Screening with short films Omnia and I Say Dust.
In a forgotten corner of Upper Egypt lives a woman who is yearning for a child. Hayan, a young Egyptian woman marked by her infertility, exists on the fringes of her own community. She struggles to find a place where she belongs, while watching her dream of motherhood slowly slip away. Yet life arounds her seems to move to the rhythms of birth and death, and she wonders how to make meaning for all the time that lies between.
FILMMAKER
Nadine Salib was born in Egypt in 1984 and graduated from film school in 2006, where she studied the basics of filmmaking. She started her career as an assistant director in commercials, then headed to the independent field in 2009, where she worked as a first assistant and script supervisor in many short and feature-length films screened in national and international film festivals. In 2011 she directed her first short documentary “Fagr” (“Dawn”), which won second prize in the Arab women filmmakers competition at the Baghdad International Film Festival and the first prize at the 12th Goethe Independent Film Festival in Cairo. Um Ghayeb (Mother of the Unborn) is her first feature.
Omnia
Director: Amna Alnowais
2015 | United Arab Emirates | Arabic | 9 min | Minnesota Premiere
Omnia, a young Egyptian woman, struggles with an incident from her childhood, which left her with no sense of her body.
FILMMAKER
Amna Alnowais was born in 1988 and raised in Abu Dhabi. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Hebrew and Politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London before returning home to pursue filmmaking.
I Say Dust
Director: Darine Hatait
2015 | USA | English | 14 min | Minnesota Premiere
Hal (Alyan), an Arab-American poet belonging to the Palestinian diaspora in New York City, meets Moun (Akl), a free-spirited chess sales girl. Their brief love affair challenges their understanding of what makes home. (Alyan’s poetry has been published in Mizna: Prose, Poetry and Art!)
FILMMAKER
Darine Hotait is an American Lebanese writer and film director. She was born in Beirut in the midst of civil war. Her family emigrated to the United States of America when she was 11 years old. At that time, Darine discovered her love for writing. She started writing her diaries and poetry at her grandmother's home in Detroit. The writings revolved around the concept of readapting to a new home and defining family.
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