Syria Film Festival Returns to Toronto in its Sixth Edition
Ola Barqawi, Palestinian- Syrian writer and journalist, living in Toronto
Translated by Sara Hlaibeih
The Syria Film Festival of Toronto will begin in November, presenting film screenings for three consecutive days. In an invitation launched at the beginning of April, the festival invites filmmakers and directors from around the world to submit their work before July 31st to participate in the festival’s sixth edition. The screenings focus on Syrian films; short, long, documentary and animation. The festival returns next fall after a two-year absence due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, which has affected most cultural and artistic events in Toronto.
The festival’s first edition dates back to 2015 when it was founded by a group of Syrian and Palestinian refugees residing in Canada. They were aspiring to present what is happening in Syria through cinema, by conveying the stories, aspirations and struggles of Syrians to the Canadian public wanting to learn more about the Syrian fight for freedom. Until 2019, the event was organized annually and presented many films about Syria’s culture, society and politics. Some of the most critical issues that the films shed light on were Syrian women, detainees, asylum seeking and Syrians’ suffering in their home land. The festival has also hosted a number of activists, directors and Syrian actors, such as Yara Sabri and Jihad Abdo, who participated in panel discussions and seminars alonside the film screenings.
The festival organizers aim to build bridges to strengthen communication between the Syrian and Canadian communities in Toronto by presenting cinematic work that could stimulate dialogue and intellectual debates on justice, human rights and citizenship. Razan Hamad, a board member at the Syria Film Festival who has been living in Toronto since 2011, says, “There were five or six of us when we met at the beginning of 2015 to discuss launching the festival. We wanted to find a way to show other aspects of Syrians’ lives and disclose different features of what the media or other widespread cultural events were circulating. We didn’t know at the time that so many professional films dealt with various topics about Syria or that there are so many Syrian filmmakers capable of presenting work far from being described as amateur, work that is worthy of participating in important festivals. We aspired to be part of the scene, to present the suffering of Syrians and what they have been through since 2011, in addition to supporting the achievements and efforts of filmmakers interested in Syrian affairs.”
For this year’s screenings, festival organizers do not require participants to address a specific theme. Instead, participating films will be chosen according to their mutual and intersecting themes, all while presenting other topics that suit the festival’s overall orientation and vision. The organizers are also interested in hosting participating film directors and organizing seminars and panel discussions. They intend to show more films regarding various cultural aspects of Syria, its civilization and historical status. However, this requires more workers at the festival and a lot of work to overcome the support and funding obstacles. Hamad told Henna, “We want to talk about Syria more, especially after interest in its tragedy has regressed in the past few years. We would like to show promotional films about Syria and its civilization. We also aspire to present films dealing with the injustice to which people in other countries such as Palestine and Yemen are subjected to. However, with our current resources, we can now only focus on what is happening in Syria and show the suffering of Syrians back home and in all the places they were forced to seek refuge in the last 11 years”.
The event’s coordinators have been facing difficulties reaching filmmakers to present their work at the festival. They hope that the echoes of Syrian cinematic works will reach the diverse segments of Canadian society, especially with the recent decline in Canadian interest in getting to know Syria, Syrians’ experiences, their stories of escape and what they went through while applying to seek refuge in Canada. That interest was at its height following the wave of Syrian refugees in 2015. Hamad adds, “We try to help Syrians both back home and abroad, without being denied our right to partake just because we live in a country that provides greater freedom of opinion and expression and an environment that enables us to navigate the film industry better. Here, we don’t have to face any of the difficulties that Syrians back home have to deal with to get the truth out, and that is why we try to support anyone attempting to offer a Syrian film. We might also succeed in supporting newcomers in Canada as they might get the chance to meet members of humanitarian organizations that help refugees while attending the festival. That was one of the simple achievements of our previous editions, which seen remarkable turnouts from both Canadians and Syrians.”
This might be a humble gesture compared to Syria’s catastrophe. However, what Syria Film Festival organizers hope for is to take advantage of cinema to keep the Syrian crisis present and mainstream to reach as many people as possible. What happened in Syria is a great tragedy that has profoundly impacted our souls, yet it did not receive the attention it deserves. This crisis has cast its shadow on the political scene in so many parts of the world, but it did not get enough support to level the pain it created. That is why the festival organizers are trying to make a difference, regardless of its size, and deliver the message of the Syrians with the hope of perhaps, motivating humanitarian organizations or individuals to offer more support, or even by educating some of the attendees who are still unaware of most of what has and is still happening in Syria.
