Abdo Ayesh - Sana'a

Yemeni filmmaker Hameed Akbi is documenting the tragedies of the war raging in Yemen through a documentary that chronicles the facts, events, observations and stories of ordinary people who have sunk into a sea of ​​disasters they never imagined.

At the beginning of November, Akbi launched an invitation to journalists, activists, students and all segments of Yemeni society through social networking sites to participate in "Yemen in 100 Minutes" by filming short clips with Hootam mobile cameras.

He was a political refugee in France since 2001 and is not entitled to travel to his country, despite his longing for his family in Yemen and his region, "Beit al Faqih" in the province of Hodeidah, where he was born. 1972.

Yemen's entry is currently very difficult, and many obstacles, and the security risks to his life are great, so he resorted to the call to Yemenis to shoot footage of their neighborhoods, streets, villages and cities shed light on part of their lives in the shadow of war.

The pain in the heart of the director, who is watching the news of his country, and the pain is even more severe, he feels helpless to travel to Yemen, and at a time when the city of Hodeidah - the city of Tihama - the city of ghosts, and displacement of its inhabitants, and remains between the bombing of missiles and missiles, and hunger and death .

Akbi hopes that his call to the activists to participate in his film will receive a wide response by portraying realistic scenes of ordinary people in the streets, hospitals, markets, schools and refugee camps, and conveying some of the complexities and pains of the war to its people, leaders and politicians.

Akbi says his country "lives in a renewed reality where pain grows with every hour of war, and there are thousands of influential stories, and what we seek does not cancel any future documentary film project, but opens the appetite of channels and directors to produce dozens of films in Yemen."

From exile in France seeks Hamid Akbi to document the tragedies of the war in Yemen in 100 minutes (Al Jazeera)

Photography concerns
The biggest obstacle to the completion of the project in documenting part of the tragedies of Yemen and its people, the biggest obstacle is the weakness of the Internet in all Yemeni provinces, and also the lack of electricity, which makes charging the phone a big problem, according to the description Akkabi.

"One of the participants in Sanaa told me that he was afraid of photographing the street. Perhaps he was being held by a security patrol, who confiscated his phone, and they may accuse him of talking to a foreign country," he said.

From the city of Aden (south), the temporary capital of Yemen, one of them told him that shooting on the streets could lead to security problems. He may be accused of talking to al-Houthi group in Sana'a, and thus the fear has become inhabited by citizens. Bloody guns and flying bombardment.

There is a difficult problem facing the film project, as Akby sees. People are afraid of photography and some of them need material encouragement, even symbolically, and the participant may not have money. As a Yemeni people, we do not like women and very few have the courage to talk in front of a camera.

And there is no richness in the pictures shows and reveals what happened and happening in Yemen, while the war in Syria, the world has interacted with the enormity of the published images and videos, and is still present for the publication of many visual materials every moment, and in Yemen did not happen, there is poverty in the pictures, And find satellite channels repeat and repeat scenes and sections themselves.

Akbi hopes to show his film "Yemen in 100 minutes" - a rights and non-profit - in forums and international human rights organizations, and to be a true human rights document; because it is the portrayal of simple people without frills and exaggeration, and then displays in international festivals and events, It comes from simple people with the touch of their phones.

Akbi still remembers that he came to France to study cinema and realize his dream as a filmmaker, and he could not imagine the request for political asylum there. The reason for this was an article about the film "The Easy Way" published in the Yemeni newspaper "Al-Khabariya", which caused a lot of noise. Because of his article, and it came to the Yemeni parliament and demand the dismissal of the Minister of Information and Chairman of the Council of the Republican Foundation Press.

From the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, specifically from the city of Conne in the famous Normandy province of France, my punishment seems optimistic that the war will soon be over, and that his film will have a role in bringing peace to the world and what is happening in Yemen.