Omar Amiralay is a Syrian documentary film director and prominent civil society activist. He is noted for the strong political criticism in his films and played a prominent role in the events of the Damascus Spring of 2000. His films include a trilogy of documentaries concerning the Asad Dam on the Euphrates: Attempt at the Euphrates Dam (1970), Daily Life in a Syrian Village (1976), and A Flood in Baath Country (2004). Another notable film was There Are So Many Things Still To Say, based on interviews with the Syrian playwright Saadallah Wanus. His other films include a portrait of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri, The Man with the Golden Soles, and one of French academic and student of Middle Eastern society Michel Seurat, murdered in Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War, On a Day of Ordinary Violence. In 2000 Amiralay was a signatory to the "Declaration of the 99," a manifesto signed by 99 prominent Syrian intellectuals calling for an end to the state of emergency in force since 1963, the release of all political prisoners and prisoners of conscience, and the permitting of political parties and independent civil society organizations. In 2005, in the aftermath of the assassination of Rafiq al-Hariri, Amiralay signed a declaration by Syrian intellectuals calling for a Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon and an end to the attacks on Syrian workers in that country.