
Salam Neighbor is a documentary released in 2016 by
the film production companies Living on One Dollar
and 1001 MEDIA. The title means "hello" neighbor.
The title has a dual meaning as the Arabic word
"salam" also means "peace."
The film documents the experiences of American
filmmakers Zach Ingrasci and Chris Temple when they
lived among 85,000 Syrians in Jordan''s Za''atari
refugee camp, which lies seven miles from the Syrian
border. The filmmakers, who were the first allowed
by the UN to register and set-up a tent inside a
refugee camp, spent a month in Za''atari to cover
what the UN Refugee Agency calls the world''s most
pressing humanitarian crisis.
Salam Neighbor is a component of a three-part
project focused on the Syrian refugee crisis: the
documentary, a virtual reality (VR) film and a
social impact campaign.
The film had its world premiere in Washington, DC at
the AFI DOCS film festival on June 20, 2015.
Film-making approach
In Salam Neighbor, the filmmakers sought to
understand the human side of the Syrian refugee
crisis by living among the refugees. This immersive
film style, combined with a social impact campaign,
reflects the strategy of Living on One, which was
co-founded by Salam Neighbor''s directors/producers
Chris Temple and Zach Ingrasci, and echoes their
previous documentary, Living on One Dollar. The
"East meets West" approach to humanize the Arab
world reflects the strategy of the film''s other
producers Mohab Khattab and Salam Darwaza, the
co-founders of 1001 MEDIA.
Story-lines
Salam Neighbor concentrates on five Syrian refugees:
Ghoussoon, a nurse who built a home business to
provide for her children, Um Ali, a grandmother
struggling to overcome personal loss and cultural
barriers, Raouf, a street smart 10-year-old boy who
hides his trauma behind his smile, Ghassem, a
30-something relief worker who lost everything he
built in his life, and Ismail, a 20-something father
finding his way after his college education was
interrupted by the Syrian crisis. The film tells
five stories among the 65 million refugee stories
around the globe.
In trying to depict the humanity of the crisis,
Salam Neighbor seeks to reflect the reality of life
in a refugee camp. The film provides its audience
insights into the refugee crossing process, entry
into Jordan, initial aid upon arrival (water, food,
first aid and inoculations), arrival registration in
the camp, setting up a tent and obtaining bedding,
heaters and initial food rations. In telling the
stories of their neighbors, the filmmakers also
offered a look into how camp life affected the
refugees, both good and bad. For example, Um Ali was
shown to have created opportunity out of crisis by
developing and selling her art and working for an
NGO to support her husband for the first time.
Salam Neighbor further addresses the logistics of
running the Za''atari refugee camp, including through
interviews of the then camp manager, Kilian
Kleinschmidt, who discussed the entrepreneurial
energy of the refugees and said, "We were building a
camp, they were building a city." That quote
summarizes the strains between the goals and
expertise of the NGOs in providing "first-aid" and
the desires of the refugees to begin to recover and
rebuild their lives.
Another issue covered in the film is the role of
host countries and how refugees are affected by the
constraints host countries face with a large influx
of people escaping war.
Commentary by the filmmakers
Members of the Salam Neighbor film team have
elaborated on their approach to, as well as other
aspects of, Salam Neighbor in various television and
radio interviews. On Andrea Mitchell Reports on
MSNBC, the directors described the story of 10-year
old Raouf and the trauma he faced. On The Leonard
Lopate Show on WNYC radio, the directors chatted
about four major characters in the film, the
filmmakers'' expectations entering the refugee camp,
security issues in the camp, the urban refugee issue
(refugees living outside of the camps), the
resettlement question and how the crisis is changing
gender and cultural norms for the Syrian refugees.
On The Mimi Geerges Show, the four producers covered
the same issues as the Lopate interview, as well as
the film''s goals, the role of refugee camps,
logistics in the camp, the filmmakers'' interactions
with refugees in the camp, the entrepreneurship
exhibited in the camp, host country issues, the role
of more developed Arab nations in this crisis and
the Living on One/1001 MEDIA partnership.
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