Sanctuary, Purgatory

Abstract

Sanctuary, Purgatory is the result of research in South Korea on a small group of Yemeni refugees who arrived there in 2018. The com- pleted project is a short documentary film that combines elements of cinema verite while also incorporating elements of the personal documentary. Interviews, verite footage, archives, and video conferencing footage from Zoom create the visual language of the film. The film focuses on one Yemeni refugee named Omar Alwahaishi who is stuck in South Korea on a temporary visa, while his wife and kids remain in Yemen and his parents are living in the United States. Themes of the film include migration, refugee issues, human rights, friendship, family reunification. The project also brings into questions about filmmakers inserting themselves into the frame of the documentary and issues around the boundaries between filmmakers and protagonists. The film is presented and viewed through an installation at the Stamps Gallery on the campus of the University of Michigan. The installation is an enclosed theater space that allows viewers an unobstructed manner to watch the film. The film is followed by a pre-recorded Q and A led by Angela Yoonjeong McClean a postdoctoral fellow in Sociology at the Nam Center for Korean Studies at the University of Michigan, whose research interests include international and forced migration and includes myself, Omar Alwahaishi, and Il Lee. The film is 36 minutes and the Q and A is 24 minutes long for a one-hour viewing experience. This thesis paper will include a discussion of the historical, political, cultural, and creative contexts of my project. I will also discuss my process and methodology and reflections on the experience of creating this project.