Description
Nominated for a 2021 Oscar®, HUNGER WARD is the third film in the Refugee Trilogy by 2x Oscar® & Emmy® nominated director Skye Fitzgerald. Filmed from inside two of the most active therapeutic feeding centers in Yemen, HUNGER WARD documents two women health care workers fighting to thwart the spread of starvation against the backdrop of a forgotten war. The film provides an unflinching portrait of Dr. Aida Alsadeeq and Nurse Mekkia Mahdi as they work to save the lives of hunger-stricken children within a population on the brink of famine. With unprecedented access within a sensitive conflict-zone, HUNGER WARD reveals a world of bravery and commitment-to-care for war-stricken children amidst desperate need.
Director Biography – Skye Fitzgerald
Fitzgerald is currently directing a trilogy of films on the global refugee and IDP crisis. The first, 50 FEET FROM SYRIA focused on doctors working on the Syrian border and was voted onto the Oscar® shortlist.
The second, LIFEBOAT documents Search and Rescue operations off the coast of Libya and was nominated for an Academy Award® and national Emmy®. The third, HUNGER WARD, just completed post.
As a Fulbright Research Scholar Fitzgerald directed the film Bombhunters and has worked with the Sundance Institute, the U.S. Institute of Peace, the State Department, the Paul Robeson Fund and Mountainfilm. As a Director of Photography, Fitzgerald lenses work for major clients including Dateline, VICE, Mercy Corps, CNN, the Discovery, Travel, History and Animal Planet Channels. Fitzgerald was recently inducted as an honorary member into SAMS (Syrian American Medical Society) for his work with Syrian refugees and named a Distinguished Alumnus at his alma mater EOU for documentary work.
Fitzgerald is a member of the Documentary Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Director Statement
I believe that the most compelling films often emerge from a deep and abiding belief that – simply put – they must be done. But is a passion to tell a compelling story and the craftsmanship to execute it enough? Five years ago, I decided it wasn’t.
Despite a career of producing and directing documentary films that I felt were compelling statements on contemporary issues of our time, I came to believe they were not reaching a great enough audience nor activating sufficient change.
So I changed my approach to center on a single, core principle: empathy. I believe that if we can generate empathy for others it becomes exceedingly difficult to create barriers. I call this approach Humanitarian Cinema and focused my next two films on studying the global refugee and displaced persons crisis with a cinematic eye and rendering films capable of eliciting empathy for the burgeoning refugee and IDP (internally displaced person) community.
The first two films of this Humanitarian Cinema trilogy were 50 Feet from Syria and LIFEBOAT. HUNGER WARD is the third and is borne out of a sense of urgency at the sustained civilian suffering caused by the human-caused famine in Yemen.
The film documents the human cost of the on-going conflict in the country and will serve to catalyze debate surrounding a largely forgotten war.
We are striving to create a film that activates both the heart and the intellect while simultaneously laying bare American complicity in the current civilian deaths in Yemen. We believe bringing to an audience the specter of a human-caused, preventable famine made possible by American tax dollars will ultimately strengthen the call for legislative reform surrounding U.S. military assistance to the Middle East.
Credits
Skye Fitzgerald
Director
LIFEBOAT, 50 Feet from Syria, Finding Face, Bombhunters
Mike Scheuerman
Producer
N/A
Skye Fitzgerald
Producer
LIFEBOAT, 50 Feet from Syria, Finding Face, Bombhunters
William Campbell
Composer
LIFEBOAT, 50 Feet from Syria, Finding Face, Bombhunters
Dan Sadowsky
Editor
LIFEBOAT, 50 Feet from Syria
Specifications
Project Type: Documentary
Runtime: 40 minutes
Completion Date: October 1, 2020
Country of Origin: United States
Country of Filming: Yemen
Language: Arabic, English
Shooting Format: Digital, 6/5/4k + 1080
Aspect Ratio: 2:35
Film Color: Color
First-time Filmmaker: No
Student Project: No
