"City of Ghosts" is a documentary film which was directed and produced by Matthew Heineman. Heineman is an Emmy award winning and Academy Award- nominated film maker and sheds new light on the plight in Syria. The documentary follows the story of a Syrian media Activist Group. The group featured in the documentary is known as the activist group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently. "City of Ghosts" premiered this year in 2017 at the Sundance Film Festival. It received outstanding reviews and as such is being brought to theaters later this year. The documentary has already won a total of 7 awards and has been nominated for an eighth.
The activist group shows the reality of living in Raqqa
The documentary focuses primarily on the activist group called Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently. It first began as a way for people to show the world what they were dealing with in Syria and soon turned into a resistance cell. The Islamic State moved into their city and began a brutal regime. The citizens knew that they would have to take action themselves as no one was coming to help them.
They started videoing scenes of violence and the inhumanity of the Islamics states reign. They uploaded these videos to social media platforms such as YouTube and began sharing them worldwide. Some of the videos are extremely graphic and should be censored from any children and teenagers.
According to The Guardian, the content of these videos features the beheading of individuals, violent executions, mock crucifixions and have been equated to the rule of Hitler's Nazis.
The director could not risk going to Raqqa
According to the Independent, director Matthew Heineman could not risk going to Raqqa to obtain any first-hand knowledge or footage of the place.
If he did, he would have been killed immediately. Instead, the director had to rely on smuggled tapes and pieces of records that were shot over in Raqqa and sent to him. He then put the entire documentary together. This was a unique experience for the director as he became a viewer of the documentary pieces before he put them together.
Heineman stated that he knew the documentary was too important not to try and make it. He stated that there is minimal action being made to help the people in Raqqa and hopes that this documentary might help save some of the citizens trapped over there.
"City of Ghosts" is due to be released in theaters across the world later this year. It has already premiered at select theaters earlier this month and several film festivals.
