Film

BAMcinématek and LIU present the winner of the inaugural George Polk Documentary Film Award, an extraordinary, visceral film that dives into the Syrian resistance with a frenzied immediacy, intimately capturing two friend’s haunting battle cry for justice. As a siege takes hold in Homs, friends Basset and Osama gather a circle of brave but inexperienced insurgents, determined to protect the city’s captive civilians and help them get out of the warzone. In a standoff reminiscent of David and Goliath, a handful of stranded amateur fighters hold out against the snipers, tanks, and mortars of the Syrian Army while their city crumbles around them.

The George Polk Awards are conferred annually to honor special achievement in journalism. The awards place a premium on investigative and enterprising reporting that gains attention and achieves results. They were established in 1949 by LIU to commemorate George Polk, a CBS correspondent murdered in 1948 while covering the Greek civil war.