LAUSR

Since the beginning of the Syrian Civil War in 2011, a plethora of international documentary films has been produced about the conflict. Many of these films, particularly those made in the early years of the war, such as Return to Homs (2013), focused on the brutal fighting, massive destruction, and widespread death and trauma suffered by the population. This proliferation of documentaries was driven partly by the lack of consistent, accurate media coverage of the war, notably in the West, due to the difficulty of gaining journalistic access to the country. Beyond these documentaries, the gap in coverage was also filled by ordinary Syrians with amateur cell phone videos uploaded to YouTube and other sites as well as documentaries and short works produced in and through collectives such as Abounaddara, an anonymous media activist group that provides stories beyond the spectacles of violence and victimization (what they call “emergency cinema”) via video-sharing channels such as Vimeo.