Religious Affiliations and Anonymous Collective

Charif Kiwan: Abounaddara is an anonymous collective of volunteer, self-taught artists whose weekly short films offer a glimpse of the lives of ordinary Syrians without restricting them to political or religious affiliations, focusing rather, on the details of daily life."My comrades and I were frustrated because the media is only interested in the fighting and the political and religious issues," explained Abounaddara spokesman Charif Kiwan in a New School interview "but they never show people during daily life, according to Vancouver Observer. We thought, ‘Our society, our countrymen, are totally invisible.’ While employing the aesthetics of cinema in an open-ended DIY spirit, Abou naddara provides an alternative to the customarily extremely violent representation of the Syrian condition. The Right to the Image. This Saturday afternoon discussion will be an opportunity where individuals gain insight on an important political art project that plays on anonymity and dis-identification to construct a space of resistance; and to relate that back to current aspects of the Canadian cultural and political climate. Charif Kiwan a spokesperson of Abounaddara says Their work is a kind of "emergency cinema"– like emergency healthcare, only by way of cinema . Abounaddara films are shared by Syrians from all sides, to the extent that even a major pro-regime newspaper has written that they represent civil society in a balanced way. Founded in Damascus in 2010, Abounaddara takes its name from the first Arabic language satirical revue, founded in Cairo in the nineteenth century , as well as from Soviet director Dziga Vertov film Man with a Movie Camera. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.