Chasing Asylum

Angry and frustrated with Australia’s asylum seeker and refugee policies, Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Eva Orner returned home after a decade living in the United States to make a documentary, Chasing Asylum, about the issue.

Embarking on a tumultuous eighteen months, Eva travelled to Indonesia, Cambodia, Lebanon, Afghanistan and Iran, spending time with and filming asylum seekers, as well as interviewing politicians, activists and commentators including David Marr and Malcolm Fraser.

She smuggled a pen camera into an Indonesian jail to interview a convicted people smuggler, she talked to whistleblowers in Australia, and in Iran she met the family of the man killed in the Manus Island riot.

Chasing Asylum is a compelling insight into a filmmaker’s journey, and a very personal story of the cost, risks and rewards of putting yourself on the line for a film and for a cause.