Zerîn Kurtay- Roksan Efrîn/JINHA

QAMÎŞLO - The Rojava Film Commune, founded to provide a space for alternative revolutionary cinema, has started its first classes.

Filmmakers from Kurdistan founded the Rojava Film Commune recently in the city of Dirbêsiyê, located in the Cizîrê Canton of the Rojava autonomous region. Scriptwriter and cinema veteran Önder Çakar has led the first lessons from the commune. The film class will last for one month. The women in the class say their goal is to use film to document and share the Rojava revolution.

"Culture is what makes a people visible," said Lara Elî, one of the students. "I chose cinema in particular because I want to introduce people to Rojava and the women's revolution. Kurdish culture and art have been ignored; we want to respond to that with the spirit of the revolution."

Kîfe Çîlo, who has acted in films in the past, is also taking the class. She sees the role of women as transmitters of culture as key to their leadership role in the Kurdish revolution--and in art.

"We have to struggle for an alternative cinema to capitalism," said Kîfe. "We know that society turns women into objects of advertising. We're here so that we, as women, can be the subjects of cinema."

(fk/cm)