matthew Rohde
Production
companies
Film2
HBO Documentary Films
Distributed byHBO
Release dates
  • May 2018 (2018-05) (Seattle)
  • June 18, 2018 (2018-06-18) (HBO)

It Will Be Chaos is an HBO documentary on the European refugee crisis directed by US-based Italian filmmakers Lorena Luciano and Filippo Piscopo. In 2019 It Will Be Chaos won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Current Affairs documentary at the 40th News & Documentary Emmy Awards.[1][2] It Will Be Chaos also won the Best Directing Award[3] at the 2018 Taormina Film Festival.[4] Translated into over 10 languages, the documentary has been distributed worldwide.[5][6][7]

Other documentary films documenting the European migration crisis include Simshar (2014), Fire at Sea (2016), Human Flow (2017), and Sea Sorrow (2017).

Summary

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It Will be Chaos is a documentary about the European refugee crisis, told through the stories of asylum seekers fleeing war and repression. The documentary also interviews local populations left to cope with the overwhelming influx of newcomers while facing their own economic woes.

The film features two stories of refugees on their journeys to the E.U. and it unfolds between Western Europe and the Balkan region. Eritrean refugee Aregai survives the 2013 sinking of a migrant boat off the island of Lampedusa.[8][9] The final death toll of the shipwreck is never to be known, but 194 bodies were recovered and 368 people were declared missing.[10] After Aregai is rescued by two local fishermen,[11][12] he finds himself trapped in the broken Italian immigration system and flees underground all the way to Sweden in his quest for political asylum.

The story of Aregai is intercut with the perils of a Syrian family fleeing Damascus in search of safety in Europe. Wael, the head of the family, with his wife Doha, their four young children and three nephews, trek the 2,500-mile Balkan route through border crossings, checkpoints, and refugee detention centers. The family travels the distance learning about the routes thanks to smartphones with GPS and word of mouth tips.[13][14]

Five years in the making, It Will Be Chaos plunges the audience onto a harrowing road trip through multiple epicenters of the escalating migrant crisis:

  • border islands overwhelmed by the influx of asylum seekers such as Lampedusa, headed by Mayor Giusi Nicolini;[15][16]
  • model migrant towns like Riace[17] in the poorest Italian regions where mayors must answer to refugees given the central government's inaction;
  • Europe's largest prison-like migrant centers such as Crotone where refugees' frustration erupts into riots;[18]
  • humanitarian corridors such as the Balkan route;[19][20]
  • and forgotten corners of major cities like Rome with asylum seekers squatting in crumbling government buildings.[21][22]

The film documents the rising tension between migrants and locals, as anti-immigrant populism rises all around Europe.[23]

Screenings

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It Will Be Chaos has played at film festivals in the US[24][25][26][27] and worldwide, reaching audiences from Europe[28][29][4] to Australia.[30]

The film premiered on HBO[31] during the week of World Refugee Day 2018 in the US.[32] It was broadcast in seven continents and translated into over 10 different languages.[33][34][35][36][37][38][39]

The documentary has been incorporated into critical migration discussions among policymakers in Europe. In June 2018, clips from It Will Be Chaos were presented at the public hearing “Addressing Criminalization of Refugees and Impunity of Human Trafficking”[40] at the European Parliament as EU leaders were meeting in Brussels to discuss migration. The screening, organized by EEPA, a Belgian NGO, was aimed at bridging lawmakers with ground-level awareness of the crisis.

The film was shown at several humanitarian organizations’ film screenings spanning from California[41] to Spain,[42] as well as at many universities in the US,[43][44] Johns Hopkins University[45] and the University of Washington,[46] and abroad.[47]

Reception

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It Will Be Chaos has received a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes,[48] and positive reviews from major US and international publications.

In the US, the film was reviewed by the Guardian US,[49] the Los Angeles Times,[50] The Hollywood Reporter,[51] and the Boston Globe.[52] The film was also covered by popular radio and podcasts such as Sirius XM's "Stand Up with Pete Dominick"[53][54] and "Think Again."[55]

In Europe, the film garnered good reviews by several leading media outlets such as La Repubblica,[56] RAI Italian Public TV,[57] and Rolling Stone Italy.[58]

Awards

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In 2019 It Will Be Chaos was nominated for the 40th News & Documentary Emmy Awards, and won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Current Affairs documentary.[1][2]

It Will Be Chaos also won the Best Directing Award[3] at the 2018 Taormina Film Festival[4] and the Humanitarian Award at the Socially Relevant Film Festival New York.[27] It has also been shortlisted for the 2019 David di Donatello Awards.[59]

In July 2018, when Italy's anti-immigrant Interior Minister Matteo Salvini shut ports to refugee rescue ships,[60] It Will Be Chaos won the Best Directing Award at the 64th Taormina Film Festival.[3] The film was the first documentary film to win for Best Directing in the history of the festival. The prize, deliberated by a jury headed by American film producer Martha De Laurentiis,[61] was bestowed to directors Luciano and Piscopo by Academy Award nominee film producer Donatella Palermo. In their acceptance speech for the Taormina Arte Award, Luciano and Piscopo highlighted the coincidence that their refugee film was awarded at the Greek theater in Taormina, itself a historic example of cultural diversity across continents and regions going back many centuries.[62]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Alcinii, Daniele (September 25, 2019). ""It Will Be Chaos", "Crime + Punishment" among News & Doc Emmy winners". www.realscreen.com. Retrieved 2019-11-06.
  2. ^ a b "The News & Documentary Emmys: Outstanding Current Affairs Documentary nominees". Emmy Awards. Retrieved 2019-11-06.[permanent dead link]
  3. ^ a b c "Taormina Film Fest Awards: Polish Drama, Refugee Doc Among Winners". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2019-11-06.
  4. ^ a b c "Taormina Film Fest". www.taorminafilmfest.it. Retrieved 2019-11-06.
  5. ^ "The hard truth about immigration". Stuff. Retrieved 2019-11-06.
  6. ^ ""It Will Be Chaos" y la odisea de los refugiados para llegar Europa | Fandango Chile". www.fandango.lat (in Spanish). Retrieved 2019-11-06.
  7. ^ Leandro Sarubo (2018-10-01). "HBO mostra rotina de refugiados em "It Will Be Chaos"". Teleguiado (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2019-11-06.
  8. ^ Yardley, Jim; Povoledo, Elisabetta (2013-10-03). "Migrants Die as Burning Boat Capsizes Off Italy". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-11-06.
  9. ^ "The BBC: Hundreds feared dead from Italy boat". 2013-10-03. Retrieved 2019-11-06.
  10. ^ Migrant deaths: 19,000 in Mediterranean in past 6 years. Infomigrants 2019-10-09.
  11. ^ "Lampedusa, l'uomo che non pesca più "Dovevo salvarli tutti, li rivedo affogare"". Corriere della Sera (in Italian). 2013-11-28. Retrieved 2019-11-06.
  12. ^ "Hundreds dead, missing as migrant boat sinks off Italy". Reuters. 2013-10-03. Retrieved 2019-11-06.
  13. ^ Chan, Sewell (2016-03-09). "Balkan Nations Shut Down March of Migrants". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-11-06.
  14. ^ "Refugees in Squalid Camp Plead for Help as Leaders Meet Over Borders". NBC News. Retrieved 2019-11-06.
  15. ^ "Giuseppina Nicolini, Mayor of Lampedusa, and SOS Méditerranée to be awarded Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize". UNESCO. 2017-04-19. Retrieved 2019-11-06.
  16. ^ "2016 – Spyridon Galinos and Giusi Nicolini | OLOF PALMES MINNESFOND" (in Swedish). Retrieved 2019-11-06.
  17. ^ "Refugees revive fading Italian villages". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 2019-11-06.
  18. ^ Pianigiani, Gaia (2017-07-17). "Mafia in Italy Siphons Huge Sums From Migrant Centers". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-11-06.
  19. ^ "Germany opens its gates to Syrian asylum-seekers". The Independent. 2015-08-24. Retrieved 2019-11-06.
  20. ^ Higgins, Andrew (2015-10-25). "European Leaders Look Again for a Unified Response to Migrant Crisis". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-11-06.
  21. ^ Povoledo, Elisabetta (2014-06-14). "Palace of Squatters Is a Symbol of Refugee Crisis". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-11-06.
  22. ^ "Out of Sight - Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Italy, informal settings and social marginalization" (PDF). Doctors without Borders.
  23. ^ "These 5 Countries Show How the European Far-Right Is Growing in Power". Time. Retrieved 2019-11-06.
  24. ^ AFI Docs Film Festival
  25. ^ Seattle International Film Festival
  26. ^ Berkshire International Film Festival
  27. ^ a b Cinema Village, NYC, Socially Relevant Film Festival NY
  28. ^ "It Will Be Chaos". Human Rights Film Festival Berlin. Retrieved 2019-01-22.
  29. ^ "It Will Be Chaos". Milano Film Festival 2018 (in Italian). Retrieved 2019-01-23.
  30. ^ Transitions Film Festival Melbourne
  31. ^ Cohn, Gabe (2018-06-18). "What's on TV Monday: The MTV Movie & TV Awards and the Monterey Pop Festival". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-11-06.
  32. ^ "It Will Be Chaos". HBO. Retrieved 2019-11-06.[permanent dead link]
  33. ^ HBO Nordic
  34. ^ Finland
  35. ^ HBO Latin America
  36. ^ 20 Minutos Mexico
  37. ^ ZIGGO - HBO The Netherlands
  38. ^ Shortcut Latvia
  39. ^ Brazil
  40. ^ Smits, K (28 June 2018). "Press Release: Addressing criminalisation of refugees and impunity of human trafficking". EEPA.
  41. ^ IRC - International Rescue Committee Film Series, San Diego
  42. ^ Ciclo de cine documental 'MER Migración, Exilio y Refugio'. Fundació Bayt al-Thaqafa.
  43. ^ "Movie Screening And Discussion With The Directors on European Migration Crisis | St. John's University". www.stjohns.edu. Retrieved 2019-01-23.
  44. ^ "Ecologies of Remembrance: The Material Afterlives of Unidentified Death along the Central Mediterranean Migration Route". Center for the Study of Social Difference, Columbia University. Retrieved 2019-01-23.
  45. ^ Johns Hopkins University
  46. ^ University of Washington - Center for Western European Studies
  47. ^ "Reisen, M.E.H. van". www.tilburguniversity.edu. Retrieved 2019-01-23.
  48. ^ "It Will Be Chaos". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved October 10, 2021.
  49. ^ Nevins, Jake (2018-06-18). "'A tale of two crises': a husband and wife document Europe's refugee crisis". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-11-06.
  50. ^ Ali, Lorraine. "'It Will Be Chaos': Personal stories of refugee crisis could not be more timely". latimes.com. Retrieved 2019-01-23.
  51. ^ "'It Will Be Chaos': Film Review | Seattle 2018". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2019-01-23.
  52. ^ "Legs and arms and other things - The Boston Globe". BostonGlobe.com. Retrieved 2019-01-23.
  53. ^ "Stand Up with Pete Dominick". petedominick. Retrieved 2019-01-23.
  54. ^ Canada, SiriusXM (2014-05-21). "SiriusXM Insight | SiriusXM Canada". SiriusXM. Retrieved 2019-01-23.
  55. ^ 152. Where You Gonna Run To? Lorena Luciano and Filippo Piscopo (documentary filmmakers) by Think Again, a Big Think Podcast, retrieved 2019-01-23
  56. ^ ""It will be chaos", il doc italiano che ha conquistato gli Usa - la Repubblica.it". Archivio - la Repubblica.it (in Italian). Retrieved 2019-01-25.
  57. ^ ""Sarà il caos". Il documentario Hbo sull'ondata migratoria realizzato da due italiani". Rainews (in Italian). Retrieved 2019-01-23.
  58. ^ "'Sarà il caos', la crisi dei migranti raccontata in prima persona". Rolling Stone Italia (in Italian). 2018-10-06. Retrieved 2019-01-23.
  59. ^ "Accademia del Cinema Italiano - Premi David di Donatello". www.daviddidonatello.it. Retrieved 2019-11-06.
  60. ^ Pianigiani, Gaia; Horowitz, Jason; Minder, Raphael (2018-06-11). "Italy's New Populist Government Turns Away Ship With 600 Migrants Aboard". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-01-23.
  61. ^ "64th Taormina Film Fest to Feature All-Female Jury". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2019-01-23.
  62. ^ etnalive, #64TFF 20 Luglio 2018 - Cerimonia di premiazione, retrieved 2019-01-23
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