Refocus Media Labs

The ReFOCUS Media Labs on Lesvos in Greece provides a safe space for refugee artists to train on professional tools, develop media creation skills, create professional portfolios and present their creativity to the world. Courses in photography, video production, sound engineering and graphic design are offered alongside open studio time for those with existing skills.

Where: Lesvos, Greece

When: 01.08. - 31.12.2023

With: Choose Love/Prism, Sea Watch / Stiftungsfond Zivile Seenotrettung, #LeaveNoOneBehind, BBC Panorama, BBC NewsNight, SRF Rundschau, Swiss National TV/Radio, SBS Australia, One Happy Family Community Center, Shared_Studios

Designed to “take them out of the camp, both mentally and physically”, Refocus program has been evolving from humble beginnings in 2017. The success they've had since has been built by developing a family of media creators who help one another learn and co-create. Beyond access to tools and teaching artists who help train, Refocus Media Labs provide a necessary safe space for students to explore the arts and express themselves.

The media lab offers organized courses on multiple skill levels in core media creation workflows including studio photography, filmmaking, video editing, sound engineering, podcasting, graphic design and photographic printing. The media lab will not only ensure that new students develop and advance professional media creation skills, but will also provide employment for numerous teaching artists from within our refugee community.  

The open studio hours also serve as a free creative space for any refugee artist on the island to make their own media within a safe, inclusive and professionally equipped environment. By providing beneficiaries the space and tools to make their voices heard, develop their own stories and further report on the challenges they face, the media lab will reactivate an engaged artistic and open-minded community.

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Podcast: Fractured

A collaboration between ReFOCUS Media Labs and Mixed Migration-Hebo, FRACTURED is a critical analyses of the most important events as well as political and social challenges related to the refugee crisis and migration flows in the world with a special focus on Europe. Every few weeks the hosts, Sonia Nandzik-Herman and Joel Hernandez present a special episode directly from a place of crisis. The first episode Afghanistan and Ukrainelooks at the situation in Afganistan 6 months after the Taliban took power. It also looks at how Europe will respond to the influx of refugees from Ukraine. In the second episode Leaving Ukraine you can listen to Ksenia and Evans, just two of a massive wave of people who have fled Ukraine in the first phase of the conflict. The third episode Pushbacks takes us deep into the practice of illegal pushbacks on the Aegean. In the fourth episode From Lviv, Ukraine you can listen to two residents of Lviv: Kristina and Taras who discuss the war situation as well as everybody life in the city. In the fifth episode of Fractured titled EU's Conflicted Refugee Responses Joel Hernandez explains what is so special about the plight of Ukrainians in Europe and why no other nation has ever received similar treatment.

ReFOCUS has always been focused on the future, and to date has trained hundreds of asylum seekers and recognized refugees in the creative and journalistic arts. Collaborations with international mainstream media partners, feature film productions, representation at professional conferences, film festivals and advocacy campaigns all provide ample opportunities for their students to apply and advance their skills. But it all comes back to the community they’ve built. Long after their time on Lesvos it is not the cameras, lights and computers they miss, but rather the growing family of creatives that they long to remain connected to.

"...and here we are!"

A film about ReFOCUS Media Labs and their students by Katja Riemann, available on Art2, 2021

ReFOCUS Media Labs was founded in 2018 in Moria to teach young people in the refugee camp how to use cameras and film cameras to produce their own reports and fictional films. Meanwhile Refocus workw together with international broadcasters such as Al Jazeera and the BBC.