Source Material

In August of 2020 a massive blast in Beirut led to anti-government protests. The explosion killed over 200 people, injured more than 6,000, and left an estimated 300,000 people homeless. The protest led to the resignation of the country's prime minister and his cabinet. Some captured the devastation and the protests that followed in video.

Abdullah “AJ” Jabbar has been vlogging his life in Syria for the past seven years, beginning when he was 13. His videos offer a unique look at complex country and conflict.

This treatment of the insurrection recreates the attack moment by moment, tracking the protesters mounting agitation and rage, and some rioters breaking into various fronts of the U.S. Capitol, eventually marching the Confederate flag into the building and occupying the halls of Congress. It also reveals the diverse and competing ideologies that coalesced on Jan. 6: angry Trump voters marched alongside sovereign citizens, Three Percenters, Proud Boys, and Christian Nationalists. Some rioters demonstrated solidarity with the police as others brutally assaulted officers.

On August 15, the Taliban seized Kabul, cementing their control of Afghanistan less than six weeks after President Joe Biden began the final stages of the Trump administration’s withdrawal plan from the country.

On May 10, 2021 violence once again erupted between Israel and Hamas. The lopsided conflict, with up to 3 million pounds of munition dropped on Gaza, and 174,400 pound of munitions fired at Israel, resulted in the deaths of 13 Israeli and 260 Palestinians, including Ahmad al-Mansi, a father of three who in his final days was captured by both his daughters’ and brother’s vlog.

On July, 15 2016 a faction of the Turkish Military attempted to overthrow the government. During the short lived coup attempt 246 people were killed, 179 of which were civilians. In the aftermath President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had thousands of members of the military and judiciary arrested, had at least 21,000 teachers fired or suspended, and shut down 2,500 educational institutions.

On September 8, 2020, a grass fire started in Ashland, Oregon. In less than three hours it spread to neighboring Talent. A separate ignition added to the blaze, resulting in the fire spreading to Phoenix, and Medford. 2,500 homes were burnt down, displacing 3,000 people, and killing three. This is the first hand look at what it was like inside the fire.

On January 1, 2020, flash floods hit the Jakarta region of Indonesia. The waters reached as high as 10 feet in areas, trapping people in their homes and killing 66. Climate change is increasing rainfall and causing sea level rise around Jakarta, exacerbating the region’s flooding crisis. In this episode of Source Material, watch emergency responders attempt to reach and provide aid to a person experiencing a medical crisis while trapped in the flooding.

On Aug. 7, 1988, the East Village erupted into a six-hour frenzy fueled by growing tensions from the cultural and economic shifts in the neighborhood, which boiled over when the NYPD issued a 1 a.m. curfew for Tompkins Square Park. What resulted was a bloody, all-night melee that ended with dozens of injuries and six cops indicted by the New York District Attorney. Using footage captured by Lower East Side artist Clayton Patterson, Keith Maitland’s “Police Riot” is visceral, immersive, and all too familiar.

Border closures amid the initial COVID-19 outbreak left thousands of babies born via surrogacy in limbo. Travel restrictions forced Ryan and Megan to rethink their plans to meet their soon-to-be born child in Ukraine. Ryan traveled alone for 32 hours to Kyiv, Ukraine in time for their daughter’s birth. His six-week journey to meet and bring Indi home was captured in his personal video log.

On February 1, 2021 the Myanmar military overthrew the democratic government, announcing a one year “state of emergency” in a challenge to the fall elections. In the days that followed several dozen elected officials were arrested. The public responded with mass protests, with hundreds of thousands of civilians taking to the streets. Poets, by pen and by megaphone, have been distilling the moment and inspiring the continued resistance. The military has responded with force. Poet K Za Win was killed. After his death, the military arrested and allegedly killed the poet Khet Thi. At least two other poets have been killed, along with more than 1,000 other civilians.