My project aims to raise awareness about the start of the Syrian crisis. The news reflects the very complicated situation in Syria today, but many people have forgotten how the crisis started with a peaceful rebellion on March 15, 2010. The bottles and roses refer to those used in some of the peaceful protests popularized by a late Syrian activist, Ghiath Matar. Some cities, during the peaceful movement, made it a trend of giving water bottles to the Syrian Army (sent to kill them) and carried roses during protests as a symbol of peace. In this video, they represent a protestor/civilian, a group of protestors, and Syrian cities. The montage shows the different stages of the Syrian crisis like: the start of the peaceful protests, the harsh government response, the torture of the protestors and family mourning, peaceful funeral protests, and airstrikes. I montaged short clips of each scene with audio from actual amateur footage taken by Syrian civilians/protestors and audio from Syrians in my community. This piece is a reminder of the beginning of a beautiful yet sad peaceful movement that has been wiped out and forgotten by many, after nine years of war.
