Season 1
6 episodes
11 min. per episode
Where to watch
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A passionate volunteer confronts her own fears while uniting diverse lives, transforming despair into hope and igniting social change.
Episodes
Istanbul - Turkey Owen, Bashar, and Yasu are from three different worlds, but in a city that straddles two continents, this blend of cultures seems all too natural. They are three of 8-10 musicians from America, Turkey, Kurdistan, Syria, and Europe who have come together in Istanbul to form the band Country For Syria. They each bring a unique style and voice to an eclectic group that highlights the oddly unsurprising coincidence that country western, Arabic, Turkish, and Kurdish music tend to sing about similar things. These three characters embody a crucial truth of the migrant crisis that is often ignored by the media; creating beauty and forging bonds in the midst of this chaos is not a miracle, it is a decision.
Berlin - Germany. It took a lot for Liann to leave Syria. He was a rapper, a boxer, and an active protester, but like many people, he left to protect his family, and himself. When he arrived in Germany, a guy beat-boxing on the streets of Berlin caught his ear. The next thing he knew he was in a drama workshop with Impulse organization, warming up to classical music and Ahmed's stern but playful instruction. This group of refugees, migrants, and volunteers draw from their experiences and create dramatic performances with social and political statements that they perform any chance they get. This group of young people has changed much in the years since its inception, some have come and gone, and some have stuck around. The space they have created together isn't perfect, but it is a space that highlights the critical distinction we must make between truly living, and simply not dying.
London - United Kingdom and Calais - France Tech is a relative newcomer to the refugee crisis, but its involvement has big implications across the board in the response to this situation. The most important thing is collaboration. Collaboration between those that are on the ground, and those that are in the office. Josephine is a co-founder of Techfugees, which works to bring together tech initiatives that create solutions to the crisis, and help them scale their solutions to meet these needs on a bigger scale. The Infobus is on the opposite side of the spectrum, it lives on the ground in the Calais Jungle refugee camp in northern France, it is a horse van outfitted as a massive hotspot run by two independent volunteers who live just outside the Jungle. This story shows the importance of collaboration between those working on the front lines and those coordinating from afar. Both are necessary to create lasting solutions to this crisis.
Bekaa Valley - Lebanon Hamida is 12 years old, she loves to sing. Sabine is a clown that works with children in refugee camps in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon. The project she started called Caravan helps refugees build a story, any story they want, and then records them reading it. The process culminates in an interpretive performance of the story which is performed on the streets and in the camps. The problem is, Hamida has trouble reading. She stutters when she reads, making her story hard to follow. This is the story of how these two ladies worked together to find a solution.
Istanbul - Turkey The migrant crisis and humanity's response to it differs from place to place. In Greece almost all refugees are in camps run by the military, with NGOs and volunteers helping where and when they can. In Turkey, 90% of migrants are outside of camps. No one relies on the government to help, there is no large scale solution being applied nationwide. In Turkey, the solution comes from below, in the form of community centers like the ones developed by Small Projects Istanbul. They are a collective response of the Turkish and international population to a crisis without a solution. Solidarity is their answer. Neighborhoods opened associations to reach out to newcomers, cafes just like Komsu Kafe, or bookstores opened to welcome people of all walks of life, advocating for collaborative existence based on equality. In these places Syrians are not refugees, they are not coming to receive free services because of their unfortunate circumstances. They are coming as equals, to drink coffee, play football, make art, to work. They come to these places just like everyone else does, to carve out a small slice of life for them to enjoy. These community centers make no political statements, their very existence says enough.
Waynak began as a documentary series to change the narrative on the refugee 'crisis' by telling collaborative and inspiring stories of people working together across the world's refugee, host, and volunteer populations. This series turned into a movement when it was implemented into the 30,000 strong volunteer community of MakeSense, a Paris-based social entrepreneur incubator. These stories served as the centerpiece for screenings, hackathons, hold-ups, all designed to facilitate collaboration and innovation in solving the most pressing issues in the refugee 'crisis'. This movement addresses the key issues that stand in the way of so many potential change-makers. First, it uses these inspiring stories to change people's understanding of this 'crisis' from one of hopelessness to one of opportunity. Then, more importantly, at that crucial moment of inspiration they find themselves in after watching these episodes, it shows them that taking action can come in many forms, and within their current life-structure. The barrier of entry to this 'crisis' is a house of cards built by sensationalist coverage. Waynak shatters this illusion and brings people together in what we call the migration 'movement'.