Link to the original article: https://quinlan.it/2018/09/05/still-recording/     Guerra e cinema, mirino e obiettivo, to shoot. Diretto da Saeed Al Batal e da Ghiath Ayoub, Still Recording è allo stesso tempo un saggio di teoria cinematografica e una scioccante inchiesta sul conflitto siriano. In concorso alla Settimana Internazionale della Critica, tra i titoli più importanti di Venezia 75. Lo stato delle cose Saeed è un giovane cinefilo che cerca di insegnare ai giovani di Ghouta, in Siria, le regole del cinema, ma la realtà che si trovano ad affrontare è troppo dura per seguire alcuna regola. Il suo amico Milad vive dall’altra parte della barricata, a Damasco, sotto... more

  From the besieged Eastern Ghouta and with the participation of the people of Douma, This Video was filmd. For this video to see the light means that all the barriers of injustice, siege, bombardment and airstrikes can’t prevent this song from reaching its people and leave its mark. “Meen?” (Who?) is the question that Douma’s families ask again to themselves, to us, and to the world, on the beat of Bu Nasser's song, sending greetings from Douma to Bekaa and from there to Beirut and Lebanon. “Meen?” (Who?) every time you ask this question you get a step closer to the truth.   Tatlit Bu Nasser... more

    That day, just after noon, as I was on my way to the cigarette stall (a small table, chairs, a few packs of cigarette of two or three brands, all of them open because they are sold singly) the heavens rang. It was the whistling again, the sound that had begun to play on my nerves, the huge hit of adrenalin freezing everything, even time. The sound of an aircraft, which  you hear when you step outside, or more precisely, when you step outside and realize, instinctively, that you are directly inside the target zone.   In films, time stops at such... more

Faubourg de Damas, Jobar a connu, lors des premiers mois de la révolution syrienne, en 2011, des dizaines de manifestations pacifiques, réprimées dans la sang. Passée aux mains de l'opposition en novembre 2012 cette ville de la Ghouta orientale est bombardée depuis lors par le régime. Depuis avril 2014, le régime d'Assad, soutenu par des combattants du Hezbollah libanais, multiplie les offensives pour la reprendre, sans succès pour le moment.     J'étais à deux doigts de tomber de la remorque! Nous étions trois, à l'arrière d'un petit pick-up transportant deux énormes marmites de riz cuisiné. A mesure qu'on approchait du panneau annonçant l'unique " Entrée... more

  I almost fell out of the vehicle! We were sitting in the back of a small pick-up, we three and two large pots of cooked rice. The closer we got to the sign that read Jawbar: Only Entrance the more the twenty-year old behind the wheel drove like he was in the final stages of a rally race. This was the most heavily bombarded point in the district: not five minutes would pass without another shell coming over from Qassiyoun. Today was different… The battle for Maliha had come to end a few days before, after more than one hundred and forty... more

DOUMA—We have lost sight of the outside world, a gift that other people take for granted. Our universe has become so small and shattered. "The universe starts in Al-Mleiha and ends in Douma," Abo Mahmoud told me one night, referring to two of the suburbs in our besieged world of East Ghouta, a conurbation just outside Damascus. Time slipped by as we sat his dim room, illuminated only by a tiny battery-powered bulb. Abo Mahmoud is only forty but he looks like an elderly man. I remember how he was back in 2011, when the demonstrations began: young in spirit... more

I still remember—way back in the mists of the distant past—that warm feeling when I first picked up a camera. As though I was experiencing a prophecy that one day I would use this instrument until I wore it away to nothing. Back then I carried it like a sceptre; today I bear the camera like a shield. Today, I remember the first time I literally did this—bore it like a shield. I’ve forgotten many dates and events, but that day—June 26, 2012—stays engraved in my memory. At the end of a long and tiring day my feet led me,... more