Profile
My work as a filmmaker, researcher, and film programmer has focussed on film, anthropology, and political sciences, with a focus on documentary, interactive storytelling, forced migration, representation, film & ethics, language, disability, activism and human rights.
My film work has been award-winning, BAFTA-nominated and screened at numerous international festivals including Sundance & Edinburgh Film Festivals. I have made broadcast films for the BBC and Al Jazeera English.
My films have been on subjects from Edinburgh bakeries (Breadmakers, 2008), technology and activism (Steal from the Capitalists, 2015) and poetry (Waiting for Spring, 2012; Found in Translation, 2016). I have made several feature length films in Syria or on Syrian subjects including A Tale of Two Syrias (2012), Queens of Syria (2014) about an ancient Greek play being re-enacted by a group of Syrian refugee women in Jordan, and Ayouni (2022) about forced disappearances. Most recent is the co-directed film How We Work (2024), filmed in 5 countries and created with 39 co-directors.
I am currently a Fellow of the Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences (IHSS) at QMUL.
I was Co-Investigator from 2020- 2024 on the large multi country UKRI funded research project titled
Protracted Displacement Economies (
https://www.displacementeconomies.org/) whose long-term goal is to help realise the vast economic potential of displacement-affected communities around the world.
The Pathogen of War (2024) is my most recent work, an immersive documentary installation about the world's most antibiotic-resistant bacteria and the research of Iraqi medical anthropologist Dr. Omar Dewachi. This previewed at the Battersea Arts Centre as part of Shubbak Festival 2023. It was supported by a residency at the National Theatre Immersive Storytelling Studio and CPH:Lab and premiered at CPH:DOX in 2024.
I have held artist residences at the Mothlight Micro Cinema, Detroit, and at the British School at Rome, Italy.
I have programmed film festivals including Reel Afghanistan (2008) Reel Iraq (2009 & 2013), Reel Festivals (Syria/Lebanon/Scotland, 20201); Reel Syria (2012), and the strand Global Racialisations at the RAI Film Festival (2021), amongst others.
I have taught different aspects of film around the world including with universities, NGOs and civil society organisations. I received my Masters in Visual Anthropology from the University of Manchester and PhD in Trans-Disciplinary Documentary Film from the University of Edinburgh.
Teaching
Currently:
FLM7204 - Activist Film
FLM6211 – Research Project by Film Practice
Previously:
FLM5211 - Cinema and Disability
FLM6033 - Film Practice and Manifestos
SMLM041 - Auteur Direction
FLM7210 - Film Studies 1
FLM7211 - Film Studies 2
FLM7200 - Final Film Project
Publications
Films and Installations (with selected exhibitions)
2024 The Pathogen of War (Director)
A speculative interactive work based on the real science of antibiotic resistance.
Preview commissioned by Shubbak and Battersea Arts Centre (2023). Supported by CPH:Lab and National Theatre Immersive Storytelling Studio. Premiere CPH:DOX 2024.
2024 How We Work (Producer and co-director with 39 co-directors).
Being forcibly displaced means existing in a state of limbo. How We Work is a co-created film that celebrates the dignity of the human spirit in building relationships and community wherever people are—in particular, through work.
Created within the research project Protracted Displacement Economies.
2020 Blink and You’ll Miss Us (Producer).
21 micro-film poems by Afghan and Canadian filmmakers featuring poems by Aria Aber.
Funded by Toronto Authors Festival.
2020 Ayouni (Director)
Noura and Machi search for answers about their loved ones –Bassel Safadi and Paolo Dall’Oglio, who are among the over 100,000forcibly disappeared in Syria.
Produced by Banyak Films & Hakawati. www.ayounifilm.com Select highlights: World Premiere CPH:Dox 2020; Commendation RAI Film Prize, Royal Anthropological Institute Film Festival 2021; 4* Guardian review
2016 Found in Translation, A Digital Poetry Film Project Made in Iraq (Director)
A Ghazal for the Tethered Goat w/Kei Miller (2:00)An Imminent Dawn w/ Ahmad Abdul Ghussein (4:17)A Man Dies in Me w/ Zhawen Shally (01:19)Moot w/Steven Fowler (01:40)A Letter to my mother in the year 1980 w/Miriam al Attar (01:44)Prayer at seventy w/ Vicki Feaver (01:21)Curriculum Vitae w/Ali Wajeeh (02:04) In the year ninety w/ Nia Davis (01:40)Wait, Listen, If w/ Ryan Van Winkle (02:16)
A series of films funded by British Council.
2015 Abu Hawash (01:00) (Director)
Deraa Mijwizz legend Abu Hawash plays a song.
Syria Off Frame exhibition, Imago Mundi, Luciano Benetton Collection.
2015 Rebel Geeks: Steal from the Capitalists (Director)
Evan Evan “Rabble” Henshaw-Plath is a coder, activist, anarchist, and a hacker and one of the original developers of Twitter.
Al Jazeera English, produced Banyak Films.
2014 Queens of Syria (70:00) (Director)
Queens of Syria tells the story of fifty women from Syria, all forced into exile in Jordan, who came together in Autumn 2013 to create and perform their own version of the Trojan Women.
Festival release; theatrical release; BBC broadcast; Funded by SANAD, Asfari Foundation, British Council, BBC. Select highlights: Best Documentary Director, Abu Dhabi FF(2014); Best Female Director, Carthage FF (2015); Best Doc, Arab FF, Minneapolis (2016) and screened at over 50 festivals.
2013 Siamo Tornati (08:00) (Director)
In the San Giovanni district of Rome, boxing teacher Gianni and activists come together to create a squatted gym, school and community centre.
Funded by British School at Rome & Creative Scotland. Select highlights: screened at international film festivals and galleries across Italy, including at the British School at Rome & Upper Lab (Bergamo).
2012 A Tale of Two Syrias (65:00) (Director )
What the dream of freedom means to two very different people in the face of a brutal regime.
Produced by Cadies Productions & Freedonia Films. Funded by University of Edinburgh PhD Scholarship. Select highlights: screened at Glasgow FF (2013), Birds Eye View FF (2013)
2012 Poets of Protest: Waiting for Spring (Director)
Creative documentary portrait on renowned and outspoken Syrian poet Hala Mohammad.
Al Jazeera English.
2008 Moving Pictures (Director)
Four artist portraits and animations, made with artists with learning disabilities.
Commissioned by The Garvald Centre.
2007 Breadmakers (Director)
At a unique Edinburgh bakery, a community of workers with learning disabilities makes a variety of organic breads for daily delivery to shops and cafes in the city.
Produced by Cadies Productions; commissioned by Scottish Documentary Institute.Select highlights: Bafta nominated for Best Short film; Best Scottish Short, Edinburgh FF (2007); Black Pearl Short Doc Award, Middle East FF (2008), screened at Sundance (2008) and over 50 festivals. Screened at Special Olympics (2011), part of Sundance Collection, among others.
2004 Milking the Desert (Director)
Frederic came from France to become a novice at the St. Moses Abyssinian monastery in the desert of Syria. We follow him and Syrian monk Boutrous through their daily chores and routines.
Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology. Select highlights: Shortlisted for Jerwood First Cuts Award (2004), screened at Sheffield Doc Fest, Bilan du Film Ethnographique and others.
