Chicagogirl Study Guide
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#chicagoGirl A Study Guide for A Place in the World CFI Education Prepared by Roberta McNair A Place in the World, CFI Educaon #chicagoGirl Table of Contents About the Film 4 Screenings and Awards 4 This young girl is leading a revolution—via YouTube, 6,000 miles from home 5 Ala’a Basatneh 7 Syrians Abroad Report Harassment and Intimidation 8 About the Filmmakers 10 Joe Piscatella 10 Director’s Statement 10 Mark Rinehart 10 Bassel Shahade 11 Bassel Al Shahade, Syracuse University Student Killed While Filming a Movie in Syria 11 About Syria 13 The Syrian Revolution in a Single Paragraph 13 Who Supports the Syrian Regime 13 The Backers of President Bashar al‐Assad 13 Saudi Arabia and Syrian Uprising 14 Why Saudi Arabia supports the Syrian opposition 14 Syrian Civil War Explained 15 The Fight for the Middle East 15 AlAssad Family 16 Bashar alAssad 18 Diaries of a Little Dictator: Syrian artists puppet the regime 19 A Brutal Massacre Was Perpetrated, Allegedly by Government Forces 20 2 A Place in the World, CFI Educaon #chicagoGirl Top 10 Reasons for the Syrian Uprising 20 Syria Is a Microcosm of All the Issues Facing Region 22 About Citizen Journalism and Social Media for Activism 25 The Struggle That Is Citizen Journalism (At Least In The Middle East) 25 Dead Tweets: Citizen Journalists Pay the Price 25 CitJo – Citizen Journalism Portal in the Middle East 26 What you need to know about social media activism 27 Questions for Discussion and Research 29 References and Resources 31 3 A Place in the World, CFI Educaon #chicagoGirl About the Film February 2014. Cinema for Peace and Jusce Award from the Cinema for PeaceFoundaon, Berlin March 2014. #ChicagoGirl and Ala’a Basatneh are recognized by Amnesty Internaonal as one of their 10 Human Rights Heroes of 2014 March 2014. One World, Prague March 2014. Amnesty Internaonal’s Movies That Maer, The Hague; Winner, Golden Buerfly in the Student’s Choice category Ala’a Basatneh and the Syrian revolution April 2014. Stockholm Internaonal Film Fesval Director/Screenwriter Joe Piscatella May 2014. Seale Internaonal Film Fesval, Seale Producers Joe Piscatella, Mark Rinehart May 2014. DocEdge, Auckland Director of Photography in Syria Bassel Shahade May 2014. Planete+Doc, Warsaw; Winner of the From her childhood bedroom in the Chicago Award of the Emigraon Museum (best film suburbs, an American teenage girl uses social about migraon and expatriates). Special media to coordinate the revoluon in Syria. Menon for Canon of Cinematography Award Armed with Facebook, Twier, Skype and camera phones, she helps her social network “on the June 2014. Edinburgh Internaonal Film Fesval, ground” in Syria brave snipers and shelling in the Edinburgh streets to show the world the human rights July 2014. Giffoni Internaonal Film Fesval, Italy; atrocies of a dictator. But just because the world Winner, GEN DOC (best documentary) can see the violence doesn’t mean the world can September 2014. Internaonal Cinematographers help. As the revoluon rages on, everyone in the Film Fesval—Manaki Bros., Republic of network must decide what is the most effecve Macedonia way to fight a dictator: social media or AK‐47s. September 2014. Take One Acon Film Fesval, #chicagoGirl was shot over the course of two Glasgow years. Shoong took place in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Washington, DC, San October 2014. Fesval Des Liberes, Brussels Francisco, Damascus, and Homs. For shoots in October 2014. Hollywood Film Fesval, Los Syria, a Canon 7D and an iPhone 4 were Angeles smuggled in. All Syria footage was smuggled out on three hard drives over the course of the first October 2014. Ausn Film Fesval 18 months of the revoluon. June 2014. Edinburgh Internaonal Film Fesval, http://www.chicagogirlfilm.com/#!press‐notes/c10fk Edinburgh Screenings and Awards October 2014. Kino Saga, Lithuania November 2013. Internaonal Documentary November 2014. Leeds Internaonal Film Fesval Amsterdam (IDFA), Amsterdam; Winner, Fesval, Leeds Doc U Award (best film awarded by a youth jury) November 2014. Napa Valley Film Fesval, Napa February 2014. Human Rights/Human Wrongs, November 2014. Sausalito Film Fesval, Sausalito Oslo November 2014. Crocevia di Sguardi, Turin, Italy 4 A Place in the World, CFI Educaon #chicagoGirl November 2014. St. Louis Internaonal Film retain the interest of the internaonal media. But Fesval if an acvist can post clear YouTube footage of a protest and make sure that it’s shared on social November 2014. An‐Racism Film Fesval, media, then it’s far more likely to wind up on TV. Stockholm Part of Basatneh’s job is to help cizen journalists November 2014. Tallin Black Nights, Estonia make their work as accessible as possible to what December 2014. Ajyal Youth Film Fesval, Qatar can best be described as overseas audiences. http://www.chicagogirlfilm.com/#!screening_press/c1t44 This young girl is leading a revolution—via YouTube, 6,000 miles from home By Gavia Baker‐Whitelaw, July 11, 2014 As a 22‐year‐old sll living at home with her family in Chicago, college student Ala’a Basatneh doesn’t seem like a typical revoluonary. Born in Syria, Basatneh moved to the U.S. at Bashar al‐Assad as the Grim Reaper a young age and grew up as an ordinary suburban teenager. But aer hearing about a group of But as her role became increasingly Syrian children being brutally punished for important, her safety became less secure. wring an‐government slogans on their school Basatneh received death threats and was walls, she used Facebook to contact Syrian followed around her home neighborhood in protesters, joining the revoluon from 6,000 Illinois. For her own safety, she used to be miles away. escorted to and from class by campus security. As the subject of the documentary #chicagoGirl is a film about the real‐world #chicagoGirl, Basatneh has become one of the impact of social media, in a situaon where public faces of social media acvism, using people are risking their lives to share informaon YouTube and Facebook to help cizen journalists online. It’s also a story about idealism and spread the word of their fight against Syrian obsession, about a teenage girl who decided to president Bashar al‐Assad’s regime. The film dedicate her life to helping people she has never offers an interesng glimpse into how a 19‐year‐ even met: the polar opposite of the apathec old college freshman went from hanging out at slackvist stereotype that we oen see the mall to spending all her free me eding characterized by people who aren’t familiar with protest footage and translang revoluonary the power of social media. slogans, becoming a key polical acvist in a Following a screening at the Edinburgh Film country she hadn’t visited in over a decade. Fesval, we Skyped with Ala’a Basatneh and In the U.S., the term “hashtag acvism” is #chicagoGirl director Joe Piscatella to talk about usually uered with a kind of derisive sneer, the the film, the revoluon, and how #chicagoGirl implicaon being that social media can’t be used has inspired teens and college students across to effect any kind of “real” change. But in Syria, the U.S. sites like Twier and Facebook are an integral First of all, how did this film come about? Joe, part of the revoluon. did you specifically set out to make a film about While the Arab Spring brought down the Ala’a, or were you intending to make a broader Tunisian government in 28 days and the Egypan documentary about social media in the Syrian government in 18, the longevity of Syria’s revoluon? revoluon means that acvists find it difficult to 5 A Place in the World, CFI Educaon #chicagoGirl Joe Piscatella: I started out to make a broader Basatneh: It’s really not balanced. I’m on my documentary about social media and revoluon. phone 24/7, on my laptop whenever I can. In my We had done some talking, had interviews, and I classes, at work, at home, all the me because of realized I wanted a personal story to illustrate the me difference and because of how what was going on. important it is to keep in contact with the acvists on the ground. It’s not that it’s six hours I read a blurb about Ala’a geng death threats on online and then the rest of the me I’m not; it’s her Facebook wall from the Syrian regime, so I that I’m constantly online. When the movie was found her and told her about this film. And she shot, I would get Skype calls at four in the finally said to me, “Joe, you’re asking me all the morning from acvists in Syria, asking me to wrong quesons.” I thought to myself, you know, translate banners that they would be carrying in “My goodness, I’m the one making the movie, their protests, so it can end up on internaonal you don’t even know what I’m trying to make.” media, on CNN and BBC. She said, “Well, I’m helping to coordinate protests in the revoluon,” and it sounded too Could you give me a rundown of the type of good to be true … But interesng enough that ways you use social media, through Google two days later, my producer and I sat with Ala’a Maps and Twier and so on? and watched her do it. Basatneh: You know, [Twier] DMs for a period Ala’a, how did you get involved with the of me were one of the safest ways to contact revoluon in the first place? In the acvists on the ground because for some reason, documentary, you talk about being a typical high they couldn’t crack the codes and get into those school girl in your teens, but it’s clear that quite messages.