Saeed is a young cinema passionate trying to teach the youth in Eastern Ghouta in Syria the rules of filming, but the reality they face is much harsher to respect any rule. His friend Milad is on the other side of the fence, in Damascus, under the control of the regime finishing his studies in Fine Arts. At one point, Milad decides to leave the capital and joins Saeed in under sieged Douma where they set up a local radio station and a recording studio. They hold the camera to film everything until one day the camera films them…

It has been seven years since demonstrators in downtown Cairo first cried out to demand the fall of the regime. The city was both background and witness to this event. It is a witness to the individual’s disappearance within a tsunami of crowds, and the capacity for memory seems to serve as a reel of film, capable of recording millions of hours in endless detail. The truth was timeless, embroiled in spontaneous chanting: “The people want to overthrow the regime.”   In the first moments of the January 25 Revolution in Egypt, no one was concerned with documenting what was going on,... more

The Syrian revolution prompted me to rummage through the tales concealed in my family home in the village of Quatna  (30 km south of Damascus), stories I had never once discussed with my family. The house, which my father—an opponent of the Syrian regime during the presidencies of Assad senior and his son—was determined would be a small country of its own, independent of the Baath dictatorship… My father, who during the 1980s suffered from tyranny, the silencing of voicing and the suppression of freedoms, became consumed by his own private dictatorial inclinations, which manifested themselves most clearly in his relationship... more

In my city, Al Zabadani, you learn that death is not man’s worst nightmare, even though facing it and fleeing it are the only things left to do. After spending a few days in this city of mine you realize that your very worst nightmare is to lose everything you have for the sake of a dream of freedom, and not to obtain that dream. Your worst nightmare is to live within the memory of a place, which was, for a day, vast and spacious and free, now returned, by war, to the Very tight and dark space it had... more

In his very first short film, Nabil Alsayes tells us about the little Syrian girl Rama who lost all her toys under the rubble! Like many others, she then left Syria without knowing what happened to her family, finding refuge in one of the many camps in a neighboring country. Rama hides her most valuable things, her dreams and hopes in one small plastic bag that she took along with her from Syria. She always keeps an eye on it, waiting impatiently to return to Syria. Director: Nabil Alsayes Duration: 10:46 min Year of production: 2014 Produced by:Bidayyat

Locked in this closed space without hope or future, your screams get louder while the images follow one after the other in your head, your feelings and thoughts revolt, desperately longing for freedom. The soul disconnects itself from the body, thus freeing itself from the pain caused by all fetters and regimes, trying to escape the world of words in search for its humanity. Then, there will be only one thing left… A naked body. This film is an appeal to freedom for all prisoners in Syria, whether they are in the hands of the Syrian regime, the Islamic State in... more

Satire im Krieg   Ob Helge Schneider seine Finger im Spiel hatte? „Im Namen Gottes, des Barmherzigen!“ Das geht dem jungen Anführer flüssig über die Lippe, gar kein Problem. Beim Rest aber wird es schwierig: Wie heißt der Checkpoint nochmal, den wir befreit haben? Auch die Kameraden sind sich unsicher. Verdammt! Schnitt. Nicht jeder Islamist ist eben Superkämpfer und Medienprofi, auch, wenn es die Propaganda so will. Diese fünf jungen Männer geben ihr Bestes und müssen über ihre Tollpatschigkeit am Ende selbst lachen. Schließlich hilft ein Pappkarton, auf dem der Text steht. „Nobody's Perfect“ ist ein sehr lustiges Video. Es könnte von Monthy Python... more

Recently, the phenomenon of military brigades and factions that fight in the Syrian revolution and release statements claiming to possess the exclusive right to speak in the name of revolution and as those who own the truth has increased. This short video is a reminder to modesty, keeping in mind that there's not perfection.

Voilà deux ans et demi que les Syriens se font broyer méthodiquement. Deux ans et demi que nous filmons nous-mêmes les Syriens en train de se faire broyer. Deux ans et demi que le monde regarde nos images sans broncher. Comment croire en l'humanité après ça ? Ou comment croire que l'humanité reconnaît encore les Syriens pour siens ? La question est pourtant censée avoir été tranchée. Elle l'a été à l'époque des Lumières par un philosophe qui avait pris le surnom de Volney (1757-1820), en hommage à Voltaire. Retrouvant les traces de la Syrie, le philosophe a voulu comprendre comment... more

The revolution is still ongoing, but in a different way. The daily incidents and reports have created a distance from what is supposed to be of our own making. The revolution of holding flowers, olive branches and banners is over, and on a new morning, the same young people went to join the front fighting of the Free Syrian army, though in different locations and points in time. On another morning, they successively met in a house of the Theshreen neighborhood which they call their headquarter. Here, people are preoccupied with life, but death is constant emergency. Observing the interaction... more

In March 1993, Kevin Carter took a photo of a starving Sudanese child crawling towards a UN relief camp less than a mile away. A few meters from the weary child stood a vulture, waiting for her death to begin his meal. Birds also must eat, and in southern Sudan they were eating because humans were not. Kevin Carter stood across from the vulture, lit a cigarette, and took his shot. Twenty minutes passed and the bird didn’t move, waiting in its place as the child continued to struggle towards the camp. They say that the child survived, but Kevin... more