Afield Trips | Qamislo, with Sevinaz Evdike (Rojava Film Commune)

Afield Trips is a series of portraits of artists and cultural activists. Each episode takes us into their lives to give us a glimpse of their context and help us expand our understanding of why they do what they do.

The 2020 Afield Fellowship was awarded to Rojava Film Commune (represented by Kurdish filmmaker Sevinaz Evdike), a local film collective rooted in Rojava’s revolutionary philosophy and inspired by the Democratic multicultural self-administration in the North and East of Syria.

“In a region where culture has been suppressed constantly by central powers and terrorist organisations, where the youth has only Turkish soap operas and Syrian state television available, we aim to foster access to a diverse range of films and encourage cinema culture as a tool for social change” says Evdike.

Sevinaz Evdike (1991, Syria), a member of Rojava Film Commune since 2015, is a graduate of the Cegerxwin Academy of Art in Turkey and director of the Rojava International Film Festival. She teaches scriptwriting and has directed the film Home, which addresses children’s and womens’ issues and the remnants of war.

Binna Choi is the director at Casco Art Institute: Working for the Commons in Utrecht, where she engages with both its artistic program and organisational (de)instituting as her curatorial and collaborative art practice.