Visionary Award from the Tim Hetherington Trust 2017

The Tim Hetherington Trust is proud to present the Visionary Award 2017 to Omar Imam.

Syrialism (or What Syrians Want) 

Having left his native Damascus in 2012 and is now based in the Netherlands, Omar Imam is reflecting on the evolving condition of being Syrian six years into the brutal civil war that has scattered the population throughout the world.  He was struck how on first approach, most refugees immediately repeat ideological positions that rarely correlate with real experience, and he has since developed an interview technique that challenges both himself and his subjects to think hard. The viewer swings between the private and public lives of the subjects, discovering the significance of international policy through the intimate lives of his subjects or collaborators in this work that is described as both documentary and research.  A peaceful activist, a Jihadi, a pro regime and an anti regime, a businessman, a drug dealer…  All these and more contribute to this uniquely intimate exploration of the new Syrian culture that is struggling to understand itself.  

Omar Imam's work can be viewed HERE  and further commentary by Eric Gottesman HERE