50 Feet from Syria | |
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Directed by | Skye Fitzgerald |
Production company | Spin Film |
Distributed by | The Cinema Guild |
Release date |
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Running time | 39 minutes |
Countries | Turkey United States Syria |
Language | English |
50 Feet from Syria is a 2015 short-documentary film about a Syrian-American orthopedic surgeon Hisham Bismar who travels to the Turkey-Syrian border situated Al-Amal Hospital during the Syrian civil war. [1] Directed by Skye Fitzgerald, 50 Feet from Syria was shortlisted with ten other documentaries from 74 entries submitted to the 88th Academy Awards in the Documentary Short Subject category. [2] The final five nominations were scheduled to be announced on January 14, 2016. [3]
50 feet from Syria follows Syrian-American surgeon Hisham Bismar as he travels to the Turkish/Syrian border to volunteer for operating on victims from the Syrian Civil War. [4]
Azaz is a city in northwest Syria, roughly 20 miles north-northwest of Aleppo. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Azaz had a population of 31,623 in the 2004 census. As of 2015, its inhabitants were almost entirely Sunni Muslims, mostly Arabs but also some Kurds and Turkmen.
The mass media in Syria consists primarily of television, radio, Internet, film and print. The national language of Syria is Arabic but some publications and broadcasts are also available in English and French. While television is the most popular medium in Syria, the Internet has become a widely utilized vehicle to disseminate content. Transcending all available media, the government seeks to control what Syrians see by restricting coverage from outside sources. Publications and broadcasts are monitored by members of the government. All mass media outlets are under the supervision of the Ministry of Information. Third article of the 2013 Information Ministry guidelines stipulate that purpose of all media outlets is "to enlighten public opinion" in line with the ideological doctrines "of the Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party and the policy of the state".
The Syrian civil war is an ongoing multi-sided conflict in Syria involving various state-sponsored and non-state actors. In March 2011, popular discontent with the rule of Bashar al-Assad triggered large-scale protests and pro-democracy rallies across Syria, as part of the wider Arab Spring protests in the region. After months of crackdown by governments security apparatus, various armed rebel groups such as the Free Syrian Army began forming across the country, marking the beginning of the Syrian insurgency. By mid-2012, the crisis had escalated into a full-blown civil war.
Refugees of the Syrian civil war are citizens and permanent residents of Syria who have fled the country throughout the Syrian civil war. The pre-war population of the Syrian Arab Republic was estimated at 22 million (2017), including permanent residents. Of that number, the United Nations (UN) identified 13.5 million (2016) as displaced persons, requiring humanitarian assistance. Of these, since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011 more than six million (2016) were internally displaced, and around five million (2016) had crossed into other countries, seeking asylum or placed in Syrian refugee camps worldwide. It is often described as one of the largest refugee crises in history.
This is a broad timeline of the course of major events of the Syrian civil war. It only includes major territorial changes and attacks and does not include every event.
The Bab al-Hawa Border Crossing is located on the Syria–Turkey border about 50 km (31 mi) west of Aleppo in northwest Syria. It connects the Syrian M45 and the Turkish D827 highways, between the cities of İskenderun and Idlib, and is known for its long lines of trucks and buses. The closest town on the Turkish side of the border is Reyhanlı in Hatay Province, and the closest towns on the Syrian side are ad-Dana and Atarib. The crossing is the site of a 6th-century triumphal arch. It has been an important crossing for Syrian rebels during the Syrian civil war.
Foreign involvement in the Syrian civil war refers to political, military and operational support to parties involved in the ongoing conflict in Syria that began in March 2011, as well as active foreign involvement. Most parties involved in the war in Syria receive various types of support from foreign countries and entities based outside Syria. The ongoing conflict in Syria is widely described as a series of overlapping proxy wars between the regional and world powers, primarily between the United States and Russia as well as between Iran and Saudi Arabia.
The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), also known as Rojava, is a de facto autonomous region in northeastern Syria. It consists of self-governing sub-regions in the areas of Afrin, Jazira, Euphrates, Raqqa, Tabqa, Manbij, and Deir Ez-Zor. The region gained its de facto autonomy in 2012 in the context of the ongoing Rojava conflict and the wider Syrian civil war, in which its official military force, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), has taken part.
Since the first protests during the Arab Spring in 2011, the Syrian Civil War has been both a proxy war for the major Middle Eastern powers, Turkey and Iran, and a potential launching point for a wider regional war. Fears of the latter were realized when the Islamic State, a Salafi Jihadist militant group and alleged former al-Qaeda affiliate, established itself in Syria in 2013, and later combined with the war in Iraq (2013–2017) into a single conflict the following year.
On 22 September 2014, the United States officially intervened in the Syrian civil war with the stated aim of fighting the Islamic State as part of Operation Inherent Resolve in the international war against the Islamic State. The U.S. also supports the Syrian rebels and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces opposed to both the Islamic State and Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.
Turkey's involvement in the Syrian Civil War began diplomatically and later escalated militarily. Initially, Turkey condemned the Syrian government at the outbreak of civil unrest in Syria during the spring of 2011; the Turkish government's involvement gradually evolved into military assistance for the Free Syrian Army in July 2011, border clashes in 2012, and direct military interventions in 2016–17, in 2018, in 2019, 2020, and in 2022. The military operations have resulted in the Turkish occupation of northern Syria since August 2016.
Kobanî, officially Ayn al-Arab, is a Kurdish-majority city in northern Syria, lying immediately south of the Syria–Turkey border. As a consequence of the Syrian civil war, the city came under the control of the Kurdish-majority People's Protection Units (YPG) militia in 2012 and became the administrative center of the Kobani Canton, later transformed into Euphrates Region of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria.
The White Helmets, officially known as Syria Civil Defence, is a volunteer organisation that operates in parts of opposition-controlled Syria and in Turkey. Formed in 2014 during the Syrian Civil War, the majority of the volunteers' activity in Syria consists of medical evacuation, urban search and rescue in response to bombing, evacuation of civilians from danger areas, and essential service delivery. As of April 2018, the organisation said it had saved about 114,000 lives, and that 204 of its members had lost their lives while performing their duties. They assert their impartiality in the Syrian conflict.
Matthew Heineman is an American documentary filmmaker, director, and producer. His inspiration and fascination with American history led him to early success with the documentary film Cartel Land, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film, a BAFTA Award for Best Documentary, and won three Primetime Emmy Awards.
Den Tolmor is a Moldova-born American film producer, director, and writer, whose work includes feature films, television series, and documentaries. Tolmor is best known for producing Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom, a 2015 documentary film about the Euromaidan protests in Ukraine in the winter of 2013 and 2014, which earned him an Oscar Nomination for Best Documentary Feature and a Primetime Emmy Award nomination in the Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking category in 2016. Throughout his career, Tolmor has frequently collaborated with Oscar-nominated Israeli-American director Evgeny Afineevsky, also producing the 2017 documentary film Cries from Syria about the Syrian civil war. Narrated by Helen Mirren, the film was an official selection of the Sundance Film Festival where it premiered in 2017 and was acquired by HBO. Tolmor produced Francesco, a 2020 documentary film about Pope Francis that tells the story of hope inside the darkness of our times. Righetto, Tolmor's most recent feature film, entered pre-production in Italy in 2020.
Watani: My Homeland is a 2016 documentary short film directed, produced and written by Marcel Mettelsiefen. The film follows the story of a family's escape from Syrian Civil War, and their attempt to start a new life in Germany.
The White Helmets is a 2016 British short documentary film. The film follows the daily operations of a group of volunteer rescue workers of the Syrian Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets. The film was directed by Orlando von Einsiedel and produced by Joanna Natasegara. It won the Best Documentary at the 89th Academy Awards.
Tatiana Huezo Sánchez is a film director of Salvadoran and Mexican nationality, residing in Mexico. Her first film, El lugar más pequeño (2011), a documentary about the Salvadoran Civil War, has been awarded internationally. In 2016 she premiered Tempestad, the story of two women who suffer the consequences of human trafficking in Mexico. It received the 2016 Fénix Award for Best Documentary.
For Sama is a 2019 documentary film produced and narrated by Waad Al-Kateab, and directed by Waad Al-Kateab and Edward Watts. The film focuses on Waad Al-Kateab's journey as a journalist and rebel in the Syrian uprising. Her husband is Hamza al-Kateab, one of the few doctors left in Aleppo, and they raise their daughter Sama Al-Kateab during the Syrian Civil War.
Amani Ballour is a Syrian-born pediatrician and an advocate of women's and children's rights. Her story is portrayed by the Oscar-nominated documentary The Cave, which tells of the struggles of running an underground hospital during the Syrian civil war.