Rojava International Film Fest

A FESTIVAL IN EXILE

Rojava International Film Festival on Streeen!

Through Global Rights Magazine, Streeen makes available for streaming some films that participated in the first three editions of the Rojava International Film Festival, from 2016 to 2018, as well as some of the films that were supposed to participate in the fourth edition.

This latest edition was supposed to take place in November 2019, but a month earlier, Turkish tanks annihilated the political experience of the Rojava Federation and consequently the festival as well.

Here is the list of movies available for free streaming

(list being updated)

The Rojava Film Commune - Komina Film in Rojava

Soon after the start of the so-called Syrian civil war (March 2011), the nations living in the territories of northeastern Syria, Rojava, led a revolution that radically transformed the social and political structures of the entire region.

A democratic system of self-government (the Autonomous Administration of North-East Syria - Rojava) was established, which, since 2013, has governed those territories.

Deeply inspired by the values ​​of cultural sovereignty, feminist values, and community, this political project challenged the patriarchal system, strengthened ethnic and religious minorities as well as grassroots movements, and promoted the opening of local democratic spaces.

Il Rojava International Film Festival was born in the context of the Rojava Revolution in 2016 under the name of Rojava Film Festival.

In 2018 the festival was renamed Kobane International Film Festival because it was celebrated for the first time in the city of Kobane, which three years earlier, in January, had been liberated by the YPG-YPJ (People's and Women's Defense Units) after four months of resistance against the siege of the Islamic State.

For the 2019 edition, the fourth, it will be called Rojava International Film Festival. As in previous editions, the festival was supposed to open on November 13th (in homage to the 282 children who died in theAmude City Cinema Fire, in Rojava, November 13, 1960)

Komîna Fîlm a Rojava (Rojava Film Commune) is a grassroots institution, founded in 2015 by local filmmakers and supporters of the revolution with the aim of developing the cinema of the revolution.

The Commune's work is structured around three pillars: education, production, and promotion of film. The Commune has established a Film Academy in the region to give young filmmakers, screenwriters, editors, and other film professionals the opportunity to study and master various film techniques.

At the same time, the Commune has also created a production team to support and promote local productions and to participate in and support international productions.

Azad Evdike

Director, born in Serêkaniyê in 1977.

He was a master, but the Rojava Revolution changed his life, like that of many others. He always wrote screenplays for theater and cinema, and after the revolution he dedicated himself full time to cinema, giving life to the BANOS FILM project (www.banosfilm.com) which in 2019 received funding from the Autonomous Province of Bolzano - Development Cooperation Office.

filmography:

• SîKA ÇIYA YÊ KURMÊNC (The shadow of the Kurdish mountain)
• DIBISTAN (School) short film
• GIYANÊ AZAD (Free Soul) 
• BAKUR (North)  
• BIHUŞTA MIN (My Paradise) assistant director
• ROJAVA director and actor
• DIZIYA BEXCE (Hide-And-Seek in The Garden / theater for children) director and screenplay

The BANOS FILM project

The BANOS FILM project was founded in 2015 in Serekeniye. It is a film school and association that promotes filmmaking in Serekeniye, and since last year, throughout the entire Federation of Northeast Syria. 

After Turkey's attack on October 9, 2019, the archive and technical materials of the BANOS FILM association were rescued and are located in Qamishlo, where the association opened a new office.
The work of reconstructing the memory and documenting this new offensive is dramatically even more crucial today. BANOS FILM members are engaged in recording video footage that documents the forced exodus of Serekaniye residents from the city, as well as the conditions in which they are forced to live, housed in schools in Heseke, homes, and makeshift shelters.
Despite the devastating conditions, the members of BANOS FILM are shooting and editing denunciation and narrative materials that are adding to an archive that, at least in its war memory section, was thought to remain closed.
BANOS FILM members send in their filmed material daily and let us know that today more than ever the project continues. It has become a project in fieri and itinerant.