Amman Filmmakers Cooperative

THE RISE OF SYRIAN NEW CINEMA AND CONSEQUENCES
TO JORDANIAN INDIE FILMMAKING

By Hazim Bitar

Are you a talented Jordanian filmmaker but don't have foreign language
skills, financial resources or connections (that's most Jordanians) to
study abroad or to even make your first celluloid film with star power?

Don't despair. Two hours north of Amman, Jordan, an Arab Hollywood is
emerging, in Damascus, Syria. Along with it, a flurry of digital
filmmaking activities is starting to give Syrian New Cinema shape.

Syria is the Arab country with the most developed cinema and
audiovisual production infrastructure east of the Mediterranean.
Syrian TV drama has dominated Arab TV screens over the last decade
with no contender on the horizon. But because of the rift between East
and West during the Cold War, much of Syria's cinematic activities
were exposed mostly to audiences of socialist countries. Only recently
did the new generation of Syrian filmmakers present their talent to
the world at large, thanks to the internet and digital filmmaking. And
with the relaxation of cross-border movement between Jordan and Syria,
Damascus is now poised to become a coveted destination for Jordanian
filmmakers seeking cinematic education, experience, and contacts.

With no visa requirements for Jordanians to enter into Syria (as
compared to the 15 days minimum for EU), a 20 euros two-way bus ticket
to Damascus, and a Syrian National Film Organization that extends
local production fees to Jordanian filmmakers, there is plenty of
incentive for aspiring Jordanian filmmakers to head north. As for the
trip, it's about 2-3 hours on average by ground transportation.

Take this scenario. You are a Jordanian indie filmmaker on a
limited-budget seeking to rent a 35mm camera for your first celluloid
experience. To the best of our knowledge, one such camera exist(ed) in
Jordan. Want to rent a 35mm in Syria? Let's see. How about an Arriflex
C2 with tripod, battery, and two magazines and three lenses for about
1500 Syrian Liras per day? I forgot to mention that each Euro is about
70 Syrian Liras. So that's about 21 Euros plus a refundable deposit
for the camera package. You think this camera model is too old for
your needs? Then, how about an Arriflex 535 B with tripod, three
lenses, three magazines, and a battery? That's about 550 Euros per
day. At the risk of oversimplification, the Arriflex 535 B is the
camera used to film Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut. This is all
courtesy of the Syrian National Film Organization. And we have not
even begun to discuss the private sector.

The Syrian High Institute for Drama has graduated the who's who of
Arab cinema and TV drama. Once steeped in Soviet performing arts
traditions, the institute's list of luminaries include leading
performers such as Ayman Zeidan, Amal Arafeh, Ayman Reda, etc.

You wish to meet Syrian celebrities? No need to wait for the
semiannual Damascus International Film Festival. Head to Rawda Cafe,
next to Sham Hotel, and be ready to run into Hatem Ali, Ghassan
Masoud, Bassem Yakhour, and Gamal Suleiman, etc. Many Syrian stars are
known to have soft spots for indie filmmakers and have accepted to act
in numerous low-budget indie films. Make sure you have extra copies of
your script before you visit the cafe. And don't spill tea on the
scripts.

Our first encounter with the Syrian independent filmmaking scene was
during the Warda Short Film Festival 2006 in Damascus, directed by
film critic Bashar Ibrahim. We had witnessed firsthand the impressive
talent of the new generation of Syrian indie filmmakers, writers, and
actors. Some of the documentaries were harsh critiques of social
injustice, the sort that does not try to sugarcoat misery with good
official intentions.

Last year, at the Jordan Short Film Festival, we had plans to screen a
full program of Syrian shorts. But due to a mysterious disappearance
and reappearance of the Syrian films, during shipping, we had to
postpone the screening to 2007.

With Syria's gift for beautiful and varied terrain and landscape, not
to mention the mystique of the "old city" of Damascus, some of the
films' locations were eye candy. Only Morocco and Egypt on the African
side of the Mediterranean are endowed with a similar gift of developed
cinema infrastructure, creative energy, and landscape as colorful as
Syria. Yet with Syria being a stone throw away from Jordan, it's
becoming a viable destination for young Jordanian filmmakers with
modest means.

Syrian TV drama, theater, and cinema, over the last few decades, have
demonstrated astonishing openness in probing social and political
issues unmatched by most Arab countries in terms of intelligence and
pan-Arab acceptance. Syrian actor Duraid Lah'ham--former UNICEF
Goodwill Ambassador in the Arab world--has been an Arab screen
phenomenon with his scathing political comedies. Mohamad Maghout,
Syrian poet and playwright who passed away recently, is also credited
for being the intellectual driving force of the Arab world's most
damning criticism of the social and political order, not to mention
his unyielding anti-colonialism (a Syrian cultural tradition that
earned the country its comical Axis of Evil nickname). His for-TV
political comedies such as Estrangement (Ghurbeh) and A Toast to My
Homeland (Kaasak Ya Watan) have become Arab classics adorning the
video collections of most Arab households. Despite the absence of
freedoms in the Arab world that seems to transcend any axis, the
Syrian cinema industry is a diamond in the rough and it's within reach
of Jordanian filmmakers.

So dust off that film script, sell the motorcycle, give your boss the
24-hours notice, and head north. When you are done, don't forget to
send us your film for the Jordan Short Film Festival.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Hazim Bitar is the founder and coordinator of the
Amman Filmmakers Cooperative and the director of the Jordan Short Film
Festival. He is the producer and director of some of Jordan's leading
independent films.

RELATED LINKS

Syria's National Film Organization
http://www.cinemasy.com