(Reporting by Faris al-Rifai; Translation by Dani Murad)
Since joining the Syrian revolution, Matthew VanDyke has raised a lot of doubts and mysteries regarding his bizarre behaviors, and for the many qualities and characteristics he attributed to himself, since he is a former POW, award-winning documentary filmmaker, founder and Director of the NGO After The Revolution, Middle East analyst, TV and radio commentator, Huffington Post blogger, award-winning writer, and on top of that is a warrior fighting with rebels in Syria, after fighting with Libya’s rebels against Muammar Gaddafi.
Matthew or “Jack of all trades” holds a master degree in security studies from Georgetown University, BA in Political Science, and has some knowledge of Arab spring revolutions. He came to Syria to film a movie but soon joined rebels’ rows, and later was accused by some of spying on them; he was seen for months in the streets of Aleppo in his full military uniform taking pictures of the fast-changing events in the city.
Zaman Alwasl contacted Matthew and made an interview with him that was cut short, because he was provoked when asked about his accusations of being a spy on the Syrian rebels who passes information to the American intelligence, an accusation that was circulated through media and social networks.
In the beginning of the interview, we asked him about the purpose of his trip to Syria amid the ongoing war there, and he answered: “I didn’t go to Syria as a correspondent nor a journalist, because I’m not a journalist nor was I before 2009, I was and still a freedom fighter who fought with the Libyan revolution in 2011, and was a Dushka gunner, a fighter in the infantry rows, a war prisoner in Abu Salim prison for 6 months after being arrested by Gaddafi forces , to escape later from a prison in Tripoli with other prisoners and return to fight against Gaddafi's forces.
“After the triumph of the Libyan revolution I came to Syria to help its revolution, and there I completed a film entitled:” Not Anymore: A Story of Revolution " to improve the image of the Syrian revolution in front of the world public opinion, and used the movie’s revenue to help the revolutionaries, and I hope this movie convinces America and Europe’s leaders to support FSA, and encourages people around the world to donate money for Syrian rebels, in order to be able to buy weapons and ammunition they need to win this war. The film also aims to encourage more Syrians to join FSA rows. Matthew added
In regard to the circumstances that surrounded his movie and the risks he had to face during the war, Matthew said: it was extremely difficult to execute the movie because it was filmed under snipers’ fire, artillery shells, mortars, bombings and kidnappings, and the Syrian state TV showed clips of the movie and pictures of me when I was fighting in Libya, accusing me of being a terrorist, but despite that, I continued to work for Free Syria, fight Assad’s regime and will never stop.
In terms of the outlines of his documentary, Matthew said: “my movie is a 15 minutes short film which was uploaded on YouTube for free, in multi languages including Arabic, and millions of people watched it on TV around the world, especially in Germany, Australia, Norway, South Africa, in addition to that I sent a “DVD” copy to 535 deputies in the United States Congress.
Not Anymore: A Story of Revolution is an award-winning documentary that features the story of Syrians struggle for freedom as experienced by a 32 year old rebel fighter, Omar Hattab, and a 24 year old female journalist, Nour Kalzi , told through the emotional words of the two powerful characters whose lives have been turned upside down and torn apart by the gruesome war.
The movie sheds the light on Nour and Omar’s friends who lost their lives, in addition to cases of torture and difficulties, to glimpses of hope in a prosperous future after Assad’s era, he said.
“The movie is very sentimental, and has drawn deep feelings of sympathy and sadness among people who have seen it, and that what I wanted, to make Syrians feel others’ empathy and understanding to their struggle, and I hope the movie achieved this goal,” he added.
Matthew pointed out that his movie has won 33 international awards, and was very beneficial to the Syrian revolution according to many people who have seen it, he said: “I hope this movie convinces more and more people all over the world to support the Syrian revolution”.
Then the interview was interrupted abruptly like “a spanner in the works” when we asked Matthew about rebels’ accusations of being a spy to the American intelligence and the truth behind these accusations, but furious and enraged he answered: No one says so. What are you talking about? And when we asked him about his relationship with the Syrian rebels and his position among them, “Shahryār lapsed into silence”.
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