Life Jacket, The Story Behind the Award-winning Documentary

In the summer of 2018, Beyond Borders launched our educational ministry on the island of Lesvos in Greece. This same month, the filming of the documentary, Life Jacket, also began. Faten AlFaraj, a Jordanian Canadian film maker, had approached Beyond Borders about her dream to shoot a film that would help people better understand the plight of refugees. Together we stepped out in faith and trusted God to help us advocate for refugees to share their story, emphasizing the need for education for refugee children and helping people to see those fleeing war as our brothers and sisters.

And God did just that! A week prior to shooting the film in Greece, we were still assembling a crew. In miraculous ways, God provided all the film equipment and the team. Once on the island of Lesvos, God opened doors for relationships with those who had fled their homelands. Our Arabic speaking friends articulated that it was healing to share their story in their own language, as there were few Arabic speakers on the island. In addition to being a native Arabic speaker, Faten’s presence, empathy, and compassion provided people with the safety they needed to share their stories with the world.

Phase 1 of production was only the beginning of our faith journey. God miraculously provided funds for the editing of the film by a stellar team.

Here’s a sampling of awards for Life Jacket:

• Won: Best Documentary Award (Canadian International Faith and Family Film Festival, 2019)
• Won: Best Justice Film (Content2021 Film Festival)
• Won: Best Documentary & Best Picture (Indo-American International Festival of World Cinema)
• Won: Merit Award (Christian Family Film Festival)
• Nominated for: for Best Documentary, Best Director, Most Creative Documentary, Best First Time Filmmaker, Best Music score, Best Cinematography and Best Picture. (Multiple prestigious Film Festivals)

Another highlight was having the film showcased in Faten’s home country, Jordan, and having the film endorsed by the Crown Prince and Princess of Jordan.

Beyond Borders planned to premiere the film in June 2020; however, the pandemic made this a challenge. Instead, we hosted over 15 virtual screenings of the film. Yet we desired to find a larger audience. Our hope was always that God would use Life Jacket to help humanize our dear brothers and sisters seeking asylum and refuge. We wanted people to see refugees as people, not statistics or those to be feared, rather as human beings made in the image of God. People who desire the same things every human being desires, including the opportunity for their children to be educated.

Beyond Borders hoped to recruit someone who would dedicate their time to supporting the distribution of Life Jacket and hosting events, however with limited staff this has been a challenge.

When the notorious Camp Moria burned to the ground in the fall of 2020, we realized that this film documents a part of history that should not be forgotten.

Faten continued to explore distribution options. Last year we had the wonderful news that SAT-7 would translate the film into other languages: Arabic, Turkish and Farsi and distribute it on their channel. Then, in the end of July, we received the wonderful news that Life Jacket is available to watch on Amazon! It was always our dream to have a platform like Amazon or Netflix distribute Life Jacket.

With God nothing is impossible! This has been the story behind Life Jacket, which started with a group of 3 big dreamers, who had few resources but a lot of faith in God.

Check out Life Jacket on Amazon!