“I don’t understand how you could ban a man
from a land that was said to be a beacon of light
for men escaping the plight of tyranny
and the weary poverty stricken children who are sincerely
innocent to the bombs that dropped on their cities
that caused disfigurement and injuries
or the women who seek education and medicine
but are spiritually oppressed by those who don’t understand
the prophet’s teachings clearly
As the yearly death toll rises in Syria
creating more refugees, how can we dispute the truth
that the seeds of man all fall down from the same tree?”
These lyrics are from RZA of Wu-Tang Clan in the politically pressing single “No Refuge,” a collaboration with PARISI – the emerging electronic duo of Marco and Jack Parisi.
The lyrics are from a new music single “No Refuge.” The single is a collaboration from Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA and musical duo PARISI takes on the politically charged issue of refugees around the world. No Refuge is the breakout single from the artists that was filmed by Ben Strebel of Sovage and Feh Tarty of creative consulting agency Stay in School.
“I wanted to create a film that showed each individual on a journey forced upon them, ceaseless, restless and without a destination in sight,” Ben Strebel said. “My interpretation of the song drew on the personal history of forced migration that my family experienced 60 years ago.”
The video depicts a group of people moving across a misty landscape that could be anywhere. The group breaks into a syncopated dance, looping the endless and seemingly hopeless movement of people displaced from their homes.
“Every year, especially in the summer, refugees from the Middle East and north Africa cross the Mediterranean from north Africa and land in southern Italy — not far from our home town of Salerno,” Marco and Jack Parisi, the brothers behind the song, said via email. “As a country and as a family, we do our best to help and welcome everybody, but it becomes more difficult every day to manage the situation properly.”
The single premiers on Zane Lowe’s show on Beats 1 and is immediately available on iTunes, Apple Music, and Beats 1. From March 28 it will be available on Spotify, Deezer and other platforms to maximise donations.
DIVERGE talked to Feh Tarty, Founder and Creative Partner at Stay in School and native of war-torn Liberia, to find out more:
Why is helping refugees so important?
We were hired by ROLI Records to develop the identity, social media platform, and debut music video for sibling duo PARISI – Jack and Marco Parisi – multi-instrumentalist and producers from originally from Salerno, Italy.
When we received the track, which was just an instrumental at the time, we develop a detailed brief for directors that aligned with the vibe of track, the brothers, and our ethos at Stay in School. The treatment that stuck out the most came from Sovage’s Ben Strebel who initiated the idea of signaling the crisis we were seeing across Europe. The melancholy of the melodic whistle in the music triggered a image of people trudging along while humming in order to lift their spirits. That drew an immediate connection to not only to the crisis on TV, but also the history of the forced migration his family experienced 60 years ago. His interpretation for the song was brave, beautiful and powerful. However, we were extremely cautious not to undermine the plight of these families as it can easily go horribly wrong. Most of my family, siblings included, were caught up in Liberia’s brutal civil war – some persevered and others managed to escape to refugee camps in neighboring eventually and joining the rest of us in the US. Pulling from those experiences, we were able to work through the treatment in order to ensure the delicacy of the issue was handled compassionately.
Having spent quite a bit of time with PARISI, we felt they too would connect with this narrative as Italy has been on the front lines of the refugee migration for quite some time.
Was this emotionally a difficult song to write and shoot?
We experienced a serious of different emotions depending on the context of where we were in the process. We shot the film about fifty miles outside of Paris in an open field. It was bit cold, wet, and we had loads of shots to cover as it was one of the shortest days of year so it was very demanding on the dancers. Not one of ever uttered any complaint. Probably because they all knew at the of the day, they’d be going home.
What is the message you hope people take away from this?
This film about ensuring our focus on humanity does get lost within this crisis. It’s families looking for a better situation than where they came from.
Why did you choose the UNHCR to donate to?
We try to deliver on more than awareness within our work. We thought it was important to connect with the issue in the real world and fortunately, the team at ROLI Records felt the same. Initially they looked at a few organizations to donate proceeds to, but decided on the UNHRC as they have a strong presence on front lines of this particular issue.
CLIENT: ROLI Records
AGENCY: Stay in School
EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Feh Tarty
CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Russell Weekes
PROJECT DIRECTOR: Swee Lyn Nah
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Sovage
DIRECTOR: Ben Strebel
PRODUCER: Willy Morence
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Victor Seguin
CHOREGRAPHER: Fanny Sage
EDITOR: Ben Strebel
SONG: “No Refuge” PARISI feat. RZA
POST PRODUCTION: MPC et Firm
COLOURIST: Houmam Abdallah
SOUND DESIGN: THE
