Shelter without Shelter: Online screening + discussion with directors Tom Scott-Smith and Mark Breeze

Co-Sponsored by McGill Refugee Research Group and ISID

Shelter Without Shelter explores the hopes and challenges involved in providing temporary housing for refugees. Filmed over three years since 2015, this six-part documentary investigates how forced migrants from Syria were sheltered across Europe and the Middle East, ending up in mega-camps, city squats, occupied airports, illegal settlements, requisitioned buildings, flat-pack structures, and enormous architect-designed reception centres. Containing perspectives from the humanitarians who created these shelters as well as the critics who campaigned against them, the documentary reveals the complex dilemmas involved in attempts to house refugees in emergency conditions. Based on research at the University of Oxford’s Refugee Studies Centre, Shelter Without Shelter offers new insights into a universal human experience. We all need shelter, but what is it?

TO ATTEND: 

1) Register at McGill Refugee Research Group for free to access the full documentary.
2) Join us on Feb 3rd at 4:00 PM (EST) for a screening of selected clips and a live discussion with the directors Mark E. Breeze and Tom Scott-Smith.

DIRECTOR BIOS:

Mark E Breeze is a licensed architect and an Emmy-nominated documentary filmmaker who combines interdisciplinary practice, research (University of Cambridge Sustainable Shelter Group), teaching (Architectural Association), and environmental design advocacy (American Institute of Architects' UK Sustainability Chair). His current work explores the theories, practices, and forms of human sheltering.

Tom Scott-Smith is Associate Professor of Refugee Studies and Forced Migration at the University of Oxford. He specialises in the ethnographic and historical study of humanitarian relief, with a focus on nutrition and shelter. His book, On an Empty Stomach: Two Hundred Years of Hunger Relief, is published by Cornell University Press.