Escaping Eritrea Explained

Director:	Evan Williams
Music:	Nicholas A. Phillips
Language:	English
Producer:	Evan Williams
Editor:	Deb Holland Bradley Manning
Cinematography:	Real footage
Runtime:	53 minutes
Company:	PBS Channel 4

Escaping Eritrea is a 2021 English documentary episode produced and directed by Evan Williams.^[1] The co-producers are Daffodil Altan, Priyanka Boghani, Daniel Edge, Max Green, Erika Howard, Michelle Mizner and Evan Williams. The real footage was taken by Michael, who was also a refugee from Eritrea who moved to Europe. He put the camera in a jacket pocket with a hole and began filming what was going on around him.^{[2] [3]}

The documentary based on the refugee crisis between 2015 and 2016 occurred across the Mediterranean where large groups coming across into Europe from Eritrea.^[4] It took five years for the investigations and some secretly documented footage inside a prison also included in the documentary.^[5] It made its television premier on 4 May 2021 on PBS through Frontline in United States and later telecast in Channel 4 in the United Kingdom.^{[6] [7]}

Cast

• Isias Afwerki - President of Eritrea (archive footage)
• Priyanka Boghani - Reporter
• Sarah Childress - Reporter
• Yemane Gebreab - Adviser to president of Eritrea (archive footage)
• Sheila B. Keetharuth - Former U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Eritrea
• Sophie Okonedo - Narrator (voice)
• Mike Smith - Chair Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in Eritrea (archive footage)
• Hanna Petros Solomon - Eritrean refugee and activist
• Evan Williams - Reporter
• Judy Woodruff
• Katie Worth - Reporter

Accolades

2021 Peabody Award Winner

Notes and References

1. Web site: Singh . Anita . 16 June 2021 . Undercover in Africa's Secret State: Dispatches, review: this report on Eritrea was truly brave journalism . 2 October 2021 . The Telegraph.
2. Web site: 'I Didn't Lose Hope': Meet a Man Who Risked His Life to Secretly Film Inside One of Eritrea's Brutal Prisons . 4 May 2021 . Patrice . Taddonio . 2 October 2021 . FRONTLINE.
3. Web site: 4 May 2021 . Escaping Eritrea: FRONTLINE . 2 October 2021.
4. Web site: Reflections on the documentary 'Escaping Eritrea' . Michael . Petros . 2 June 2021 . 2 October 2021 . One Day Seyoum.
5. Web site: 'Escaping Eritrea' Filmmaker Evan Williams Describes 'Phenomenal Sacrifice' of Eritreans Sneaking Footage Out of Country . Priyanka . Boghani . 4 May 2021. 2 October 2021 . FRONTLINE.
6. Web site: Escaping Eritrea . 2 October 2021 . FRONTLINE.
7. Web site: Escaping Eritrea . 2 October 2021 . pbsinternational.org.