Brexit and the Belgian Brits (BABBS)

<p><em>&ldquo;Brexit is breaking something inside us.&rdquo; &nbsp;</em>But we are resilient, too.</p> <p>The outcome of the&nbsp;Brexit referendum in June 2016 came as a shock.&nbsp; Then &lsquo;business as usual&rsquo; resumed during the transition period... until&nbsp;reality hit&nbsp;hard as 2021 kicked&nbsp;off&nbsp;a dramatically different relationship between the UK and the EU.&nbsp;</p> <p>1.3 million UK nationals are settled in the EU.&nbsp; Some 25,000 British citizens who made Belgium their home&nbsp;faced profound changes to their lives.&nbsp;</p> <p>Emma and Louise set up &lsquo;Brexit and the Belgian Brits (BABBS)&rsquo; on Facebook in 2017 as a support network: it now has&nbsp;1,800 members with a&nbsp;story to share.</p> <p><img alt="" src="https://d3v4jsc54141g1.cloudfront.net/uploads/project_image/image/704141/54359622-aa5e-46e1-8c3b-3297bb52d232.png" width="100%" /></p> <p>This short documentary is intended as&nbsp;a community project to highlight initial feelings of&nbsp;betrayal&nbsp;and bewilderment&nbsp;about changes not of our&nbsp;choosing, but also what gives us hope at this historic time.&nbsp; We want&nbsp;to keep&nbsp;a record of how this experience affected&nbsp;us and use this to host screenings and discussions about&nbsp;what Brexit taught us.</p> <p>We&#39;ve already gathered great member Vlog posts&nbsp;in response to our Casting Call, and filmed several dozen BABBS members at the&nbsp;silent vigil outside the British Embassy&nbsp;on 31 December 2020 (see first News&nbsp;update).&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>With&nbsp;your help our story can be captured for posterity!!</p>