The third annual New York Kurdish Film and Cultural Festival will take place from 6 to 8 December at the at Diocese of the Armenian Church. 8-Ball Community is co-hosting the festival which will offer three days of films, debates, meetings, interviews.

The festival will celebrate Kurdish cultural heritage with film screenings, talks, music, food and an on-going exhibition sale of Kurdish clothing.

The three-day event is dedicated to Mazdek Ararat, a revolutionary filmmaker, instructor, and warrior from Kobane who was martyred on 13 September 2019, and buried the next day in the Martyrdom in Kobane. Ararat was a member of Rojava Film Commune. His film “Zarok” is the first film of the commune and will be screened on the festival’s opening night.

Nicolas Heras, a Middle East senior analyst, will deliver the opening talk followed by Rosa Luxemburg New York Office’s Project Manager Kazembe Balagun’s discussion, “Why solidarity with Kurds is Vital?”.

This year’s festival will introduce and celebrate the Rojava Revolution by with films Rojava Film Commune, discussions, musical and dance performance, and a mini-Kurdish bazaar to exhibit and sell Kurdish clothing.

There will be fundraising for Heyva Sor a Kurdistane, the Kurdish Red Crescent, with contributions donated by American author and artist Janet Biehl (drawings) and Kurdish musician Dijwar Karaman (music CDs).

This year's festival feels even more urgent than ever, considering the betrayal by the US President towards the Kurdish allies fighting in Rojava.

Rojava, the multiethnic Kurdish, Arab, and Assyrian region of North-East Syria, has become a testing ground for new ideas about municipal democracy, feminism, and environmental sustainability. The festival producers hope that the festival will inspire working class and marginalized communities in America to build unity with the Rojava Revolution and Kurdish resistance.