The endlessly graceful Vanessa Redgrave, CBE for @HelpRefugeesUK | part of my portrait photo-composite series for the #CHOOSELOVE winter campaign. These photos were made by blending portraits I shot at @SpringStudios, with on-location reportage work I made in Lesvos, Greece for the @RefugeProject. Thanks for following along! #HumanPortraits (at Magna Carta)

Choose Love | @AlfieAllen for @HelpRefugeesUK // Part of my portrait photo-composite series for the #CHOOSELOVE winter campaign, featuring a group of incredible activists, actors, and refugees speaking out together. Watch the film if you haven’t had a chance yet, it was a pleasure working with everyone involved every step of the way. #HumanPortraits (at Magna Carta)

Thanks for the love today @VIMEO | #RefugeProject x #StaffPick (Link in bio to watch the full film) (at Magna Carta)

REFUGE is now live online, worldwide. These stories are more important now than ever, and so if this film means something to you, if you learn something from this project, then help us share these stories. That’s how we start making a difference. | Watch it here: bit.ly/22quk5Q | #RefugeProject (at Magna Carta)

A video posted by MATTHEW K. FIRPO (@matthewkfirpo) on Dec 14, 2016 at 12:00pm PST

It’s my great honor today to share REFUGE with the world!

@TheRefugeProject is a short documentary chronicling human stories from the Syrian refugee crisis, focused on humanity and hope. Here’s a short excerpt from the film - with a link to the full film in my bio. Thank you all for your continued support! #RefugeProject (at Mytilene, Lesvos, Greece)

YARRA’S STORY | 39.1333° N, 26.5166° E // Settling in for the long dark, Yarra and her family of nearly 15 do their best to stay warm as temperatures drop across Europe. It’s one of those beautiful anomalies of youth that children can enjoy themselves even in dire situations - and indeed, Yarra even seemed to be having fun. Racing to collect anything that would burn in a crowded camp that had already been stripped bare, Yarra made survival a game, and in that, she was winning. Only moments after sharing her family’s fire, she offered us food we couldn’t accept, and asked us in excited, simple English, “Where are you from?” Compassion runs deep here in a people who would offer everything, when they have so little of their own. And even as we moved on through the camp late into the night, finding new stories and new faces, we would catch glimpses of Yarra, hurrying from campfire to campfire, like a dream. #RefugeProject (at Mória, Lesvos, Greece)

JAMEEL & TAGHRID | Eleonas Refugee Camp, Athens // Let’s leave a legacy of children and of friends, who did not let themselves succumb to fear, but made the world a better place with their kindness and their decency. Who stood on the right side of history. Who chose love. #REFUGEPROJECT (at Eleonas Refugee Camp)

A video posted by MATTHEW K. FIRPO (@matthewkfirpo) on Dec 13, 2016 at 9:55am PST

“You don’t need permission to make a difference.” My film for @HelpRefugeesUK went live today, featuring an incredible group of refugees, activists, and actors coming together to #ChooseLove

This teaser showcases some of the film, which was an honor to write & direct for a cause I truly believe in. Thanks to the special people that helped make it happen @MaximilianGuen, @Stephen_Michael_Simon.mov, @J.R.Blann, @EMDell, and @SpringStudios

Thanks for following along on this journey! (at Magna Carta)

GHOSON’S STORY | Leros Refugee Camp, Greece // Possessed of great strength and great sorrow, Ghoson was emblematic of so many of the people we met and stories we were told. That they had fled after great loss, that they had the highest hopes for their children, that they faced an uncertain future. But in the face of so much, there was the necessity for bravery, in both spirit and appearances, and even as Ghoson broke into tears describing the loss of her husband and the things she’d left behind - we knew that she would push forward for the daughter’s that had become her life, and the idea of what the future held for them all. My favorite moment from our interview, was a rare moment of laughter - I asked Ghoson what she wished for her daughters, Fatima and Bahia (left and right), she answered, laughing: “I hope they become doctors!” #REFUGEPROJECT (at Lero, Dhodhekanisos, Greece)

MAJIDAH’S STORY | Refuge Release // For a woman that has lost so much, Majidah has only hope. Hope for her two daughter’s, hope for a future in the West, hope for a home safe from bombs and killing. In our interview, she told the story of the day she lost her husband - the explosion that rocked their neighborhood, the friend that told them not to go outside. Majidah explained that they had planned to flee the city for months, and always found another reason to delay. “I always used to tell him that if we didn’t leave, his daughters and I would end up alone. And in the end, that’s exactly what happened. Now, we’re alone.” Majidah now makes the journey west with her two teenage daughters, her wishes for her homeland are simple. “I would pray for Syria to be safe, to be stable…but our Syria’s gone now. It doesn’t exist anymore.” REFUGE releases live online this WEDNESDAY, thank you for following along as we share these stories. #REFUGEPROJECT (at Magna Carta)

HAMAD’S STORY | Kara Tepe Camp, Lesvos // [REFUGE goes live online next week, join us as we share stories from the film] Possessed of a grace that transcended language, Hamad was a peaceful man of simple desires. Born with a degenerative muscle condition, he’d been wheelchair-bound for the last four years, but was still determined to find a better life, somewhere away from the bombs and death. Setting out on his own across countries and continents, he made it to Turkey, to Ismir on the coast. Given the choice between leaving his wheelchair, or being left behind, Hamad climbed aboard the rubber zodiak on his hands and knees, roped aboard in a life-jacket that wouldn’t have been enough to keep him afloat. After three hours of prayers and the hum of the engines, Hamad finally found himself lifted out of the boat, and onto European soil. Days later, he found himself in the Kara Tepe Center for Refugees, preparing for the next stage of the journey to Athens. And @TheIRC even managed to find him a new wheelchair. He said it wasn’t as nice as his old one, but he wasn’t picky. Hamad has embarked on the most difficult journey of his life, all for the distant hope, that abroad he’ll have a better one. He explained: “In Syria, I was nothing. I have so much to offer the world, I just need the chance to prove it.” #RefugeProject (at Magna Carta)

REFUGE | Coming Soon // Almost a year ago today, I created the @RefugeProject with a small group of incredible people, determined to document human stories from the front lines of the refugee crisis. Now, after screenings and openings around the world, we’re preparing to release the project online next week. It’s been a powerful journey sharing these stories and bringing this project to life, follow along over the next 5 days as I share stories from Greece in the lead up to the release next Wednesday, December 14th. “Sanaa, 47, pictured here, shares her story of leaving Aleppo, and her struggle to find her husband.” #RefugeRelease (at Magna Carta)

Sentinel | Serengeti National Park // In the air and on the move this week, across continents, a few transatlantics, and back again West. Still remembering moments from the Great Rift Valley and the roof of Africa - here, a lone acacia stands sentinel against the perfect flatness of the Great Plains. Stay wild. #TheGreatRift (at Serengeti National Park, Tanzania)

Barranco Boys | CAMP 2 // Back on the move, incredibly thankful, presently intercontinental. But never not exploring. Meaningful days ahead. #TheGreatRift (at Barranco Wall, Mount Kilimanjaro (3983m))

Thanksgiving | Machame Trailhead // Surrounded yourself with people who make you better. Happy family time, folks! #TheGreatRift (at Machame, Kilimanjaro, Tanzania)

Cloud City | CAMP 3 // We feel small, we feel tall, we pursue greatness, we fail, we succeed mightily, with others, in good hands, towards the brotherhood of high places, gifted and given, full of that special spirit that means more than a single point of victory, we climb the mountains because they’re there, because our life is not a journey but a dancing, singing, kind of thing - a series of well-told stories around the embers of our youth, shared with our children’s smiling children. #TheGreatRift (at Kilimanjaro National Park)

Way Down | Stella Point, Kilimanjaro // Hucking scree at 18,000 feet, @Gersonian_ and the team takes the fastest way down the mountain. Kicking up plumes of dust, taking things heavy on the knees, we return to Camp 4 for the round trip. #TheGreatRift (at Kilimanjaro National Park)

Roar | CAMP 3 // In another life, we’d have been explorers. #TheGreatRift (at Kilimanjaro National Park)

False Auroras | CAMP 4 // Last light breaks apart on the crown of Kilimanjaro, casting warm shadows in the sky over the lesser peak, Mawenzi. Thin air offers a canvas for the sunlight, splitting into rays and false auroras for our benefit. This was our last sunset before the summit. #TheGreatRift (at Kilimanjaro National Park)

All Memory | Stella Point, Day 5 // The world goes faint at 19,000 feet. Distant mountains turn into suggestions, entire towns and civilizations are lost against an impenetrable roiling haze, and your vision narrows. But against a foreground of vast ancient glaciers that have stood against time for generations, you’re reminded of the present, of the summit, of the top. #TheGreatRift (at Mount Kilimanjaro)