City of Ghosts review astonishing look at Syrian freedom fighters – The Guardian

An image from the documentary City of Ghosts. Photograph: Dogwoof

Matthew Heinemans documentary is about a remarkably courageous group in Raqqa, Syria, who have formed something between a digital citizen journalist collective and a resistance cell. When Islamic State moved into the city after the anti-Assad insurgency and established a brutal reign, these people took out their smartphones and formed an activist group called Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently. They uploadedtheir videos to YouTube and social media, and showed the world the violence and sheer psychopathic spiteof Isis. This film showed me horrible images Ive neverseen before, having been squeamish about searching them out online: beheadings, executions, mockcrucifixions and Nazi-style placard shaming. RBSS, as they are known, took on Isis in the digital media war, matching the jihadis increasingly sophisticated propagandavideos with material of their own. Some of their most devastating images concern Isiss ruthless recruitment of children.As RBSS put it: Children are Isiss firewood. Now most people in the group have taken refuge in Germany, where they live in fear of being assassinated. Their fight goes on. This is a powerful testament to a new kind ofcitizens digitaljournalism.

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City of Ghosts review astonishing look at Syrian freedom fighters - The Guardian