The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network in Albania on February 13 staged the premiere of its documentary New Wave in Tirana. More than 100 people – some of the standing – gathered at the Agimi Art Center for the screening, including members of the diplomatic corps, activists, journalists and filmmakers.
The documentary, produced in cooperation with Barraka Production and directed by award-winning director, Elton Baxhaku, explores the push factors behind Albania’s latest migration wave toward the European Union and the United Kingdom.
It includes interviews with people from different walks of life and different regions of the country, as well as experts and academics that study migration and its impact on individuals, families and society, in an attempt to explain what is pushing so many to migrate and what this means for the Albania and its future.
Elton Baxhaku is an Albanian filmmaker best known for his 2014
documentary Skandal, the 2016 documentary Selita, which was co-directed by Eriona Çami, and Free Flow in 2018.
The documentary was produced as part of the project “Using Big Data and Multimedia to Boost Quality and Independent Journalism in Albania”, which is supported by the European Union and the Swedish government and implemented by BIRN Albania.
The project worked to create an enabling environment for Albanian journalists to produce independent content through training, mentoring, technical and financial support, in close cooperation with civil society, so improving freedom of expression and strengthening media pluralism in Albania.
In the next few months BIRN Albania will take the documentary on the road and hold screenings in several Albanian cities and towns, which are considered as ground zero for the latest migration wave.