Articles

Kurdish filmmaker turns to crowd funding to finance short film

H.G.Hassan   /   24 августа 2017 года

Amsterdam-based Kurdish filmmaker and writer Beri Shalmashi has successfully crowd funded her short film, ‘Shouted From the Rooftops,’ a tragic love story about a couple divided by war.
Graduated from the Netherlands Film Academy in 2008, Shalmashi has since become a household name within the film scene, at home and abroad. In 2013, she wrote and directed her first movie in Kurdistan titled ‘Heart on Fire,’ a short film about honor killings. Her plans were to shoot her feature film debut in Kurdistan last year, but the situation on the ground worsened and Shalmashi and her team postponed the plan.
Shouted from the Rooftops was Shalmashi’s first attempt at crowd funding. “I am making this short film as there is no time to sit around and wait until there is funding and the ideal situation to make a longer film in Kurdistan,“ she said in an interview with Rudaw English. She spoke to Rudaw about the difficulties filmmakers face in the Kurdistan region and international support for the Kurdish cause, and gave a sneak peak behind the scenes of her latest project.
And she said: I wrote the first draft for this script when girls were leaving to the frontlines of Rojava, fighting against Assad’s army in 2012. So, to me, Kurdish women are a logical hero to pick. Our guerillas and Peshmerga have always been our national heroes, and through the war against ISIL (the Islamic State group), they have become international heroes. 
About supporting she said: All sorts of people are contributing, from producers, filmmakers and journalists that have travelled to Kurdistan to friends and family from Holland, the US, Sweden, Germany, and elsewhere around the globe. The campaign received a lot of attention from Kurds and non-Kurds alike.  By seeing the high number of people supporting this film, I feel our struggle has support from the audience.

 
Источник: kurdishglobe.net