Photo: Michael Jessurun
At Cinekid 2020, Youtuber Quinty Misiedjan premiered her documentary Marked for Life, made in collaboration with the NGO War Child for whom she is an ambassador. The film explores the lives of refugee children, and seeks to find out how they can retain any sense of joy, resolve or passion against a backdrop of uncertainty, fear and violence.
The documentary Marked for Life was made as a response to Quinty Misiedjan’s (aka Quinsding) craving for answers to a number of fundamental questions. Is it possible to ever again have a care-free childhood if you’ve had to flee your home as a young refugee? How is it possible to even keep on going when both the present and future seem so bleak? How can you cope with the terrible things you should never have to see or experience? What is it like to live in a place that is totally alien to you and where you know no one?
In seeking answers, the YouTuber, presenter and War Child ambassador travelled to Jordan and Colombia, as well as to an asylum-seekers’ centre in the Netherlands, firstly to hear and then to tell the personal stories of the young refugees. She visited War Child projects in which sports, games and creative methods serve to strengthen children’s resilience. These visits made a profound impression on Quinty. “In Jordan we ended up in a camp where people really had nothing,” she says, further observing. “We can give people so much more than this.”
Surprisingly, or maybe not so surprisingly, what many of the refugee kids exhibit is an extraordinary sense of resilience, vitality and genuine lust for life. “You would think that their escape from armed conflict would scar these children for life,” says Quinty. “Yet the sooner they get the right help, the sooner they pick up their lives.”
The film is positive and life affirming and seeks to present the children in an altogether new light. The personal stories that Quinty tells highlight the innate strength of refugee children across the world. “Documentaries about refugee children are always told as if these children are victims with no hope for the future,” Quinty explains. “The reality is that these children are extremely powerful.”
Yet Quinty was, and is, aware that the perception of refugees by many in the West is far from positive. “If your only reference to refugees is what you see in the media then you are going to think badly of them,” she says. “That was one thing I wanted to change and bring to light.”
“When they spoke about the horrible things they went through it made it more real for me. It wasn’t just me going in for an interview and then leaving. I wanted to get to know them so I could bring pieces of their personalities into the film,” she adds. “I’m also a bit of a realist. I know that I can change things right now. The thing that is in my power [as a popular Youtuber] is to tell their stories and to look them in the eyes and say ‘I will advocate for you’.”
The film world-premiered at Cinekid October 12. From 18 to 22 October the documentary was set to be screened in five cinemas in Eindhoven, Alkmaar, Hilversum, Hoorn and Vlaardingen, but this was rendered impossible after renewed lockdown restrictions were imposed in The Netherlands. The doc will be available to view on the YouTube channel of Quinty Misiedjan (@Quinsding) before November 1.
“It’s particularly important now that we in the Netherlands receive more children from areas of violence and armed conflict,” Quinty underlines. “More people should see the real stories of these children.”
This article first appeared in See NL online, October 2020, published by Eye and the Netherlands Film Fund.
