The Buried Struggle – Landmines in Kurdistan

The northern region of Iraq, Kurdistan, is contaminated with many explosive remnants of war and thousands of minefields. In former times many villagers cleared mines themselves, Hoshiyar Ali (47) being one of them. Today there are specialized de-mining organizations that are responsible for clearing the region. However, Hoshiyar is one of the few that refuses to give up his life task: clearing mines. Even after losing both his legs due to mine-explosions. This is the story of a struggle involving patriotism and hidden dangers.

During the shooting for our documentary about landmines in Kurdistan, we decided to take a little break. Don’t forget…it was New Years Eve…or better…Newroz.

We did the filming with a small and extremely awesome camera (the Hero Cam Pro) on my head, Zilemo her head…and the head of a unknown Kurd who was in the midst of the celebrating.

The celebration was in the city of Slemani, Kurdistan.

My final project at the School of Journalism, was a 10-week course called CampusDoc. This course focuses on documentary film-making.

In this course there is a two week exchange included with Hunter City College in New York City. Thanks to Hunter College I was able to participate in a special neighborhood project in the South-Bronx. I shot two short stories at Hunts Point, South-Bronx. Both of the stories will be aired on http://www.huntspointexpress.com/

For the second story I only did the camera work and directing. The editing credits go to Eva van Riet and Sarah Dienaar

For a Dutch Opera performance, in the royal pond of Palace Soestdijk, Lotte Debeij & I shot two behind the scene’s vids.

Enjoy!

Part 1

Part 2
This vid has been shot with the Canon 7D