honorable mention
VITOR QUEIROZ australia
title
Young Cairo
Judgment comes easy, but sometimes life doesn’t. Taking a stance on quick opinions before trying to understand is a default that comes from the separation and lack of communication between different paths of life, different backgrounds, different futures. But it is precisely the future that can change if we slow down on our judgments and honour the truly rich and remarkable multicultural country we are.
Young Cairo is a social documentary series, set in Sydney's Inner West, that looks at the daily life of “Cairo”, a 21-year-old South Sudanese hip-hop artist that, just like everyone else, is immersed in the hustling of daily life, trying his best to be a son, a brother, an uncle, an adult and a professional musician.
A look at a world where family and social role models precipitate over each other in a social background that acts as a magnifying glass, revealing the conflicts that teenagers and young adults face nowadays, in all the different shades of us.
Cairo was born in Egypt, after his family flew from the war in South Sudan and landed in Australia one year later, in 1999, as a refugee. Leaving behind half of his siblings that he didn't have a chance to meet ever again.
Nowadays, Australia accepts a very limited number of refugees and has detention centres in the Pacific islands, such as Nauru and Manus. These policies have left very latently the division between society and some ethnic minorities and accentuating the difference between social classes. These new generations that Cairo is part of, are already made of Australian citizens and the integration is a very delicate and complex subject to be deconstructed in a simplified way.
Cairo was recently detained is awaiting a court audience to know about his future.
social purposes leading him to work with international NGO’s and to create a range of social documentary
projects. His passion for learning about and engaging with a variety of living conditions results in a work that
reveals social inequalities through self-reflective inquiry and unique tenderness.
back to gallery
entry description
Judgment comes easy, but sometimes life doesn’t. Taking a stance on quick opinions before trying to understand is a default that comes from the separation and lack of communication between different paths of life, different backgrounds, different futures. But it is precisely the future that can change if we slow down on our judgments and honour the truly rich and remarkable multicultural country we are.
Young Cairo is a social documentary series, set in Sydney's Inner West, that looks at the daily life of “Cairo”, a 21-year-old South Sudanese hip-hop artist that, just like everyone else, is immersed in the hustling of daily life, trying his best to be a son, a brother, an uncle, an adult and a professional musician.
A look at a world where family and social role models precipitate over each other in a social background that acts as a magnifying glass, revealing the conflicts that teenagers and young adults face nowadays, in all the different shades of us.
Cairo was born in Egypt, after his family flew from the war in South Sudan and landed in Australia one year later, in 1999, as a refugee. Leaving behind half of his siblings that he didn't have a chance to meet ever again.
Nowadays, Australia accepts a very limited number of refugees and has detention centres in the Pacific islands, such as Nauru and Manus. These policies have left very latently the division between society and some ethnic minorities and accentuating the difference between social classes. These new generations that Cairo is part of, are already made of Australian citizens and the integration is a very delicate and complex subject to be deconstructed in a simplified way.
Cairo was recently detained is awaiting a court audience to know about his future.
about the photographer
Vitor Queiroz is Portugal-born/Sydney-based photographer and cinematographer whose work searches forsocial purposes leading him to work with international NGO’s and to create a range of social documentary
projects. His passion for learning about and engaging with a variety of living conditions results in a work that
reveals social inequalities through self-reflective inquiry and unique tenderness.
back to gallery
