Filmmaking as Survival: Powerful Stories from Refugees in Cairo

The scale of devastation in Gaza and Sudan can feel paralyzing. In our heartbreak, it’s easy to feel powerless. And yet, through With Wings an Roots’ relationships on the ground, we decided to take a small risk and offer an intervention: a mobile-phone filmmaking workshop for Sudanese and Palestinian refugees in Cairo. Could we create a space for storytelling, healing, and connection amid so much loss?

Together with Egyptian, Palestinian, and Sudanese colleagues, we made it happen. The project was led by filmmaker Manar El-Zohery, who had interned with us on our film FROM HERE’s impact campaign. She helped shape the concept, brought on partners including the Union of Egyptian Media Women and Jesuit Cultural Center, and we were thrilled to receive a micro-grant from IFA to make it possible. When she released the call for applications, we expected a few dozen responses — instead, 1,600 people applied.

Over three months, 25 participants met regularly in Cairo, learning filmmaking and impact-producing, while sharing what it means to live as refugees: the grief of war, the isolation, and the lack of opportunities even for children to play. Recognizing how much pain surfaced, Manar brought in an art-therapist to accompany the process.

Participants learned documentary storytelling using accessible technologies

Stories That Stayed With Us

One story I carry is from Khalil, who was caring for his chronically ill mother, supporting his wife through cancer treatment, and raising three children — all while surviving as a refugee. With the support of Manar, the other trainers and his peers, he completed his film. He has since been invited to speak on Egyptian and Palestinian television.

Others carried their films forward too: one received an award for her film from Al Jazeera, another joined an extended filmmaker training program, and another will see their work screened in Baghdad. Not everyone finished, but even those who didn’t have stayed connected — building a community that endures.

Workshop participant Khalil

Why This Matters

My connection to Sudan goes back to 2001, when my mother and I supported the welcome of young Sudanese refugees to Seattle who had been separated from their families. We watched young men who had survived genocide and refugee camps struggle against structural barriers in the U.S. It was a stark lesson: fleeing war is just the beginning.

What I saw in Cairo echoed that lesson. To survive is one thing. To feel alive again — to create, to connect, to tell your own story — requires community, courage, and solidarity. The overwhelming number of applicants shows just how deep the need for spaces like this runs.

Participant Jumana Mallah’s film won 3rd place in the Al Jazeera Youth Filmmaker Award!

Looking Forward

We write in a precarious moment — with a tentative ceasefire and an end to fighting, yet civilians in Gaza and Sudan still face unimaginable risk, and famine in Sudan continues in near silence.
We are deeply grateful for any movement toward a lasting peace — a moment when the basic right to live and to tell one’s story might be restored, however briefly. And we know that surviving is not enough.

This workshop was possible through a small grant, but most of the work was carried by volunteers. Even without stipends or equipment, the participants created films and community that exceeded anything we imagined.

For us at With Wings and Roots, this was just the beginning. We want to continue holding workshops in Cairo that offer refugee filmmakers both tools and solidarity — and bring their stories to audiences across the world.

👉 Support Khalil and his family
👉 Donate to future Cairo workshops
👉 Host a screening of short films from Stories of Displacement and Belonging

Because in times like these — when violence and famine dominate the headlines — even the smallest acts of storytelling can also be acts of survival.

Workshop Participants with their certificates following the completion of the program