The New York Times this week posted this brief documentary, created by a 17-year-old Syrian girl named Khaldiya, who lives with her family in a camp for Syrian refugees in Jordan. It’s part of an ongoing series in the Times (called “Op-Docs”) produced by independent filmmakers who have received support from the nonprofit Sundance Institute.
In the Times, Khaldiya writes:
When I arrived at the Za’atari refugee camp in Jordan three years ago, I was overwhelmed. My family left our village in the region of Syria where the revolution began, after the area was bombed. My mother and six younger siblings and I suddenly became eight of the world’s 4.5 million Syrian refugees, and we have been living with 80,000 of them in our camp ever since.
Life in a refugee camp was different from what I’d expected. While it is hard in many ways, it has challenged me to be stronger and more independent. Now I am sharing my experiences in this Op-Doc video, which I made through a media workshop at an activity center in the camp in 2014, working with a visiting filmmaker to film as much of my life as I could.
Watch her video, which is called “Another Kind of Girl,” below.