Cherien Dabis is an award winning filmmaker and television writer and has been recognized by the top organizations in the industry, including the Sundance Institute, the Independent Feature Project (IFP) and Filmmaker magazine. Dabis holds a BA with honors in communications and creative writing from the University of Cincinnati and she is a graduate of the Masters of Fine Arts Film program at Columbia University. Her short film, Make a Wish, premiered at the 2006 Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films and Dubai International Film Festival where it won the Gold Muhr Award for Best Short Film. The film was an official selection of the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin as well as Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival where it won the Prix de la Presse and Mention Spéciale du Jury. The film went on to win top awards in Dubai, Rotterdam, Cairo and Aspen.
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Annemarie Jacir, filmmaker and poet, has written, directed and produced a number of films including ‘a post oslo history’ (1998), ‘The Satellite Shooters’ (2001) and ‘like twenty impossibles’ (2003). She has taught courses at Columbia, Bethlehem, and Birzeit University. She also works as a freelance editor and cinematographer. Her short film, ‘like twenty impossibles’, was the first Palestinian short film to be an official selection of the Cannes International Film Festival (Cinefondation), went on to be a Student Academy Awards Finalist, and won over 15 awards at International festivals including Best Film at the Palm Springs Short Film Festival, Chicago International Film Festival, Institute Du Monde Arabe Biennale, Mannheim-Heidelberg Film Festival, and IFP/New York. ‘Salt of this Sea’ (2008) is her first feature film, and her second work to debut at Cannes Film Festival. Having been banned from returning to Palestine, she now lives in Amman, Jordan.
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Mary Ellen Davis, experienced filmmaker who has made several unusual documentaries (The Devil's Dream 1992, Tierra Madre 1996, Haunted Land 2002, Territories 2007, Los Musicos 2007). Part-time teacher at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema at Concordia University. Program advisor for the film and video program of the First Peoples' Festival Présence autochtone and for Palestinian Perspectives. José Garcia-Lozano has directed short Super 8 films (Escondeme Futuro 2006, Paloma 2004); cameraman, sound recordist, editor of independent projects; multi-projection set-ups for music events; program advisor and coordinator for the film and video program of the First Peoples' Festival Présence autochtone. Will Eizlini, musician (percussion, electronic, trumpet); involved in the Shalabi Effect (among other CDs: "Unfortunately" 2005); web site expert.
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Rashid Masharawi was born in Gaza in 1962 to a family of refugees from Jaffa. He grew up in the Shati refugee camp. He lives and works in Ramallah, where he founded the Cinema Production and Distribution Center in 1996 with the aim of promoting local film productions. He also sponsors a mobile cinema, which allows him to screen films in Palestinian refugee camps. Other projects include the annual Kids Film Festival and major workshops on film production and directing. With his documentaries and feature films, he has also made a name for himself as a film artist. He has received several film awards.
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Nicole Ballivian was born and raised in Washington DC, Nicole received a BA in Film from American University in 1997 and underwent a Master of Arts program in Islamic and Social Sciences from the Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences in Virginia in 1999. In 2002, Nicole formed BintFilm with Anas Khalaf as a production company dedicated to filmmaking for the mass conscience. Nicole's screenwriting and directorial debut launched in 2006 for the political comedy feature film, Driving to Zigzigland. Driving to Zigzigland premiered at the Cairo International Film Festival in November 2006 and in December went on to screen at the Dubai International Film Festival under Official Selection, Arabian Nights.
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Basma al-Sharif, a Palestinian, was born in Kuwait in 1983. She earned her Master of Fine Arts from the University of Illinois at Chicago. An upcoming selected exhibition of her works in 2009 will be the 9th edition of Sharjah Biennial, in 2008: Palestine Film Week Al-Balad Theater in Amman, Jordan, Chicago Palestine Film Festival, Gene Siskel Film Cente USA, The Jerusalem Show Palestine, and in 2007: images du moyent-orient, Musee Jeu Du Paume Paris, France; Cinema East Film Festival, ARTEAST, IFC theater, NYC USA. She works and lives in Cairo, Egypt.
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Dalia Al-Kury is a Palestinian/Jordanian director living between Jordan and Europe. She has directed many short fiction and documentary films since she first started in 2003. She holds an MA in screen Documentary from Goldsmiths College, UK, and has directed over seven documentary films, all of which were screened in international film festivals or on the Arabic MBC Satellite TV network. She has been granted support from the TV channel Al Arabya twice including for her last film, "Smile you're in South Lebanon". The film follows a Palestinian family in the realm of the July war in Lebanon with a humoristic approach. Her approach to images is romantic yet sharp in the way it chooses to depict each and every side of a given issue. Dalia has a sense for portraits and films people as if she painted them, touch by touch with a warm and innocent approach to human nature.
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Adam Sebire is an experienced director, cameraman and editor for documentary films, videos and multimedia content, specializing in the Performing Arts. He was born in Melbourne in 1970 and studied documentary filmmaking at the Cuban International Film School (EICTV). When he is not making arts documentaries for SBS Television in Australia, he can be found behind a bass trombone in pit orchestras, or working casually at the Sydney Opera House.
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Lina Makboul lives with her husband in Gothenburg, Sweden. Lina was born in Sweden by Palestinian parents who are from Nablus on the West Bank. She started working as a journalist at the Swedish National Radio 1996. In 1998 she began working with television at the Swedish National Television, SVT. Leila Khaled: Hijacker is Lina's first film.
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Dominique Dubosc graduated in ethnography and psychology in 1965 and started working as a photographer. He taught social anthropology, directed short films, taught the history of syndicalism, and was a television director. Since 1987, he has been teaching cinema at Middlebury College and Columbia University.
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Suha Arraf was born in 1969 in the village of Mi'ilya to a Palestinian family. She got her BA degree in Philosophy and Literature at Haifa University (1990) and her Master's degree in Anthropology at the University of Tel Aviv (1994). Starting as a journalist of Haaretz newspaper she moved to television where she directed documentary programs and hosted and edited a program for Channel 2. Her move to film started when she began to direct and write scripts for documentaries for Channel 2. The Syrian Bride was her first feature film screenplay which won the award for best screenplay at the Flanders International Film Festival. Hard Ball is her first feature-length documentary.
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Iqaa The Olivetone is a music video director, artist and musician. Based in Detroit and New York, his work focuses on documenting and catalyzing social change and cultural representation - art that attempts to clarify his own Lebanese American identity, as well as inspire self-awareness for others. Past projects have included working (in various capacities) on Locusts (docu-music-video), Slingshot Hip Hop, Detroit Unleaded and more.
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Jackie Reem Salloum is a New York-based artist and filmmaker. Drawing on her Palestinian and Syrian roots, her pop-infused work focuses on challenging stereotypes of Arabs in the media. She has directed several shorts including Planet of the Arabs, which received the International Editing Award at the 2005 CinemaTexas Film Festival and was an official selection in the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. After receiving her MFA from New York University, Salloum began directing her first feature-length documentary Slingshot Hip Hop. Five years in the making, Sling Shot made its premiere at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival-Documentary Competition and won Official Selection at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.
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