Abounaddara

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Abounaddara (also spelled abou naddara , Arabic ابو نظارة Abū naẓẓāra ) is an anonymous collective of Syrian documentary filmmakers who have beenusing digital videos to fight against the Bashar al-Assad regimeand its state propaganda as well as against extremist jihadists since the beginning of theSyrian civil war in 2011 . The name is a play on words. “Abou Naddara” was, on the one hand, the pseudonym of the Egyptian, Jewish journalist and playwright Yaqub Sanu from the 19th century and, roughly translated, means: man with glasses . On the other hand, it refers to the classic film The Man with the Camera by the Soviet documentary film pioneer Dziga Wertow .

activities

The filmmakers who see themselves as political dissidents are graduates from film schools or universities. You introduce yourself as self-taught . Since there was no space for their documentaries on state television and the publicly controlled film scene in Syria, they decided to remain independent and produce films according to their own rules. In 2010 they founded the Abounaddara collective in Damascus . Except for its spokesperson, Charif Kiwan, the members are anonymous. They live in different parts of the country, work with local activists and citizen journalists . Your films describe what the reporting in the international media leaves out: everyday life in the country behind the conflicts. They contrast the images of war and destruction with faces of the “revolution” for the democratization of Syria and give the nameless victims their own voice. Following on from the attitude towards life before the Assad regime, when you went to the cinema on Fridays, Abounaddara published a free short film on the video platform Vimeo with English or French subtitles almost every Friday . From 2011 to 2017, with over 450 short films, a continuously growing archive of micro-stories of the Syrian conflict was created.

Content and film language

Most of the clips are monologues or show everyday chores for survival in the middle of a war. Each of the films is usually under five minutes long, some are very short such as cinematic blogs or tweets . The collective calls them the "cinema of emergency". According to its spokesman, it uses “a very special cinematographic language that is adapted to the urgency of our situation.” It invented new rules of representation that emphasize privacy and self-determination. Like the filmmakers, women, men and children remain anonymous in front of the camera. They are the subjects of the films. In their homes, shops or on the street, they reflect on the aftermath of an event. A girl defends her right not to wear a veil. A teacher says that ISIS has poisoned young people's minds with its ideas. In one video, a woman says that it dawns on her how “sectarianism” is infiltrating her way of thinking. Rebels, former soldiers of the regime and former ISIS jihadists speak as “witnesses”. The audience does not know what religion they have. The camera settings are usually long and static, stay in one environment. Close-ups emphasize personal testimony.

Some of the short films tell a story without a word. In The Butcher of Aleppo , a young man cuts ribs from a piece of meat in a butcher's shop. In the last shot you can see the meat hanging on the hook in front of the shop. Firewood begins with the sounds of guns and bombs pulsing in the distance as a couple of boys crouch against a wall with a man. The camera rests on their faces. When it got quiet, they walk down the street to a room where one of the boys is chopping wood. The film ends with the noise. Children and a war disabled are the protagonists of Hors Chant . To the song Chant des Partisans , the camera follows the one-legged man with crutches on an empty street in a bombed-out city. In the last sequence, children play scissors, stone and paper on rubble .

Dork Zabunyan, professor of film studies in Paris, wrote about the work of the Abounaddara collective: “It makes the violence tangible without resorting to a voyeurism that exploits the suffering of women and men in front of the camera. [...] It's about the right to an image that respects the dignity of those people who are currently fighting against various forms of tyranny. "

Influenced by Dsiga Wertow , poetic elements and means of political agitation also belong to Abounaddara's film language . The directors use script, film quotes and music. In The Kid , a boy who, crying, accuses Assad in the first part of the video turns into a childish fanatic of IS . The film is underlaid with the theme music from Charly Chaplin 's silent film of the same name . Like Yaqub Sanu, who founded Egypt's first satirical newspaper in 1877 with the title Abou Naddara Zarqa , filmmakers use satire and black humor when they expose propaganda. With the short film My Name is Bashar , a compilation of photos from social networks into a family album, they mock Assad's role as a despot and charmer.

Presence and recognition at international festivals

Abounaddara was represented at the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival in London in 2014 and at the Biennale di Venezia in 2015 . At the 30th Sundance Film Festival , the collective won the Grand Jury's Short Film Award for Of God and Dogs . The 12-minute film is about a Syrian soldier seeking revenge on the god who led him to kill an innocent man.

In 2017, documenta 14 presented the 140-minute film On Revolution . Directed by Maya al-Khoury, with which a member of the collective for the first time since its inception deviated from its self-imposed obligation to anonymity. Born in Syria, al-Khoury studied literature at the University of Damascus and obtained a master's degree in philosophy from the University of Vienna. The film, which was produced by Abounaddara with the support of documenta and other global partners, tells the stories of anonymous Syrians over a period of six years. Maya al-Khoury's approach is similar to that of a historian who knows how to “navigate microhistory, following the paths of a few individuals and connecting them with one another in order to make history visible,” says the documenta film announcement.

Works

  • Videos from Abounaddara on Vimeo
  • Of God and Dogs , Syria 2014, direction and production: Abounaddara Collective, digital video (12 min.)
  • On Revolution (preliminary version), Syria, 2017, director: Maya al-Khoury, production: Abounaddara Collective, digital video (140 min.)

Prices

  • Grand Jury Short Film Award, Sundance Film Festival 2014
  • Biennale Prize 2014–2016 from the Vera List Center for Arts and Politics at the New School , New York, for the entire project

Web links

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Edward Ziter: Political Performance in Syria: From the Six-Day War to the Syrian Uprising, 2015 (Google Teildigitalisat) (accessed on 7 March 2018)
  2. ^ A b Catrin Lorch: Secret films from embattled Syria , Süddeutsche Zeitung, May 30, 2016
  3. ↑ ttt article about Abounaddara: Everyday life in a war-torn homeland - The Syrian film collective Abounaddara (July 3, 2016) (Youtube Video) (accessed March 7, 2018)
  4. ↑ a b c Patricia M. Zimmermann, Helen D. Michel: Open Space New Media Documentary , Routledge, 2017, ISBN 978-1138720978 , p. 30 ff.
  5. ↑ Abounaddara Film: Wir die / We are dying . Zeit Online, April 30, 2016
  6. ↑ a b c Ellie Violet Bramley: Behind the scenes with Syria's 'emergency cinema' , The Guardian, March 26, 2014
  7. ↑ Dork Zabunyan: Abounaddara , extract from the documenta 14: Daybook
  8. ^ The Egyptian Satirist Who Inspired a Revolution , The New Yorker, June 6, 2016
  9. ↑ Melena Ryzik: Syrian Film Collective Offers View of Life Behind a Conflict , The New York Times, October 18, 2015
  10. ↑ Farah Nayeri: Syrian Film Collective Pulls Out of Venice Biennale , The New York Times, May 13, 2015
  11. ↑ Of Gods and Dogs Wins 2014 Sundance Short Film Grand Jury Prize, Filmmaker Magazine, January 22, 2014
  12. ↑ On Revolution (preliminary version) by Maya al-Khoury and Abounaddara, Documenta 14 website
  13. ↑ 2014–2016 Prize Winner: Abounaddara , Vera List Center website for Arts and Politics