The Silent Revolution

NEW CHALLENGE: 8,000 EUROS TO PRODUCE A SPECIAL DVD OF THE DOCUMENTARY WITH EXTRA MUSIC VIDEOS

Thanks to all of you we have reached our goal: ¡The Silent Revolution is possible! With your contributions the project has reached 6.000€.

Because there are few days to finish the crowdfunding campaign, we would like to reach 8.000€. What will we do with this extra money? Add some new videos in the editing of the film that we consider interesting: singer Bavê Selah and Group Arya songs, images of Newroz celebration (Kurdish New Year) in Kafer Safra, Cindirêsê and Afrin.

Thanks for making this project possible!

THE PROJECT

The documentary The Silent Revolution explains the revolution involving nearly 3 million kurds living in Syria. With the outbreak of the civil war —in the frame of the called ‘Arab Spring'— the Kurds of Syria have taken advantage of the context to fight for their political and cultural recognition and thus end the repression that started more than 50 years ago.

Today, this historical process the Kurds are living suffers a big informative marginalisation because the fight between the Regim and the arab opposition monopolise the journalistic coverage. Our objective is to declare a situation of vital importance for the biggest nation in Middle East without state.

For those reasons, we were in Syria to film a documentary of about 60 minutes to show the life of Kurds focusing on 6 fields: the politics, the education of the Kurdish language, the implication of women in the conflict, the Kurdish militia, the media and the culture.

SYNOPSIS

In Afrin, in a north rural area of Aleppo province, the Kurds prepare to celebrate the first Newroz —the arrival of the spring that in the Kurdish culture is their New Year— without the presence of Bashar al-Assad regime. This year, this full identity party has a special context: it has been two years since the war started and, besides, the minority of the Kurds of Syria —that keeps equidistant in front of the disputes between the government and the rebels— has taken advantage of this unsteadiness to manage the power on their territories and claim their identity, suppressed for almost fifty years.

In this city we will meet Ali Ali live, a 70 year-old chemist, who talks to us about teaching the Kurdish language in schools, previously forbidden until now. Cudi Efrin, a young journalist, explains how they have put into motion the new Kurdish TV channel. Gulizar Hesen, a thirty year-old woman, shows us her new life as a guerrilla soldier. The young Serin Bako and his group of musicians take advantage of the party of the Newroz to sing traditional Kurdish songs in public. Finally, Ebu Seydo, representative of the Democratic Movement of Western Kurdistan (TEV DEM), analyses how the new political structures that have to articulate the management of these territories are being created. A plural and direct look on the silent revolution of Kurds in Syria.

THE SYRIAN CONFLICT AND KURDS

The infringement on the rights of the nearly three million Kurds living in Syria —that represents 10% of the country‘s population— has been constant since the Baath Party (Party of the Socialist Arab Renaissance) took power in 1963. Subjected during the almost fifty years of dictatorship, the repression forced upon the Kurds by the Syrian Regime increased with the coming to power of Bashar Al-Assad in 2000, which brought about the imprisonment of thousands of political dissidents and bloody episodes like the death of thirty demonstrators in Qamishlo in 2004. The state of emergency still in effect since more than 40 years accumulates numerous political prisoners.

With the outbreak of the civil war in Syria in March of 2011, the Kurds faced a dilemma: join the Free Syrian Army backed by Turkey (in conflict with Kurdistan Workers Party, PKK, since 1984) or follow the government of Damascus with his repressive antecedents. In the end, the Syrian Kurds have opted to declare a de facto ‘autonomy' and manage the revolution on their own.

Since the beginning of the war, the Kurds of Syria have opted for a peaceful revolution that has avoided clashes with the Regime army and the Free Syrian Army. They refuse to submerge in a sectarian war which has become the Syrian conflict and they do not wish that their cities offer scenes of destruction and desolation like Homs and Aleppo.

In July 2012, and after strong differences, Massoud Barzani, President of the Regional Government of the Iraqi Kurdistan, was able to bring together the two main factions of Kurds of Syria. the Kurdish National Council (KNC) —formed mostly for parties next to Barzani and Jalal Talabani— and the PYD, seal an historical agreement by creating the Kurdish Supreme Committee. This kind of national unit government administers the autoproclamate autonomy in Syrian Kurdistan and keeps an active fight for the national recognition of the Kurdish people and the guarantee of the rights in a future Syrian constitution. Besides, this new structure wants to exert a counterbalance in front of a Syrian National Council with an Arab and Islamist agenda.

The education of Kurdish language and the translations of the streets and roads into Kurdish are some of the first measures being taken by the Kurds after almost fifty years of dictatorship. The recovery of their own cultural expressions is representative of the start of this historical and silent revolution starred by Kurds in Syria.

Apart from fighting the Syrian Regime, Syrian Kurds are fighting radical Islamic groups linked to Al-Qaida. The region of Al-Hasakah is a spot with strong fights between the Kurdish Protection Units (YPG) and Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant. Tens of Kurds are giving their lifes to avoid the Sharia imposing on their territories.

WHERE WILL YOUR CONTRIBUTION GO?

Most of the documentary projects look for sponsors to achieve the necessary resources to carry out the project. In our case, because the war situation in Syria we could not guarantee the success of the project, therefore we did not want to engage sponsors if we were not sure about achieving our goal. The directors of the documentary, David Meseguer and Oriol Gracià, decided to invest their own resources to travel to Syria and shoot The Silent Revolution. Fortunately, the shooting went as we planned and now we are working on the final editing of the documentary.

Therefore, your economic contributions will allow as to finish the project and will be used mainly to cover the expenses of postproduction (graphics, edition, postproduction of sound) and the satisfaction of all your economical rewards. If the project achieves 8.000 euros we will make a special DVD where in addition to the documentary will be some music videos, the making-of and other scenes that have not appeared in the film.

CALENDAR

The documentary was recorded in Syria in March 2013. Now we are editing it and our goal is to finish it in November 2013. Therefore, the delivery of DVDs will begin between December 2013 and January 2014.

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