The Motion Picture Academy approved a Syrian film commission in exile, which chose a documentary, Little Gandhi, to represent their country. Syria has descended into such a horrible war zone that few people remember that it played a part in the Arab Spring of 2011. Little Gandhi tells the story of one of the leaders of this movement, Ghiyath Matar, who advocated non-violent resistance to the regime of dictator Bashar al-Assad. Matar was eventually tortured and murdered by the Assad regime. Syrian-American director Sam Kadi could not visit Syria. So, he hired a cameraman to interview two old friends of Matar (while sniper fire could be heard in the background) and directed the interview by Skype from a hotel room in Istanbul. It took six months to smuggle the footage out of Syria. I don’t want to hear any American directors complain about the obstacles they’ve faced making their films.
