Dox Box Festival

05/09/2013

DOX-BOX started as an initiative of independent filmmakers, back in 2007 as the first non-profit and open-to-public creative documentary film festival in Syria. Until 2011, DOX BOX used to run annually in Damascus, Tartous and Homs during the first two weeks of March and to tour in other Arab cities as part of a Pan-Arab Cultural Network. The main mission of DOX BOX is to be a platform for both the Arab and the International filmmaking individuals and institutions to meet with the general public and see some of the world’s best creative documentaries and to get engaged in rich activities though a friendly and dynamic environment. Because DOX BOX is targeting the general youth public, all of film-screenings and public activities are completely free of charge. 

DOX BOX is a non-for-profit activity that operates within PROACTION FILM, supported by local and International organizations, institutes and individuals. 

DOX BOX Syria Global Day 2013

For the second consequent year, DOX BOX organizers announced that the festival could not be held as usual, around Syria, in a continuous protest to the ongoing massacre against the Syrian people. For the second year, DOX BOX, in partnership with many international organizations and festivals, organized the “Syria Global Day 2013”, on the dates of the canceled festival in Syria, coinciding with the anniversary of the Syrian Revolution, March 15th – 18th.

In “Syria Global Day 2013” the programmers of DOX BOX curated two sections, the first is a showcase of 6 short/medium films by new generation Syrian filmmakers, professional and amateur, from before and after March 2011, through which a different glance at the life in Syria is presented, with fresh eyes and angles which differ a lot from those of international mainstream media. DOX BOX selected the films it believed had a high sense of cinematic ambitioun and a unique voice of an Auteur.

The second section, entitled “Citizen with a Movie Camera”, is DOX BOX's tribute to Syrian Citizen-Filmmakers, who are changing the history of their country, showing outstanding bravery to express themselves and their society, their good and bad, their pain and their joy, through audio-viusal clips they film and publish on YouTube. DOX BOX programmers have compiled six theatic screening sessions from YouTube videos, with the titles “In Search for Truth”, “Letters”, “Dialogue”, “Moments – Continuity”, “Leaked – An Auto-portrait”, “Stories”. These sessions will allow an opportunity to explore the Syrian citizen's experience searching for “citizenship” in a new reality that is extremely harsh, and to explore the very new Syrian approach to new media, which was only evoked by extreme necessity.

DOX BOX Syria Global Day 2013 was held in theaters around the world, including Cairo, Beirut, Amman, Alexandria, Casablanca, Ramallah, in addition to cities in the US and Europe. Syria Global Day 2013 screenings were also held in liberated Syrian towns, however, for safety considerations, these will not be announced before the end of the festival. Syria Global Day will had a TV screening side, in collaboration with ARTE and Al-Arabiya. In collaboration with IDFA, DokLeipzig, CPH:DOX and DocAlliance, it was also made accessible globally, for free, on the internet.
 

More information

http://www.dox-box.org