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In the summer of 2013, Michal Przedlacki and Wojciech Szumowski spent 44 days in Aleppo, documenting the lives of ordinary citizens in extraordinary circumstances. The film’s protagonists talk openly about the Syrian revolution, their lives before the conflict erupted and their dreams for the future.

Mohammad Sayeed, a journalist from Aleppo Media Center, documents the disastrous situation in the city. Imam Qasim, an Islamic cleric in one of the poor neighbourhoods, tries to help neighbours affected by the war. Dr. Ammar Zakaria, a former Syrian officer, is a doctor at one of the makeshift field hospitals, struggling to save the lives of the wounded. Abu Mahia delivers free bread to some of most affected families in the city.

Aleppo. Notes from the Dark offers a unique and poignant account of life in Aleppo from the perspective of seven of its residents.

Directed by Michal Przedlacki and Wojciech Szumowski
Duration: 90′
Year: 2014

This screening is supported by the Polish Cultural Institute London:

The Syrian conflict is in its third year, and it is largely freelancers who assume the great risks in covering the events. The Frontline Club has recently launched the report Newsgathering Safety and the Welfare of Freelancers to consider how these risks can be mitigated.

Independent filmmakers, Olly Lambert and Mani, both made award winning films in Syria receiving wide acclaim for their powerful storytelling and unprecedented access. Head of High Risk for the BBC Simon Marr will also join the panel, which will be chaired by veteran journalist and filmmaker Inigo Gilmore.

This session will address the extremely treacherous challenges of filmmaking and reporting in one of the world’s deadliest places. What does the Syrian war tell us about the future of freelance journalism and independent filmmaking? How do we take necessary safety precautions – whilst managing to produce a great film?

Watch last year’s session ‘Dying to tell the Story’ with Founding Director of the Frontline Club Vaughan Smith, photographer Giles Duley and Siobhan Sinnerton, Commissioning Editor at Channel 4. Last year journalist Inigo Gilmore also chaired the debate.

Lambert has worked in many violent and dangerous situations, but none comparable to what he filmed in Syria.

“It was very different, it’s certainly the most intense conflict that I’ve ever come across. I didn’t expect anything on the same scale as what played out when I was there. . . . There have been many reports of what is happening in Aleppo, but [we were] trying to look at this grinding conflict: where it might go, where it might end up, which is a very difficult subject to tackle.”

Initially the filmmaker began by looking at the Houla massacre – the murder of 108 people at the hands of pro-regime militias in late May 2012 which was widely cited in the international media as the tipping point in Syria’s conflict.

“We were going to take [the Houla massacre] as a focus, and often when tackling a very big subject . . . I try to find the smallest window with the biggest view. And Houla might have presented that – one afternoon that might have prefigured how Syria was going.”

But Lambert’s focus was shifted to other massacres in nearby Tremseh and al-Qubeir, villages only 30 or 40 miles apart, the line between which formed a sectarian frontline between Alawite and Shia and Sunni communities. Patrick Johnson, a young researcher at the International Crisis group, pointed him to this area of the Gharb valley, south of Jisr ash-Shughur, through which runs the Orontes river – and which is now wrought by crossfire and bloodshed.

For five weeks, Lambert worked in this fertile Syrian valley, focusing on a microcosm of the Syrian conflict and being reminded of another documentary set within another warring enclave, Dan Reed’s The Valley. The 2000 Bafta-nominated eyewitness documentary, filmed during the guerilla war in Kosovo, before Nato’s intervention.

“I don’t know exactly know who gave us the tick and who gave us the okay within the regime. We made a variety of different applications . . . We were quite explicit that I wanted to go to az-Zazir and that I wanted to see how people were living in az-Zazir and how minorities were living in az-Zazir and someone somewhere signed that off and a visa was granted.”

Lambert and his fixer were escorted by two regime officials. Despite worries about the affect their presence would have on people’s ability to talk, but it proved to be a godsend.

“The anxiety was just thick in the air in this village. I don’t think they had ever been filmed before, and I stayed there for a week, and our security officials were able to say to the Alawites, ‘These guys are absolutely fine, you can talk to them.’ That then unleashed a torrent of their fears and anxieties and beliefs that they really hadn’t had a chance to share with any kind of media.”

Lambert gave these communities a voice, and also gave some redress to paranoia at work within Western news sources.

“There’s a real obsession in Western media about foreign fighters, jihadists, al-Qaeda, Jabhat al-Nusra. When I came out of the rebel side – I hadn’t had any internet for weeks – and when I first looked at the news, I could believe that every article I read was about [this] and it just didn’t connect because I did not meet a single foreign fighter. . . . It’s just not on the agenda. It’s a distraction form the wider issue.”

That wider issue is, of course, the unending, punishing destruction of the fighting. An audience member asked about the apparent survival of infrastructure, to which Lambert replied:

“There is electricity, food is getting in – somehow they’re surviving. It’s terrible in a way because it makes it go on longer and longer and longer. It’s not forcing any kind of outcome.”

But there are people who are now desperate to go back to a Syria as it was, and that plays entirely into the regime’s hands.

“There’s this phrase that is often repeated: This is their freedom. When there’s any kind of conflict or car bomb or any kind of explosion or fight: This is their freedom. It’s the regime’s way of saying you’re better off under us.”

Syria – Across the Lines will be broadcast on Channel 4 on April 17 at 10pm.

There will also be a special screening at the RSA on April 16.

The fertile plains of the Orontes River in rural Idlib used to be a place of peaceful coexistence for Syria’s many sects and religions. Today, the river marks a sectarian frontline: on one side, the Free Syrian Army holds ground in Sunni villages whose residents are calling for the fall of the regime. Only 2km away, Alawite villagers remain fiercely loyal to the government, and gladly host army checkpoints that fire shells and mortars into the Sunni villages across the valley on a daily basis.

As the Syrian conflict enters its third year, this documentary offers a shocking window on its increasingly sectarian nature. For five weeks, award winning documentary filmmaker Olly Lambert lived on both sides of this frontline: living with Alawite loyalists and government supporters on one side, as well as the FSA and Sunni refugees on the other.

In Syria – Across the Lines Lambert documents a graphic and unflinching portrait of a society cleaving apart in the face of dwindling international support, escalating violence and a growing mutual desire for revenge.

Directed by Olly Lambert
Duration: 52′
Year: 2013

The week starts off with two high-profile court hearings on Monday. Former Egyptian Interior Minister Habib al Adly is scheduled to go on trial in Cairo on charges of ordering the deaths of protesters, but the hearing has been twice postponed so far, sparking angry demonstrations.

In Perugia, the long awaited report on a review of DNA evidence in Amanda Knox’s murder appeal is presented to the court.

Contentious land issues are the theme of the day on Tuesday, as new Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar arrives in New Delhi for two days of highly anticipated meetings with her Indian counterpart SM Krishna.

Meanwhile, the UN Security Council in New York holds an open debate on the Middle East, the bulk of which is expected to focus on Palestinian plans to seek UN recognition in September.

UN business continues in the same vein on Wednesday, with the Panel of Inquiry into the 31 May, 2010 Gaza flotilla due to publish its report. Turkey’s representative to the Panel, Ozdem Sanberk, said it’s the ‘last chance’ to re-establish good political relations between Israel and Turkey.

On Thursday, new Peruvian President Ollanta Humala takes office following his 5 June defeat of Keiko Fujimori, daughter of imprisoned former President Alberto Fujimori.

In the Syrian town of Al Bukamal, a 10-day deadline issued by the Armed Forces expires. Residents have been told to hand over weapons and submit to Government control by today or face a full military assault.

Two small developments in the phone hacking scandal are set for Friday, with Jonathan May-Bowles (aka Jonnie Marbles) scheduled to appear in a London court to face charges related to him throwing a shaving foam pie at Rupert Murdoch during the 19 July culture, media and sport committee hearing. BSkyB’s preliminary results are also released.

In Nigeria, the High Court is expected to deliver its verdict in the case of four men charged over last October’s independence day bombings in Abuja, which killed 12 people. One of the defendants is Charles Okah, brother of alleged leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) Henry, who is facing trial in South Africa for masterminding the bombing.

Friday also marks the one year anniversary of the beginning of the Pakistan floods, which went on to cover over a fifth of the country, killing nearly 2,000 people.

The Lebanese government has until Saturday to arrest persons named in the indictment issued by the UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon on 30 June, or to inform the Tribunal of the measures taken to attempt arrest. If arrests are not made, the STL may order a public advertisement calling on the accused to surrender, which would mark the first time Rafik al Hariri’s alleged assassins have been publicly named.

On Sunday, US hikers Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer are expected to go on trial in Tehran on charges of spying for the US. Sarah Shourd, who was arrested alongside them, was released in September 2010. You can watch the Frontline Club event last year looking at Iran’s record on detainment , which was attended by Bauer’s mother, Cindy Hickey here