Kattiera Nana I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

BlazeLime Strong and Moving!

Limerculer A waste of 90 minutes of my life

mirandelaxxl After ISIS defeat, suddenly we get "heroes" who make an secret U turn then claim to be "brave". I am one of those who followed week by week the whole drama in Syria long before this shameless "documentary" come to the light. One cant be fooled again when in first 5 minutes the author try to "convince" us, with no shame at all, ISIS appear from nothing, like an evil incarnation. Matthew Heineman selective memory choose to falsify the history, by keeping all in dark when it come to Al- Nusra, Al- Jaball and other dozens of small terror groups born from the fake FSA, groups who receive intense support on logistics, hardware, financial, etc from US and so called "coalition". The same terror groups who shortly after "revolution" turn to ISIS and integrate all on this cancer so called "caliphate". This is not journalism, its just an shameless piece of defamatory propaganda who try to avoid any responsibility of the West in the creation and spread of ISIS. Today we all know who bring the terrorists on Syria, who pay for weapons, who train them, and, most important, we all know was not a real "revolution" like this piece of trash try to brainwash us, but yes just an failed "Libya 2.0" coup-de-eta . The REAL heroes are the people of Syria, who die defending their country against of jihadi animals.

Turfseer Director Matthew Heineman's new documentary covers a group of Syrian citizen-journalists who, while in exile, and continuing to maintain contacts in their native city of Raqqa ("The City of Ghosts"), disseminated chilling videos of atrocities perpetrated by ISIS, for all the world to see via the internet.The group, which calls itself Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently (or RBSS), was initially formed to expose the crimes being committed by the Syrian Army and members of the regime of Bashar al-Assad. They switched their focus when ISIS took over their city in 2014.The most compelling part of the documentary are the clips that emanate from the occupied city itself, chronicling the depraved actions of ISIS. There are upsetting images of men being executed in the street and corpses mounted in crucifixion tableaux. Heineman follows three key members, Aziz, the official spokesman for the group and brothers Hamoud and Mohamad, who are both seen watching a tragic ISIS video showing the execution of their father who was murdered in retaliation for their activities.Most of the footage that wasn't shot in Syria covers the three men as they work out of safe houses in both Turkey and Germany. They all come off as heroic as their lives are in constant danger-halfway through the documentary we view the funeral of one of their leaders, who was murdered outside of Syria, while working for RBSS.Aside from Aziz receiving an award from the nonprofit group the Committee to Protect Journalists in New York City at the beginning of the film, Heineman covers the three activists in their daily activities (these include showing how they go about disseminating information that they are constantly receiving from their undercover operatives in Raqqa). Perhaps the film's central weakness is that the director chooses to eschew in depth coverage of the complex history of the Syrian Civil War for a more determined focus on the lives of the activists, who are nothing more than ordinary men, thrust into a life of uncertainty not of their own choosing. While decidedly admirable and heroic, the machinations of Heineman's activists lack conflict and their scenes aren't as gripping as the footage shot in ISIS-held territory.City of Ghosts is valuable as it educates the public as to what's been going on in a part of the world that is often shrouded in mystery. There's some powerful stuff here and it's certainly worth your time to investigate.

Paul Allaer "City of Ghosts" (2017 release; 93 min.) is a documentary about the city of Raqqa under the dictatorship of ISIS, and a group of citizen journalists determined to expose the atrocities to the world. As the movie opens, we see one of the citizen journalists of Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS) getting ready to accept the 2015 CPJ International Press Freedom Award in New York. We then go back in time, to the Arab Spring events, when Raqqa ran the Assad regime out of town, only to then get overrun by ISIS. A small group of citizen journalists puts clandestine footage on the internet, showing what ISIS really is doing. Fearing for their lives, some of them flee Raqqa (to Turkey and Germany), "and that's when the real war between us and ISI began", says one of them. At this point we're 15 min. into the documentary.Couple of comments: this is the latest documentary from producer-writer-director Matthew Heineman, whose previous documentary, the outstanding "Cartel Land" got an Oscar nomination (and should've won, but that's just me). As soon as I saw his name associated with this, I knew we would be in for one riveting film. And I was right. Filmed mostly in 2014-15, it gives a chilling account of what the ISIS regime truly is like. Beware: there is gruesome and shocking footage (much of which was shown blurred in US mainstream media) so this is not for the faint of heart. But it is so important that the world becomes better aware what really is going on there. The real heroes of this film are of course the RBSS journalists who are secretly filming the events in Raqqa and then transmit the footage to the RBSS journalists in Turkey and Germany. Each and every one of them somehow needs to deal with living each day knowing that ISIS would like to do nothing better than to kill every single one of them. I cannot even begin to imagine what that must feel like."City of Ghosts" premiered to universal critical acclaim at this year's Sundance Film Festival. No idea why it's taken so long for this to get released in theaters, but the film finally opened this weekend at my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati. The Sunday early afternoon screening where I saw this at turned out to be a private screening. I literally was the only person there, sad to say. I happen to love a good documentary, and when it is about a topic as important as this one, that only makes it better. If you have any interest in understanding what is going on in Raqqa, Syria, by all means make sure to catch this movie, be it in the theater, on VD, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray.

Rob Ervin (Obi_Bamm_Karaoke) There are many that feel that this generation's access to data has in some way watered down the power of media. In a world where everything is RIGHT NOW, traditional media like print is dying on the vine. While this may be true of things like newspapers and magazines, the media is finally becoming more savvy and not only embracing a digital age that they found to be beneath them and more "bush league," they are also finding that this new age gives more opportunity to get to stories that they could not because of things like notoriety and old school methods. In "Cartel Land" director Matthew Heineman's new film "City of Ghosts," this subject is given a very up close and personal examination in a setting that is jarring, frightening, and heartbreaking.In the city of Raqqa in Iraq just a few years ago, the Assad regime fell to its rebellion, and the people who lived there felt like a new age was upon them. Unfortunately, that new age came in the form of ISIS, whose strong arm tactics and extremist beliefs caused oppression, violence, and murder within its city walls. A group of oppositionists both in and out of the city began a group called Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS), and used the power of social media and the Internet to take the story of their city public. This would resort in their plight being broadcast worldwide through large media outlets, but the cost would be steep for them by way of exile, assassinations, and being constantly on the run from an organization that wants each and every one of them dead, even to the point of facing ridicule from the countries that they run to as it pertains not to just them but any kind of immigration from other countries, showing the effects of some of the same issues that we currently face in ours.As I was watching "City of Ghosts," there was only one word that kept running through my mind, and that word is simply: powerful. Heineman pulls no punches with this film, showing the pain and suffering of the people in Raqqa and how it effects the leaders of RBSS. The balance that his subjects display of both the immense courage it takes to lead a movement like this as well as the human sides of themselves dealing with loss of family, friends, and even their freedom on a certain level is nothing short of brilliant. I was glued to the screen the entire time and while there are no twists or turns per se, this story kept me guessing all the way through as ISIS tries at every turn to suppress their message from destroying all satellite dishes in an effort to shut down their internet access in the city to threatening (and even killing in some cases) those close to them. There is also a very interesting look at ISIS and how they use their own methods of communication to bring people into their ranks that is honest (and I know this sounds odd, but roll with me here) unbiased. What I mean there is that the filmmakers simply show the actual footage that the group has published without doctoring it up, and trust me when I say this: it totally speaks for itself.I was consistently fascinated by the resilience of RBSS' people inside the city to get the footage that they did to show the world the pain and suffering that those who stand against their oppressors go through, to the point of long lines of children who are just trying to get a bucket filled with soup to feed them and their families. I cannot imagine the constant fear that they have to overcome to tell their stories by putting their lives in danger every day. "City of Ghosts" is one of those films that although it will get a limited run due to the fact that documentaries don't tend to get the widespread theatrical love that they deserve in most cases, it demands the attention and respect that it deserves. Whether caught theatrically, via Blu-Ray or DVD, or through streaming, this is a film that is worth the time to watch and be discussed on any scale if for no other reason than the awareness that it needs to foster of not only the dangers of extremism but also the courage it takes to stand for what you believe in and the message that every group of people, no matter how you look at it, has a dark side and a light side, and we all need to see that for what it is. Celebrate the good, rebuke the bad, and try to get through all of it as one group of people embracing our diversity and doing our best to understand our differences.