DERIK, Syria (North Press) – Ibrahim Faqa, administrator and member of the recently found Pargin Foundation in the countryside of the city of Derik in far northeast Syria, is busy putting final touches on a documentary film that they filmed earlier in the city’s countryside.
Five months ago, a group interested in heritage established Pargin Foundation in the village of Bistasous in the countryside of Derik which is affiliated with Cultural Committee in the Jazira region.
Documenting heritage
Pargin is a Kurdish word that means enclosing tents with soil to protect them from rainfalls infiltration.
Pargin founders believed that the aim of establishing this foundation is the need to collect folklore, heritage and ancestors’ lifestyle through photos and videos where they will search, document and maintain the material and moral heritage of the region.
There are 25 members in the foundation; most of them are women who were subjected to training for two months.
The trainings concentrated on technical matters like sound, montage and photography. They also introduced lectures of the indigenous culture and its effects on the region.
“The conditions to join this foundation, is the availability of cultural background for the applicant and his love for heritage and cultural work,” Faqa said.
He referred that the foundations work will focus on the search and document of the region’s heritage from the Tigris to Euphrates Rivers.
Soon, 20 martials will be issued, including 12 short documentary films and 20 folkloric songs, according to Faqa.
Difficulties
It is supposed that these materials will be displayed on the foundation’s accounts.
The culture of the Kurds in particular, and the old East in general will disappear if we did not maintain it.
“The difficulties vary, some are related to citizens and others are related to history, a part of our culture has exposed to elimination, if culture is not maintained, then society will not be maintained, either,” Faqa said.
The foundation team is consisted of a section of search, documenting, montage, photography, sound, decoration, clothes, direction and music under the supervision of specialists, in addition to a section of singing consisted of eight members.
Other branches
“Pargin project was established here for our deadly need to collect folklore, heritage and lifestyle of our ancestors,” Member of Rojava Film Commune and trainer in Pargin Foundation, Shero Hindi said.
“Rojava Film Commune started to train members of Pargin Foundation,” he added.
“I trained the members on the principles of directing and I am helping them to produce some documentaries about the indigenous culture of the region,” Hindi noted.
“I joined Pargin because I am interested in Kocharat’s folklore; I wanted to learn more about their lifestyle and the tools they used,” Luna Abdulkarim said.
“We were trained on the scenario, direction, clothes design and decoration, in addition to technical matters like cameras and sounds,” she added.