Since 2011, Abounaddara, an anonymous group of Syrian filmmakers, has released a weekly film on the Web, spotlighting the lives of individual Syrians in the war. In order to avoid censorship, their short films offer anonymous fly-on-the-wall perspective of the conflict. Since 2013, they have been campaigning for the "Right to the Image": maintaining the dignified image of the Syrian people instead of depictions of bodies and war shown in the more mainstream media.
Their work was recognized by the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 2014. Abounaddara are the recipients of the second Vera List Center Prize for Art and Politics. The exhibition "Abounaddara: The Right to the Image" is presented at The New School in New York City from Oct. 22 through Nov. 11, and will be launched by a three-day international conference.
Charif Kiwan, a representative of the film collective, will speak at MIT on Monday, Oct. 19, at 5 p.m. in Room 32-141.
This event is presented by the Global Borders Research Collaborative in MIT Global Studies and Languages, in conjunction with the French Initiatives Endowment Fund, MISTI-Arab World, Comparative Media Studies/Writing, and The Office of the Associate Provost.
