Loss and Resilience Film Series on Syrian Refugees

https://www.facebook.com/events/275773256172134/

Wed, Feb 1, 7p, Visual Culture

Loss and Resilience, Film and Commentary on The Syrian Refugee Crisis

King Juan Carlos Auditorium, 1st Floor, 53 Washington Square South

AFTER SPRING

(U.S., 2016, 98 minutes)

This documentary, executive-produced by Jon Stewart, follows refugee families in transition and aid workers fighting to keep the Zaatari refugee camp running. With no end in sight, Syrian families must decide if they can rebuild their lives in a place that was never meant to be permanent.

After-film discussion with co-directors Ellen Martinez and Steph Ching

Ellen Martinez was Associate Producer on TESTED, a feature documentary about educational inequality in the NYC public school system. She was a directors assistant and has worked in the A.D. and production departments for various films in NYC. Ellen has spent over 8 years in the Middle East and lived in Damascus, Syria for four years.

Steph Ching was Associate Producer and Additional Editor on the Emmy Nominated documentary SUPERMENSCH: THE LEGEND OF SHEP GORDON. Other interests include volunteer work, she participated in relief efforts during post-hurricane Katrina and made several trips to Sichuan, China to film testimonials with survivors of the 2008 earthquake.Her grandmother was a refugee in China before finally making her way to the United States.

Co-sponsored by NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and the Asian/Pacific/American Institute at NYU.

Wed, Feb 15, 7p, Visual Culture

Loss and Resilience, Film and Commentary on The Syrian Refugee Crisis

King Juan Carlos Auditorium, 1st Floor, 53 Washington Square South

DISTRICT ZERO

(Spain, 2015, 65 minutes)

Directed by Pablo Iraburu and Jorge Fernández Mayoral

Maamun opens the door to his shop, like he does every other morning. It is a tiny white container. Next to it is an identical container, and then another, and another. Thousands of containers stretch as far as the eye can see, all of them exactly the same. We are in one of the biggest refugee camps in the world: Zaatari, in Jordan. His shop repairs mobile phones. Maamun starts to serve his customers. Their memory cards contain their past in Syria: happiness, routine, family life. And then the war came, followed by destruction, fear and flight. Maamun rebuilds photos and sound, recovers lost content, recharges batteries, and restores the only link his neighbours still have with Syria. He and his friend Karim have decided to provide a new service: printing off the photos which have filled up the mobile phones of the people who live in Zaatari.

SIEGE

(Syria, 2015, 9 min)

This short documentary shot by residents of the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus weaves four stories together to give intimate insight into life in the camp.

Co-sponsored by NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and the King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center

Wed, Mar 1, 7p, Visual Culture

Loss and Resilience, Film and Commentary on The Syrian Refugee Crisis

19 Washington Square North (NYU Abu Dhabi on the Square)

ON THE BRIDE’S SIDE

(Italy, 2014, 98 minutes)

Directed by Antonio Augugliaro, Gabriele Del Grande, and Khaled Soliman Al Nassiry

A Palestinian poet and an Italian journalist meet five Palestinians and Syrians in Milan who entered Europe via the Italian island of Lampedusa after fleeing the war in Syria. They decide to help them complete their journey to Sweden – and hopefully avoid getting themselves arrested as traffickers – by faking a wedding. With a Palestinian friend dressed up as the bride and a dozen or so Italian and Syrian friends as wedding guests, they cross halfway over Europe on a four-day journey of three thousand kilometres. This emotionally charged journey not only brings out the stories and hopes and dreams of the five Palestinians and Syrians and their rather special traffickers, but also reveals an unknown side of Europe – a transnational, supportive and irreverent Europe that ridicules the laws and restrictions of the Fortress in a kind of masquerade which is no other than the direct filming of something that really took place on the road from Milan to Stockholm from the 14th to the 18th of November 2013.

Co-sponsored by NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, the King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center and NYU Abu Dhabi

Wed, Mar 22, 7p, Visual Culture

Loss and Resilience, Film and Commentary on The Syrian Refugee Crisis

19 Washington Square North (NYU Abu Dhabi on the Square)

NOT WHO WE ARE

(Lebanon, 2013, 75 minutes)

Directed by Carol Mansour

In early 2013, Syrians became the fourth largest refugee population in the world. Close to one million of those have taken refuge in Lebanon. More than eighty percent are women and children. “Not Who We Are” portrays the lives of five Syrian women refugees, from different socio-educational backgrounds. In Lebanon they struggle against life’s daily brutality and try to rebuild lives shattered by war. They provide us with a glimpse into their daily hardships as well as their strength, resilience and survival instinct.

Co-sponsored by NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, the King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center and NYU Abu Dhabi