- Title: UK/SYRIA: Secret Syrian film-makers defy censors to give voice to citizens
- Date: 3rd April 2014
- Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (MARCH 28, 2014) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) CHARIF KIWAN, SPOKESPERSON FOR ABOUNADDARA FILM COLLECTIVE, SAYING (ROUGH TRANSLATION): ''We as filmmakers when we choose the language of cinema, this has to be in a way to present to the viewer, language that has beauty and suspense, we're talking about the suffering and the destruction that i
- Embargoed: 18th April 2014 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Syrian Arab Republic, United Kingdom
- City:
- Country: Syrian Arab Republic United Kingdom
- Topics: Conflict
- Reuters ID: LVA2QDLDPKFQXLWMY9M5NEDRY723
- Story Text: Weeks after one of their short films won a prestigious award at the Sundance Film Festival, the work of an anonymous group of Syrian documentary filmmakers forced to operate in secret in their homeland has been shown in London.
Abounaddara consists of anonymous, self-trained, filmmakers who produce short documentaries which they upload to internet hosting site Vimeo every Friday, the main day for demonstrations against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Since 2011 around 300 films of between 30 seconds and five minutes in duration have been produced by the group, who defy the heavy censorship imposed by the Assad regime.
The filmmakers remain anonymous in order to avoid potential repercussions from the Assad regime.
Spokesperson Charif Kiwan, who lives in exile, is the only individual connected to the group who can safely appear publicly. He's currently visiting London to show a selection of the short films at London's Human Rights Watch Film Festival.
Kiwan told Reuters TV the group's objective is to provide a "mirror image" of Syrian society absent from war-dominated media coverage and free from censorship by the regime.
''All Syrians, whatever their political views, agree with dignity and a dignified life, so we work with the revolution and the stories that Syria witnesses today on the basis that it is a struggle between society, the regular people, and a state, a regime that tries to suppress them,'' he said.
The group's films show snapshots of everyday life of ordinary Syrians, often recorded in a single take and with a static shot. No accompanying information appears beside the films because, says Kiwan, the Abounaddara collective do not want to influence the viewer, but merely illustrate day-to-day Syrian existence.
In 'Woman in Pants' a female wearing a headscarf and sitting in a chair speaks to the camera about her contempt for Islamic fundamentalists whom she says have sought to hijack the attempted revolution in her country. She mocks them for appearing to be more concerned that a woman like her wears trousers than anything else.
Other films are more expansive, with 'A Prayer in the Dark' featuring a large group of protesters at night lighting candles that spell out 'Homs will not kneel' - a reference to the city that has been under siege since May 2011.
In 'Vanguards' a group of primary school children are filmed lined up in rows, yelling nationalist Baathist slogans under the command of a schoolmistress. 'Starvation' is a stark film simply showing a static shot of a body bag before a short on-air caption reveals that the person starved to death in a refugee camp.
So far 15 of the films have been selected to play in various international festivals, such as Venice, Lisbon, and Sundance in the U.S.. One of them, entitled 'Of Gods and Dogs', won the Short Film Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in February 2014.
Kiwan describes Abounaddara's films as "emergency cinema" explaining that as filmmakers they need to show the alternative and true image of Syria, unlike what is reported by the Syrian regime or the media.
''At the start of our work, we used the term 'emergency cinema' because we think that the filmmaker is like the doctor, in a dangerous situation, we need to use our resources as filmmakers quickly to salvage the image of the Syrians,'' he said.
Abounaddara is an Arabic word , a nickname for 'the man with the glasses'. The group took its name from a satirical magazine run by 19th Century Egyptian playwright and journalist, Yacub Sanu. The group was founded in Damascus in 2010 by three associates unknown in the film industry and was launched without funding.
Kiwan is proud of the group's collective work and says as filmmakers they need to stay true to the language of cinema in order to portray an accurate image of the death and destruction that is happening in his homeland.
''We as filmmakers when we choose the language of cinema, this has to be in a way to present to the viewer, language that has beauty and suspense, we're talking about the suffering and the destruction that is happening to our nation. But in order to show this to the viewer we need to respect the interest of the viewer, so that we can send this message in a beautiful way with suspense, this is the language of cinema,'' he said.
The group believes that giving ordinary Syrians a voice, rather than indulging in propaganda or sloganeering, is a powerful tool to help keep the revolution alive in the minds of an international community grown weary by the constant bloody imagery of the three year conflict. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2014. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None