2022- In Production on Trafficking in the Age of Covid 19: Sex, Drugs, & Slavery. Thailand, Afghanistan, Canada, United States.. Op Faust: Hunger Winter of ‘45. Netherlands & Canada, 2025 Release. We Served for Family & Country, Indigenous Stories of Service to Canada. 2022 Rotary Peace Fellow-Graduate Studies in Peace and Conflict from the University of Chulalongkorn, Thailand. Rotary/IEP Activator Chicago, 2024.
Dutch Soldiers and Afghan Translator enroute to Camp Shaheen near Kunduz. 2017. A. MacLean
"These people are the frontline soldiers of change on all levels and I know that women embrace that, and they embrace this new job and they go forward with it" - Alison MacLean
"Over the last five years, MacLean has made a point of featuring the stories of women in combat because she feels that they have been underrepresented.
Not everyone working in Afghanistan is a frontline worker. MacLean mentions a "legacy of care" that female doctors, nurses, logistics workers and consultants bring to ensure the operation is free of mistakes." - Samantha Lego of Surrey Now
“The system is completely failing families – it’s broken.”
"MacLean told PAN her own experiences have driven her to become an outspoken advocate of self-represented litigants against a judicial system she claims favours lawyers, judges and clerks."
The Peace Arch News Article on Family Law (Link Below)
Afghan Policewomen Don Fresh Uniforms
"MacLean is a benefactor whose passion for improving the plight of Afghanistan’s women is surpassed only by her creative dexterity for the same."
"This perspective, coupled with what she described as the tremendous support she’s received during two film making visits in the past several years, has made her among one the coalition’s strongest partisans outside the Canadian military chain of command."
"Seconds later a beaming policewoman emerged with her new official police uniform raised over her head to the jubilant applause of her colleagues. "
"My familiarity with the security environment in the areas where Alison has operated leaves me with no illusions about the grave risks she has faced, particularly as an independent filmmaker without the resources that most people would take for granted before even contemplating an assignment in a high-risk environment" said Martin Cronin a former British Diplomat who was posted to the Middle East.
"Alison has been a leader in capturing the deeper story of the sacrifices and service of our women and men in uniform along with those of their families," said Royal Canadian Navy Rear Admiral William Truelove
The Province Newspaper Article "Filming Under Fire"
Burkas 2 Bullets-2014
"How many coalition soldiers does it take to keep one Canadian filmmaker alive in Afghanistan?
By the time I returned from Kabul and Kandahar last month, I had my answer.
Far too many."
"My documentary focuses on Afghan security, with profiles of police and military women.
Women make up 50 per cent of Afghan society, and a growing number of women are training to become frontline workers."
(Link to rest of article below)
"The decision to travel to the tumultuous Middle Eastern country came as a surprise to all who knew MacLean – even herself."
“I was not planning to go back. I had an interview in March and was asked and I said, ‘No, I’m definitely not going back,’” she laughed. “But the aid drop won’t occur unless I am managing it through the checkpoint."
“If that entire community can benefit from it, I have to do it.”