Peace Lens
An independent youth project that started in 2015. It works on developing the visual identity of the Syrian society, through a group of training workshops: -Documentary making "Scenario writing, filming and video editing" -Photography and Design workshops, which are meant to train Syrian youth in the most modern of peaceful methods to express their opinion. They are also meant to re-establish communication among youths of various social backgrounds, and rebuild bridges of trust between these backgrounds, which enables an effective and productive connection between Syrian cities and governorates, through a collection of humanitarian advertising campaigns and a large group of interactive activities in the Syrian society, in addition, of course, to training.
After finishing my film (The Tunnel 2013), which talks about twenty families, internally displaced from three Syrian cities (Aleppo, Damascus and Homs), because of the ongoing conflict, to take shelter in a tunnel under construction on the coastal front’s Cornish in the city of Tartus. –The families became inhabitants of the tunnel!- The film was shown in many Syrian cities and ten international film festivals. Some of them are: The International Film Festival in Estonia, The Jesuits Film Festival in Cairo and The Youth Capital Film Festival in Istanbul between 2014 and 2015.
The film’s effect on society inspired me to use the tools, which I had acquired during my study of political sciences, to create social cohesion through film making. Therefore, I created Peace Lens hand in hand with Ibrahim Melhem in 2015, to enable youths in film making as a tool of expressing themselves peacefully, establish a network of local filmmakers who make films to express their societies and break stereotypes through training workshops in documentary making, in all of which I occupied the position of project manager and trainer. I was also the creative manager of all the films produced in these workshops. After that, I established new roles and a clearer framework and developed the project through a multi-specialties methodology, in order to enable the most helpless in the population, by granting them the tools, which can help them participate in creating local policies. Now I’m the creative manager of Peace Lens activities, and I’m also responsible for planning, designing and communication for the sake of the project’s partnerships and activities.