Documentary by NUQ Reporting Fellows Selected for 1905 International Human Rights Film Festival

The Pulitzer Center-supported documentary Home to Home: How a Yemini refugee Found Love in South Korea by 2019 Reporting Fellows Juyoung Choi and Saad Ejaz has been selected to appear in the 1905 International Human Rights Film Festival.

Choi and Ejaz's documentary follows the journey of Mohammed Ameen, one of 561 refugees who made their way to Jeju Island, South Korea, in 2018 after fleeing the Yemeni Civil War. Ameen fled to the island directly from Malaysia, after living conditions for refugees worsened in the country. On Jeju, Mohammed began work as a chef for Ha Min-Kyung, who had opened a halal restaurant for Yemeni refugees. The two eventually fell in love and are now married.

Choi and Ejaz are both students at Pulitzer Center Campus Consortium member Northwestern University in Qatar. Choi is a communications major and aspiring documentary filmmaker who hopes to cover issues of truth and healing amongst marginalized communities. Ejaz is a journalism major who has reported extensively on blue collar workers from South Asia and East Africa in Gulf and whose reporting interests include the intersection of migration and labor. 

The 1905 International Human Rights Film Festival was established in Hong Kong in 2016 with the mission to promote human rights awareness through screening feature films, documentaries, and short films from across the globe. As part of the Human Rights Film Network (HRFN), the festival hopes to build a platform in the Asia-Pacific region for filmmakers to share their stories and facilitate conversations about human rights. To learn more about HRFN and its festivals, click here.

Editor's note: This post was updated on August 29, 2020.