Created in 2003, FiSahara is a joint initiative conceived by the Sahrawi refugee community, the Spanish solidarity movement and Spanish filmmakers. It has since become an international collaborative effort, drawing partners, volunteers and participants from many countries.
FiSahara has brought film and filmmaking to the Sahrawi refugee community, introducing it as a tool for entertainment, empowerment and social change. Since its creation, hundreds of films have screened, dozens of young people have trained at the audiovisual workshops and countless projects and collaborations have been generated between participants and Sahrawis.
Sahrawis are struggling to preserve their cultural identity, a key to their survival as a people. FiSahara provides audiovisual tools to help preserve and showcase Sahrawi identity, allowing Sahrawis to make films about their own reality and screen them to a local and international audience.
Film also serves as a tool to connect the Sahrawi people with movements for social change, from human rights groups to organizations working on gender equality, health, education and many other important issues.
FiSahara is not just about film. The festival aims to draw international attention to the plight of the Sahrawis or indigenous peoples of the Western Sahara, half of whom live as refugees in Algeria and the other half under a brutal Moroccan occupation. Since 1991 when the United Nations promised a referendum on self-determination in 1991, Sahrawi people are waiting for justice. Key international players such as the United States, France and Spain (the former colonial power) have stalled on finding a solution to the conflict.
A strategic aspect of FiSahara is attracting international visitors, a lifeline for Sahrawis, who live in isolation due to the remoteness of the camps and the indifference of the international community towards their plight. The festival has hosted numerous filmmakers such as Javier Bardem and Guy Davidi (5 Broken Cameras), as well as writers like Eduardo Galeano and many others.
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