Joshka Wessels talks about her book “Documenting Syria; Revolution, Filmmaking and Video Activism” published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury. Syria is now one of the most important countries in the world for the international documentary film industry. The most recent Syria documentary film “For Sama” is nominated for the 2020 Oscars and has become the most BAFTA nominated documentary film ever. Since the 1970s, Syrian cinema masters played a defining role in avant-garde filmmaking and political dissent against authoritarianism. After the outbreak of violence in 2011, an estimated 500,000 video clips were uploaded making it one of the first YouTubed revolutions in history.

 “Documenting Syria” is the very first history of documentary filmmaking in Syria. Based on extensive media ethnography and in-depth interviews with Syrian filmmakers in exile, the book offers an archival analysis of the documentary work by masters of Syrian cinema, such as Nabil Maleh, Ossama Mohammed, Mohammed Malas, Hala Al Abdallah, Hanna Ward, Ali Atassi and Omar Amiralay. Joshka traces how the works of these filmmakers became iconic for a new generation of filmmakers at the beginning of the 21st century and maps the radical change in the documentary landscape after the revolution of 2011.

 recorded 01 April 2020