Sam Kadi says his first-ever documentary was also the one that changed his life.



Kadi, 42, is the Syrian-American film director behind Little Gandhi: The Lost Truth of the Syrian Uprising, an award-winning documentary about the peaceful origins of the now-violent Syrian revolution that has displaced millions.



The 90-minute film focuses on Ghiyath Matar, an iconic Syrian peace activist who gave water and flowers to army soldiers as a display of non-violent protest. His actions earned him the nickname “Little Gandhi.” Matar was reportedly killed in 2011 during the uprising.



This week, Kadi screened his film for parliamentarians in Ottawa and met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. On Saturday, the film will screen for free at 3:30 p.m. at the Mayfair Theatre.



The documentary — a project of the Syrian Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Washington, D.C. — was partially funded by the International Development Research Centre in Ottawa.





Roula El-Rifai, the senior program specialist at IDRC, said the organization funded Little Gandhi to promote debate about human rights violations and to foster a vision for a future democratic Syria in the midst of the ongoing crisis.



The Sun’s Naomi Librach spoke to Kadi about how the film came together, what filming in a war zone was like and the impact the project has had on himself and his viewers.

Q: How did you get involved with Little Gandhi?



A: I was contacted by the Syrian Center for Political and Strategic Studies to make a film about Syria, back in 2012 … I think the timing was not right for me but definitely I wanted to do something. They came back in early 2014. Ghiyath Matar came about, his story … I know how iconic he is, even though I was disconnected from Syria.



I was able to connect with (Matar’s) friends inside the besieged city via Skype … in the suburb of Damascus where he was born and raised. It’s a war zone and that’s where we wanted to shoot the film. I was surprised at the beginning that (Matar’s friends) told me, “We don’t really think that you could make a film about Ghiyath Matar. You should pick another activist.” They said that because there is really nothing about Ghiyath Matar … all that material was seized by the government. I said, “Now you made me more determined than ever to make a film about Ghiyath Matar. I will make a film about Ghiyath Matar, no matter what.”



Q: I understand you had to get creative to film the project in a war zone. Could you tell me a bit about that?



A: Because it’s a besieged city, there was no way for me and my crew to get in. We actually ended up going to Turkey to shoot some footage and some interviews with friends of Ghiyath’s who fled the country. Still, the beef is in Daraya in the centre of Damascus … so we recruited over the Internet. We gave (an activist) a crash course (in filming) over Skype for a few weeks … I decided to direct it remotely via Skype. I’m calling the shots, the cuts, the camera movements, all that stuff. So definitely that was unique.



There were a lot of technical difficulties. You get cut in the middle and they disappear. They were generating power through bicycle wheels. We never thought about how we’re going to get the footage out of there … so I told them to upload the footage via Internet and they said, “It will take about three years for you to get the footage because we can upload up to one (gigabyte) a week if our computers work 24/7.”



We were lucky to have one of the activists who was willing to risk it and actually smuggle himself out of the city … (the crew) split the footage over so many small thumb drives and they taped it to his body under his clothes and he managed to smuggle these thumb drives (to Turkey).

Q: What have you learned from this experience?



A: Honestly, I think this documentary changed my life … I feel like I was still living in a bubble. I’m in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, California where everything is peaceful. I used to take a lot of things for granted, one of them putting my kids to bed every night and just not even thinking about safety. Now I feel blessed that I have the ability to put my kids into bed and to know that they are safe.



I’m looking at life in a totally different lens and different frame and my priorities I would say have shifted in life about what I want to do and what I want to accomplish. I think I was lucky to be part of something like this even though it’s not the typical film I normally get involved.



Q: What do you want audiences to take away from Little Gandhi?



A: I want them to meet the Syrians that we often don’t see in the media. I want them to meet on the screen these outspoken, educated, bright, young Syrians. I think they could be assets to any country if they decide to leave their own country, but at the same time I want (viewers) to leave and think about what could be done to help these people. I think it’s our responsibility to pay attention and welcome these people and work with them … I think we need to work together to fix that massive, massive problem.