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Museum of Care is proud to invite you to take part on the 12th of April at 8 PM London time to a screening of The Lonely Trees (2017). The event is held to share with the broad network of MoC the amazing work of the Rojava Film Commune and to show them support due to the recent earthquake occurred on the 6th of February 2023. All the income will be given to Heyva Sor de Kurdîstane, which you can also freely support. Debbie Bookchin will open the event.
Komîna Fîlm a Rojava (The Rojava Film Commune) is a collective of filmmakers based in the autonomous region in northern Syria, where it carries on many activities to develop and build infrastructures for filmmaking, screening and education, cultivating new audiences and envisioning filmmaking as a medium for empowerment as well as a tool for liberation.
The region of Rojava has suffered, even before the beginning of the war in Syria, from a lack of investment in arts, culture, and education, that lead many youngsters to move to other regions in order to continue their education. Komîna Fîlm a Rojava was founded as a reaction to the Syrian violent politics of forced assimilation of Indigenous communities, amplified during the war, since the Rojava region suffered from attacks and occupation.
By 2011, all the cinemas that had opened in the region since the 1940s were closed, therefore the Commune’s intention was to bring back the community to cinema and filmmaking, through a wide range of activities, such as the Rojava Film Academy, a one-year educational program providing theoretical and practical classes, the production of films and documentaries, and infrastructure-building, with the aim to give a voice to women and ethnic and religious communities. The academy is self-organized with students and commune members organizing its program taught by local and international film professionals.
They have taken part in Documenta fifteen, curating a screening program with materials from the Commune’s archive and recent films, as well as examples from Kurdish film history, including discussion panels with filmmakers and members of the Commune.
The event is curated by Nika Dubrovsky and Paola Pietronave. Heartfelt thanks to Sêvînaz Evdikê, from Komîna Film a Rojava.