Salam Neighbor

Salam Neighbor is a documentary released in 2016 by the film production companies Living on One Dollar and 1001 MEDIA. The title means "hello" neighbor. The title has a dual meaning as the Arabic word "salam" also means "peace."

The film documents the experiences of American filmmakers Zach Ingrasci and Chris Temple when they lived among 85,000 Syrians in Jordan's Za'atari refugee camp, which lies seven miles from the Syrian border. The filmmakers, who were the first allowed by the UN to register and set-up a tent inside a refugee camp, spent a month in Za'atari to cover what the UN Refugee Agency calls the world's most pressing humanitarian crisis.

Salam Neighbor is a component of a three-part project focused on the Syrian refugee crisis: the documentary, a virtual reality (VR) film and a social impact campaign.

The film had its world premiere in Washington, DC at the AFI DOCS film festival on June 20, 2015.

In Salam Neighbor, the filmmakers sought to understand the human side of the Syrian refugee crisis by living among the refugees. This immersive film style, combined with a social impact campaign, reflects the strategy of Living on One, which was co-founded by Salam Neighbor's directors/producers Chris Temple and Zach Ingrasci, and echoes their previous documentary, Living on One Dollar. The "East meets West" approach to humanize the Arab world reflects the strategy of the film's other producers Mohab Khattab and Salam Darwaza, the co-founders of 1001 MEDIA.

Salam Neighbor concentrates on five Syrian refugees: Ghoussoon, a nurse who built a home business to provide for her children, Um Ali, a grandmother struggling to overcome personal loss and cultural barriers, Raouf, a street smart 10-year-old boy who hides his trauma behind his smile, Ghassem, a 30-something relief worker who lost everything he built in his life, and Ismail, a 20-something father finding his way after his college education was interrupted by the Syrian crisis. The film tells five stories among the 65 million refugee stories around the globe.