Flipping the narrative of twenty-somethings backpacking through Europe to find themselves, Vineyarders Julia MacNelly and Tom Ellis are headed to Serbia to find others. Ms. MacNelly, 24, and Mr. Ellis, 26, will be leaving soon to spend a month filming in Serbia for their documentary Beyond the Headlines: Syrian Refugees in Serbia.
“This is history, this is happening now, it’s not going to happen again, I feel like I should get involved in some way,” said Ms. MacNelly in a recent interview. “These moments are your chance to be part of something huge that is going to shape the future of Europe.”
Hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing the Middle East, in particular Syria, have passed through Serbia this year, and thousands more remain there. These are the people Ms. MacNelly and Mr. Ellis are planning to meet and interview.
Though both were born on the Island, Ms. MacNelly and Mr. Ellis really became friends last year while talking about Russian politics and linguistics at the Martha’s Vineyard Chowder Company where Mr. Ellis worked as a bartender. They both had a deep interest in the politics of the Middle East, and Mr. Ellis has a background in filmmaking while Ms. MacNelly has connections to film festivals, a research background and a familiarity with Serbia. This is their first project together, which began when Ms. MacNelly was talking with Vera Mijojlic, founder and director for the South East European Film Festival (SEEfest) in Los Angeles, Calif.
Ms. Mijojlic, who is Serbian, mentioned that the number of refugees fleeing from Syria through Serbia was staggering and she couldn’t believe no one had done a documentary on it yet. Ms. MacNelly thought, why not me? She reached out to Mr. Ellis with a text asking: “Hey Tom, want to get involved in a documentary project, and also we’re going to show it at a festival and also we have to do it in a month?”
Mr. Ellis replied: “Yeah, what else am I doing? Shellfishing?”
Ms. Mijojlic and SEEfest agreed to produce the film. The filmmakers leave for Serbia on Jan. 5 and the documentary premieres in May at SEEfest. Ms. MacNelly and Mr. Ellis said the tight timeline gives the project structure. They want to focus on the human aspect of the refugee crisis rather than the broad headlines. Mr. Ellis said that by introducing people to refugees through the film, they will fight the ignorance that so often is a precursor to racism.
“Film is a very immersive experience,” he said. “When you are watching somebody and they are looking at you, you feel a connection. You cry when they cry. It’s almost an interactive experience.”
Their plan is to focus on the faces, the names and the stories of the refugees. Ms. MacNelly and Mr. Ellis are entering into the process knowing they will be emotionally subjective.
“We’re both expecting it to be a really emotional experience just because of the subject matter of the stories we think we’re going to hear, and hearing just what people have been through in general,” said Ms. MacNelly.
They are relying on contacts made while still in the states to introduce them around Serbia. Mr. Ellis said his friendships with Serbians living and working on the Vineyard have made the country more accessible and less daunting.
“A lot of the Serbians I work with and that I interact with are really helping out,” he said.
Ms. MacNelly has spent a lot of time in the Balkans, and she said the Island community helped her make that first step.
“In general the Island is this amazingly multi-cultural place, you can really benefit from it if you make an effort to meet and get to know the people who come to work here,” said Ms. MacNelly. “My first trip to southeastern Europe was to visit friends I had made here from Bulgaria. The Island can be really small and isolating, at the same time, I’ve made amazing connections here, and I think that’s the reason I was interested in the region in the first place.”
Although they are set to leave the country in just a few weeks the pair is still raising money through a crowd funding campaign. But already having a place to premiere the film has been a huge advantage, they said. After premiering in Los Angeles, the team hopes to show it on the Vineyard, as well as at DokuFest in Kosovo.
To learn more about the documentary and to contribute to financing the film visit indiegogo.com/projects/beyond-the-headlines-syrian-refugees-in-serbia/x/12981757#/
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