On June 10, 2018 at 7:21:56 PM, More Raca wrote:
Dear Caroline and FilmAid team,
I am really happy to be writing you after find your contact. It is a joy to finally know who were the people that had this impact on my childhood and from whom I was inspired to follow a career as a filmmaker. You and Film Aid International have had a great impact on my life.
I was six years old when I and my family had to leave our home in Kosovo and we became refugees in Macedonia. I remember thinking about my classroom and my classmates. I remember seeing my mom sad and depressed while holding my hand, she was 26 the same age that I am today and my dad holding my 2-year-old brother in his arms. When we were sent to the camp in Macedonia, people were silent and no one speaks about the terror that has happened. There were many people but I was feeling lonely and sad. I missed my toys and my friends, I missed someone who could smile at me, and all I was seeing was sad and desperate faces. Then some magic happened, more than anything in the world I needed magic and that was brought to me by a projector that I recently found out that brought to Macedonia. I was seeing cartoons and Charlie Chaplin movie, and for a while, there was a feeling that things will be alright, a feeling that I wasn’t alone. For a while I was happy and the entire trauma that we went through went away. It was just me and the character of the film.
Growing up that had an impact on my life. I knew and felt the power of film to change people’s lives and to heal wounds that nothing else can heal. It was this impact that you had in my childhood, this escape that you offered me, this magic in those times of terror that made me want to become a film director.
Today I make films to change people’s perspective on life, to make them aware of different issues, to advocate for their rights. I try to give voice to those who cannot tell their stories. I also work as a lecturer and teach young people the power of film.
Films are magic and I should thank you for showing that to a six-year-old refugee girl from Kosovo in 1999.
Forever thankful,
More Raça.
Film Director and human rights activist
More Raça | Writer and director