David Fedele is one of documentary filmmaking’s most consistently independent voices. His five films are now part of the Dancing Turtle catalogue.
Fedele has spent the past fifteen years making films in some of the world’s most challenging and least-documented environments, from the mountains of northern Morocco to the e-waste dump sites of Ghana, and deep into the rainforests of Papua New Guinea. His work explores the human stories behind refugee migration, environmental destruction, and the consequences of global consumption, always independently produced and always from the inside.
The five films now available are:
This Jungo Life (2024, 78 mins) follows young refugees and asylum seekers from Sudan and South Sudan living rough on the streets of Rabat, Morocco. Produced in collaboration with the refugees themselves and filmed entirely on smartphones, it won five international awards including the Grand Prize for Best International Documentary at Festiwal Filmowy NNW in Poland.
Revenir (To Return) (2018, 77 mins) follows Kumut Imesh — a refugee from the Ivory Coast now living in France — as he retraces his own migration route across Africa with a camera. A unique collaboration between filmmaker and refugee, it won the Jury Prize at the Document Human Rights Film Festival in Glasgow.
The Land Between (2014, 78 mins) offers intimate access to Sub-Saharan African migrants living in the mountains of northern Morocco, dreaming of crossing into Europe. It won five international awards including Best Feature-length Documentary at the FIFE International Environmental Film Festival in Paris, and was screened at the European Parliament in Brussels.
Bikpela Bagarap (Big Damage) (2011, 43 mins) documents the devastating human cost of illegal logging and deforestation in Papua New Guinea, told entirely through the voices of local villagers without narration. This release includes both the original 43-minute director’s cut and a shorter 24-minute narrated version. It won four international awards including the ROSCAR Award at Wild Talk Africa Film Festival.
E-Wasteland (2012, 20 mins) offers a stark visual portrait of e-waste recycling at Agbogbloshie in Accra, Ghana — one of the largest e-waste dump sites in Africa — filmed without dialogue or narration. It won four international awards including Best Australian Short Documentary at the Antenna Documentary Film Festival.
Together the five films form a remarkable body of work — a sustained, independent investigation into the human consequences of global inequality, told without narration, without commentary, and without compromise.
They are available now at the Dancing Turtle store, including education and institutional licenses. Contact films@dancingturtle.com for more information.
