Screening: Shorts at the Frontline Club Syria Special
Join us for a special edition of Shorts at the Frontline Club, bringing together moving, striking and compelling stories, with a special focus on Syria. All films have been made in or around Syria since the uprising began in early 2011. This selection not only illustrates the complexity on the ground, but also shows the challenges reporters, journalists and filmmakers face when trying to grasp the situation.
Borderland (UK) When the shells rain down it is easy to pick out the victims from the bad guys, but in the porous borderlands between Lebanon and Syria the story isn’t as black and white. Shot from December 2011-January 2012 in the Lebanese Syrian borders, the hills outside of Homs and the streets of Beirut. Borderland is a journey into the often contradictory and confusing Levantine world where one man’s liberator is another man’s despot.
Directed by Simon Mitchell
Duration: 16′ | Year: 2012
Transition (RU) follows former Syrian Army officer Wissam Moukayed, who left the country to study journalism in Russia, the only state that would grant him a visa. Suspecting the Russian media does not tell the full story of the situation in his home country, he decides to go back and see for himself.
Directed by Marina Darmaros and Wissam Moukayed
Duration 15′ | Year: 2013
Not Anymore: Story of Revolution (US) tells the story of the Syrian struggle for freedom as experienced by a 32 year old rebel commander, Mowya, and a 24 year old female journalist, Nour, in Aleppo. Director Matthew VanDyke describes himself as a freedom fighter, former POW and documentary filmmaker. In this short he captures why the Syrian people are fighting for their freedom.
Directed by Matthew VanDyke
Duration: 14′ | Year: 2013
The Bombing of al-Bara (UK) On 28th October 2012, a government jet dropped a large bomb on the village of al-Bara. Only 300 meters away, Olly Lambert was filming a meeting of rebel soldiers. While keeping his camera rolling, Lambert documented the shocking impact of regime air strikes on a civilian population. The result is a rare, immersive portrait of the reality of civil war.
Directed by Olly Lambert
Duration: 36′ | Year: 2012
Syrian Spring (UK) In 2012 photographer Seamus Murphy traveled into Syria from Turkey with help from the opposition network. Combining stills and video he documents the opposition network, the arterial core of the Syrian revolution and the main target for Assad in his efforts to crush dissent.
Directed by Seamus Murphy
Duration: 6′ | Year: 2012
