Rewend 2023

ABOUT THE SITUATION IN ROJAVA

Since October 5, 2023, Turkey is once again attacking many areas of Rojava and Iraqi Kurdistan. In Turkey, the attacks take the form of total repression of the Kurdish and leftist opposition, with dozens of journalist detentions every day.
As for the attacks in Rojava, Turkey has primarily bombed civilian infrastructures, such as water stations, power plants, and grain warehouses. In other words, it is targeting the civilian population.

 

  • Rewend 2023

    Rewend 2023

    AFTER THE LIBERATION OF KOBANÊ in 2015, cinematic culture came back to life in Rojava's society. The youth, who used to work in secret, were the first to mobilize. Additionally, many volunteer filmmakers from different parts of Kurdistan, Turkey, and around the world wanted to participate in the revival of this culture in Rojava.
    Like cinema, literature, music, and art hold significant places in building the collective memory of the Federation of Northern and Eastern Syria. The Rojava Film Commune (Komîna fîlm a Rojava) is a collective of filmmakers founded in 2015 with the goal of rebuilding and reorganizing film infrastructures and film education.
    To promote local cinematic culture, the Commune organizes film screenings, facilitates debates on the role of cinema in society, and produces new films. The Commune aims to reclaim cinema as a central space to reinvent society, democratize, and revolutionize imagination itself.

    Since 2015, the Commune has been educating a new generation of filmmakers in Rojava, organizing thousands of screenings in cities and villages, and producing several films. It works to represent the values and ideals of the Rojava Revolution but also to mediate and portray the daily struggles in the Syrian civil war and Rojava's collective attempt to build a new society.
    In 2015, the Commune also opened a Rojava Film Academy dedicated to offering one-year courses and programs in international film history, Kurdish film history, film theory, photography, cinematography, scriptwriting, editing, and sound design. These courses are taught by local and international film professionals.

    The Academy is self-organized and structured horizontally, encouraging students to participate in all aspects of its organization. After decades of oppression of Kurdish, Armenian, and Assyrian languages and cultures, the Rojava Film Academy claims the power to narrate and imagine the dreams and realities of all nations present in the territory.
    The Academy bases its methodology on 'revolutionary realism,' meaning a realism that not only reveals the current reality in a new way but also restructures the reality of what is possible. It not only finds a form for the existing but creates the possibility to imagine what is not yet present—the ongoing transformation that is the revolution itself.

    Sevinaz Evdike is one of the founders of the Commune, of which she was co-director until 2022. Now she works with Kezi, the collective of women filmmakers.

    The Rojava revolution brought significant changes for women, introducing a democratic ideology emphasizing coexistence and the struggle for women's freedom. The Women's Defense Units, or YPJ, not only symbolized women's freedom within Rojava but also resonated as a symbol for women worldwide. However, the struggle was not easy. Convincing families that their daughters could pursue careers as directors, writers, or composers posed a challenge, especially in a society where such aspirations were previously unthinkable.

    Moreover, providing a space for young women to explore their interests and careers, in the absence of established formal or professional academies to guide them, presented its own set of challenges. As filmmakers, women decided to establish their own organization, where they could learn together and through hands-on experience.

    Orsola Casagrande