DOX BOX: Trying to open some windows

First-time documentary festival organizers Diana El Jeiroudi and Orwa Nyrabia want to show Syrian audiences the many faces of creative documentary - both Western and Arabic. Lights and Shadows (1994) was the opening film of dox box, the first independent and international doc film festival held in February in Damascus, Syria. The film, by Syrian filmmakers Omar Amiralay, Mohamed Malas and Ossama Mohammad, portrays Syrian film pioneer Nazih Shahbandar, who, in the 1930s and '40s, invented his own film equipment, including a machine for optic sound that used razor blades. Shahbandar made the first Syrian sound film, Light and Darkness (1948), and was invited to work in Beirut and Cairo. He decided to return to Damascus to establish a Syrian film industry. In the mid '70s, he helped Malas and Amiralay, who had founded the Damascus Cinema Club, with the projection of films - via a mirror in a garden.

March 1, 2008

First-time documentary festival organizers Diana El Jeiroudi and Orwa Nyrabia want to show Syrian audiences the many faces of creative documentary - both Western and Arabic. Lights and Shadows (1994) was the opening film of dox box, the first independent and international doc film festival held in February in Damascus, Syria. The film, by Syrian filmmakers Omar Amiralay, Mohamed Malas and Ossama Mohammad, portrays Syrian film pioneer Nazih Shahbandar, who, in the 1930s and '40s, invented his own film equipment, including a machine for optic sound that used razor blades. Shahbandar made the first Syrian sound film, Light and Darkness (1948), and was invited to work in Beirut and Cairo. He decided to return to Damascus to establish a Syrian film industry. In the mid '70s, he helped Malas and Amiralay, who had founded the Damascus Cinema Club, with the projection of films - via a mirror in a garden.