Cancel anytime 2279 Movies. A new one everyday
Watch anywhere
From her bedroom in suburban Chicago, 19 year old Ala’a Basatneh helps coordinate the Syrian revolution using social media. As peaceful protests escalate into violent conflict, she supports activists on the ground by sharing footage, mapping escape routes and amplifying evidence of human rights abuses. The film examines the power and limits of the internet in confronting dictatorship.
AWARDS
Doc U Award, International Documentary Festival Amsterdam
Cinema for Peace and Justice Award, Cinema for Peace Foundation, Berlin
Golden Butterfly, Student’s Choice, Amnesty International’s Movies That Matter, The Hague
Award of the Emigration Museum, Planete+Doc, Warsaw
Special Mention for Canon of Cinematography Award, Planete+Doc, Warsaw
GEN DOC Best Documentary, Giffoni International Film Festival
Best Chronicle, Maverick Movie Awards, Los Angeles
Best Documentary, Hollywood Film Festival, Los Angeles
Special Jury Prize Documentary, Napa Valley Film Festival
Best Director, Social Impact Media Award
Best Historical Documentary, San Antonio Film Festival
Vanguard Award, DocUtah, St. George
Outstanding Achievement in Filmmaking, Williamsburg International Film Festival, Brooklyn
OFFICIAL SELECTIONS
International Documentary Festival Amsterdam
Human Rights Human Wrongs, Oslo
One World, Prague
Stockholm International Film Festival
Planete+Doc, Warsaw
DocEdge, Auckland
Seattle International Film Festival
Edinburgh International Film Festival
Giffoni International Film Festival
International Cinematographers Film Festival Manaki Bros, Republic of Macedonia
Take One Action Film Festival, Glasgow
Festival Des Liberties, Brussels
Hollywood Film Festival, Los Angeles
Afghan Social Media Summit, Kabul
Austin Film Festival, Austin
Kino Saga, Lithuania
Leeds International Film Festival
Napa Valley Film Festival
Sausalito Film Festival
Crocevia di Sguardi, Turin
St. Louis International Film Festival
Anti Racism Film Festival, Stockholm
Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival
Ajyal Youth Film Festival, Qatar
Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Ottawa
Athena Film Festival, New York
Luxembourg City Film Festival
Family of Women Film Festival, Sun Valley
Sun Valley Film Festival
Palm Beach International Film Festival
Vail Film Festival
Arizona State University Human Rights Film Festival, Tempe
Doxa, Vancouver
Newport Beach Film Festival
San Antonio Film Festival
DocUtah, St. George
Williamsburg International Film Festival, Brooklyn
A teenage activist connects Chicago to Syria’s revolution
#chicagoGirl: The Social Network Takes on a Dictator is a documentary film that follows Ala’a Basatneh, a 19 year old student living in the suburbs of Chicago, as she becomes deeply involved in the Syrian revolution that began in 2011. From her childhood bedroom, she uses Facebook, Twitter, Skype and mobile technology to coordinate protests, share real time information and help activists navigate increasingly dangerous streets marked by snipers and shelling.
With more than a thousand Facebook contacts and a large Twitter following, Ala’a builds an extensive online network that connects her to young Syrians on the ground. She posts demonstrations as Facebook events, plots escape routes using digital maps and uploads footage filmed by demonstrators. She also helps arrange the delivery of recording equipment so that her friends, once ordinary students, can document human rights atrocities under the rule of President Bashar al Assad.
As the uprising shifts from peaceful protest to violent conflict, the documentary juxtaposes Ala’a’s remote activism with harrowing images from Syria, much of it filmed by the protesters themselves. Expert commentary from specialists in Syria, war, journalism and social media places the events in context, asking what influence the internet has on modern revolutions and whether a camera can be more powerful than a weapon. The film also reflects on why some regimes fell quickly during the Arab Spring, while the Syrian regime endured despite global visibility.
2279 films
And a new one every day
The preferred platform
of true documentary lovers
Half of all revenue goes
directly to the filmmakers
