FILMS
For Sama
FOR SAMA is both an intimate and epic journey into the female experience of war. A love letter from a young mother to her daughter, the film tells the story of Waad al-Kateab’s life through five years of the uprising in Aleppo, Syria as she falls in love, gets married and gives birth to Sama, all while cataclysmic conflict rises around her.
Her camera captures incredible stories of loss, laughter and survival as Waad wrestles with an impossible choice– whether or not to flee the city to protect her daughter’s life, when leaving means abandoning the struggle for freedom for which she has already sacrificed so much.
The film is the first feature documentary by Emmy award-winning filmmakers, Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts.
FOR SAMA – PRODUCED BY CHANNEL 4 NEWS/ITN PRODUCTIONS FOR CHANNEL 4 AND FRONTLINE PBS.
Where To Watch
UK
US
Depending on where you are in the world, For Sama may be available to purchase / stream from one of the following:
Waad al-Kateab
Waad is a Syrian activist and award-winning filmmaker. She became a citizen journalist in 2011, after protests broke out across Syria against the Assad regime, and in January 2016 she began documenting the horrors of Aleppo for Channel 4 News in a series titled, “Inside Aleppo.”
Waad’s first feature documentary, For Sama, documented her life over five years in Aleppo. and has received worldwide critical acclaim, winning numerous awards, including Best Doc at the BAFTAs and a nomination for Best Documentary Feature at the Academy Awards.
Screenings and Q+As
Our driving force is our documentary, For Sama: a powerful tool for education and awareness, it gives audiences the possibility to deeply relate and connect with a context, the Syrian one, which had seemed so far and often irrelevant for too many. Such a connection has served to pave the way for a deeper understanding of displacement and the plight of refugees more broadly.
We have facilitated over 500 screenings of the film over the world so far, and we are always happy to assist those who want to organise more.
For post-screening discussions and Q&As, we will do our best to ensure that Waad, Dr. Hamza or someone else from the wider Action For Sama family can take part and engage in conversation with your community.
If you have any questions abour organising an event, you can also reach out to us via email: hello@actionforsama.com
Film: We Dare To Dream
We Dare to Dream is the story of refugee athletes from Iran, Syria, South Sudan and Cameroon who swim, run and fight their way to opportunity and safety in host nations across the world. Spanning a breadth of backgrounds, personal stories and Olympic sports, the film reveals their lives and hopes as they train to compete on the world stage, showing the fire and the drive of young people forced to leave their families, homes and countries of birth to build new lives out of nothing.
Through the lens of Waad’s second film, audiences witness the resilience and aspirations of millions of people worldwide, forced to leave their families, homes and homelands, and compelled to forge new paths in the hope of a brighter future.
We Dare To Dream had its world premiere at Tribeca Film Festival in June 2023 and was released in the UK in November 2023, followed by a series of community screenings and post-screening discussions across the country led by refugee communities, organisations and allies.
You can watch it online on Curzon Home Cinema (UK), Discovery Plus (Europe), and Peacock (US).
