Abounaddara

أعظم الجهاد You Shall Not Steal

بعد الصورة After the Image 

القناص The Sniper 

all videos courtesy © ABOUNADDARA

Every week ABOUNADDARA – an anonymous collective of filmmakers and artists from Syria – shares via internet short films which offer a fresh and personal representation of Syria. Working in what they call “emergency cinema”, their approach is as much creative as political: their objective is ‘not to capture the tragedy or the confrontation or the current news as it unfolds, but rather to construct a new image with the tools of cinema’.

When the revolution began, we tried to find a way to translate this breakdown or explosion of energy. We wanted to translate this event formally. We wanted to create films like bullets. We wanted to make something beautiful and violent. We wanted to surprise the viewer. Maybe he is looking for information about Syria, or looking for stereotypical images of militants or people. It was our first attempt to build a new format, so the importance of the editing here is huge because the idea here is to mix a present and a past, images from the past and sound from the present*. –  CHARIF KIWAN

I have selected three videos from the 260 ‘bullet films’ that are available on their vimeo account. The videos range from one to five minutes and very little informations are given in order to destabilize the viewer, they also vary widely in content and style.

The idea here is also to confuse people. We want the universal viewer to recognize himself, his place, his country in this Syrian place and voice. We want him to imagine that he could be there*. –  CHARIF KIWAN

Please note that you can see their work in the current exhibition Here and Elsewhere at New Museum in New York that features contemporary art from and about the Arab world, on view through September 28.

➝ If you are interested in ABOUNADDARA‘s work, I really recommend to read this interview (*) of CHARIF KIWAN,the group’s spokesperson and single public face, with artist, curator and founding member of the Arab Image Foundation AKRAM ZAATARI for Jadaliyya



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