TAFF 2021 Background

2021 FESTIVAL//مهرجان ٢٠٢١

PROGRAMME//برنامج

Toronto Arab Film Logo
  • TAFF2021: Accessing the Canadian Film Industry

    Event Details
    May 29, 2021
    1:00 – 4:00 PM EDT
    Virtual

    A primer workshop for creatives interested in accessing the Canadian film industry and making their first film. The workshop will cover a basic introduction of filmmaking, including a look at production resources in Canada, development, the production process and post-production.

    Instructor:

    Lana Lovell
    • Lana Lovell

      Lana Lovell came off a six-year hiatus with a surge of work. In 2017, she wrote the play “Elbow Room,” which went into pre-development in 2018 with Toronto’s Obsidian Theatre and was produced at Fringe 2019. Then she wrote the short play “The First 100 Years of Sophia Pooley” for Fringe 2020, during COVID-19 she began developing her play into a full-length production.  

      During Lana’s artistic hiatus, she worked as a freelance Associate Producer on George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight at the CBC.

      Currently, she’s developing two documentaries including “Taking Space,” after a very difficult experience in 2010 as the  director of “Resilience: Stories of Single Black Mothers,” a film that countered stereotypes of black mothers with complex and richly detailed portraits of real women. Before that, Lana was commissioned by Omni Television for the project. She directed the documentary “The Incomparable Jackie Richards” (2008), which explored the life and times of cabaret artist, theatre and film actor, performer Jackie Richardson, broadcasted on Bravo Television for 5 years. Lana’s first music content documentary, “Underground,” screened at Toronto’s Hot Docs Film Festival (2006) won praise for capturing the complex central character’s, Coco Brown, life and artistry. “Into the Heart of Africa” (1996), the first film Lana directed was about the protest during the contentious exhibit, of the same name, at the Royal Ontario Museum. Lana lives and works in Toronto, Canada.


    Sponsored by: Trinity Square Video

    TSV Logo

  • TAFF2021: “Speculative Fiction” Shorts Programme

    Event Details
    May 27, 2021 – May 30, 2021
    Virtual

    A curated short films programme accompanying our panel on speculative fiction in Arab films. This programme is available for international viewing.

    Screenings:

    Blaxites
    • Blaxites

      Countries: Canada
      Director: Josh Lyon
      Length: 12 mins
      Synopsis: Jai’s celebratory social media post affects her access to vital medication. Her attempts to circumvent the system leads to even more dire consequences.The Surveillance Studies Center and the Big Data Surveillance Project present A Screening Surveillance Film. For more information, visit: screeningsurveillance.com.

    Fear: Audibly//الخوف: صوتيا
    • Fear: Audibly//الخوف: صوتيا

      Countries: Saudi Arabia
      Director: Mahaa El Saati
      Length: 22 mins
      Synopsis: Anxious that Judgment Day is on the horizon, Amal keenly awaits to hear the Trumpet of Doom; One day, unexpected guests invade her office space to confirm her fears.

    The Poet and the Swan//الشاعر و البجعة
    • The Poet and the Swan//الشاعر و البجعة

      Country: Syria
      Director: Ayham Jabr
      Length: 41 mins
      Synopsis: In a parallel and imagined world, a revolution has triumphed. A revolution based and fuelled by hatred and ignorance, in all countries of Asia, the time of Asyatopia. The dystopian short film is inspired by the writings of George Orwell and the poems of Nizar Qabbani. The events of the film take place in a country in Asia after the victory of a black revolution – in it, thinking and feeling was forbidden, war ragged on, permanent revolutionary censorship, manipulation of the masses … and lies. The life of the film’s protagonist is turned upside down … after he receives a paper written on it one word … a word that can cause him to disappear from the face of the world.

    Last Days of the Man of Tomorrow//آخر أيّام رجل الغَد
    • Last Days of the Man of Tomorrow//آخر أيّام رجل الغَد

      Country: Lebanon, Germany
      Director: Fadi Baki
      Length: 23 mins
      Synopsis: A young filmmaker investigates the legend of Manivelle, an automaton gifted to Lebanon in 1945 that still haunts an abandoned mansion in Beirut. After being coaxed back out into the limelight, the people who knew him come forward to speak their mind, and the myth that Manivelle has constructed around himself begins to unravel. A science-fiction mockumentary out of Lebanon, Last Days of the Man of Tomorrow is a funny, sad and weird look at the life of the Middle East’s first and only living robot and the stories you won’t find in your history books.

    Co-presented with Breakthroughs Film Festival

    Breakthroughs Film Festival Logo

  • TAFF2021: Shorts Programme 1

    Event Details
    May 27, 2021
    6:00 pm EDT
    Virtual

    Screenings:

    Sukar//سُكَّر
    • Sukar//سُكَّر

      Country: Morocco 
      Director: Illias El Faris 
      Length: 11 mins
      Synopsis: Casablanca’s beach, Morocco. Teenager’s desire for each other is growing discreetly. Adults and children oversee. A fight creates a diversion. 

    Mutts (Clebs)//كلب
    • Mutts (Clebs)//كلب

      Country: Canada, Morocco
      Director: Halima Ouardiri 
      Length: 18 mins
      Synopsis: The animals’ brown, beige, white and black coats blend into the ochre earth and sunbaked walls. After the calm of rest hour, a deafening cacophony breaks out at feeding time, as the dogs bark excitedly. In a stray-dog refuge in Agadir, Morocco, more than 750 animals find help and protection while awaiting adoption. Each day is the same as the last, the only excitement provided by mealtime. Empathetic and alert to subtleties of light and texture, Halima Ouardiri observes the rhythm of the animals’ lives, their suspended existence paralleling the far more tragic waiting endured by millions of human beings in search of a new home.

    Foam (Écume)
    • Foam (Écume)

      Country: Canada
      Director: Omar Elhamy 
      Length: 28 mins
      Synopsis: The car repair shop is their second home and their colleagues are like family. Everyone has their quirks and is accepted for the way they are. But then comes the bad news: they are soon to be squeezed out by a more lucrative new building project. How should they respond? How can they support each other? A buddy film about life’s little and larger transformations, about social class and solidarity, captured in sensitively telling images.

    And The Night Will Carry Us
    • And The Night Will Carry Us

      ​Country: Tunisia 
      Director: Koudhai Amine 
      Length: 11 mins
      Synopsis: A dog walks at night.

    Jardins Paradise
    • Jardins Paradise

      Country: Canada
      Director: Yza Nouiga
      Length: 6 mins
      Synopsis: Garden of Eden, jardin à la française, English, Zen, Bahai, Arab-Islamic: Gardens reflect history, culture and heritage. They are some of the rare places where intimacy, gatherings, fun and religion coexist. And, what if Paradise was nothing more than a green parking lot designed to suit each and everyone’s own preferences?

    Co-presented by:

    LIFT logo
    Mena Logo

  • TAFF2021: Shorts Programme 2

    Event Details
    May 27, 2021
    6:00 pm EDT
    Virtual

    Screenings:

    Ain’t No Time For Women//مفماش وقت للنساء
    • Ain’t No Time For Women//مفماش وقت للنساء

      Country: Canada 
      Director: Sarra El Abed
      Length: 19 mins
      Synopsis: Tunis, November 2019. A group of women is gathered at Saïda’s, the hairdresser, on the eve of the presidential election. The salon is transformed into a town square, mirroring the internal turmoil of the country. In this female sanctuary, we get an intimate look at the county’s teenage democracy.

    Pacific
    • Pacific

      Country: Belgium, Lebanon
      Director: Angie Obeid
      Length: 23 mins
      Synopsis: Whenever I walk through the dark reddish hallways to reach my apartment, whenever I would look out of my windows and dive into that expended view of the city of Brussels, unusual feelings would emerge. Until the day I read an article about my building PACIFIC, entitled “the suicide tower”.

    Storm Child
    • Storm Child 

      Country: Canada
      Director: Ines Guennaoui
      Length: 12 mins
      Synopsis: Storm Child is a nightmarish incursion in the tormented mind of a four year old child. Yasmine and her family are Algerian refugees who just arrived in Québec during the infamous 1998 ice storm.

    ​One Of Us Left The Photo//أحدنا غادر الصورة
    • ​One Of Us Left The Photo//أحدنا غادر الصورة

      ​Country: Syria
      Director: Malas Twins
      Length: 16 mins
      Synopsis: A Syrian refugee lives in France with his French woman. His twin brother, pro the Syrian regime, arrives unexpectedly from Syria and lives with them in the same house.

    Co-presented by: 

    RPFF logo

  • TAFF2021: Shorts Programme 3

    Event Details
    May 27, 2021
    6:00 pm EDT
    Virtual

    Screenings:

    Al-Sit//الست
    • Al-Sit//الست

      Country: Sudan, Qatar 
      Director: Suzannah Mirghani
      Length: 20 mins
      Synopsis: In a cotton-farming village in Sudan, 15-year-old Nafisa has a crush on Babiker, but her parents have arranged her marriage to Nadir, a young Sudanese businessman living abroad. Nafisa’s grandmother Al-Sit, the powerful village matriarch, has her own plans for Nafisa’s future. But can Nafisa choose for herself?

    The Girls Who Burned The Night//من يحرقن الليل
    • The Girls Who Burned The Night//من يحرقن الليل

      Country: Saudi Arabia
      Director: Sara Mesfer
      Length: 24 mins
      Synopsis: In an engagement night, a denied request pushes two sisters to their edge. Salsabel, a 13 years old Saudi girl who fights to go to the grocery shop in a city where it’s socially unacceptable experiences hardship in her relationship with her older sister Wasan who the fear of the night’s darkness and refuses to go. Later that day, the two sisters find a way to their desires by burning the night.

    Aziza//عزيزة
    • Aziza//عزيزة

      Country: Syria, Lebanon
      Director: Soudade Kaadan
      Length: 13 mins
      Synopsis: Ayman, Syrian refugee in Lebanon, teaching his wife how to drive his car, the only thing left for him from his country. The lesson takes a wrong turn into madness and nostalgia.

    ​Nour//نور
    • Nour//نور

      ​Country: Tunisia
      Director: Rim Nakhli
      Length: 15 mins
      Synopsis: Nour and Adem set off to look for their father, whom they haven’t seen for a long time. The two of them cross the city to the rendez-vous, but their father fails to show up.

    Co-presented by: 

    RPFF logo

  • TAFF2021: Shorts Programme 4

    Event Details
    May 27, 2021
    6:00 pm EDT
    Virtual

    Screenings:

    So We Live//لنا نعيش
    • So We Live//لنا نعيش

      Country: Belgium 
      Director: Rand Abou Fakher
      Length: 15 mins
      Synopsis: A family living in a war torn country spends what seems to be a normal evening together. Their conversations shift between casual matters of daily life and survival. This ambiguous situation highlights the aches of how we take time for granted and live life.

    The Departure
    • The Departure

      Country: France, Morocco 
      Director: Said Hamich
      Length: 25 mins
      Synopsis: Morocco, 2004. The summer of Adil, 11 years old, is upset by the visit of his father and his big brother, who leave for France in just a few days …

    Clench My Fists
    • Clench My Fists

      Country: United States
      Director: Sarah Trad
      Length: 6 mins
      Synopsis: A found-footage collage video that explores the process of growing up in an Arab family deeply affected by death and grief. “Clench My Fists” is part of a series of work focusing on not only decolonizing Imperialist Western understandings of the Middle East but to also show the beauty of the artist’s heritage, outside the context of her family.

    I’m Afraid To Forget Your Face//ستاشر
    • I’m Afraid To Forget Your Face//ستاشر

      Country: Egypt, France, Qatar, Belgium
      Director: Sameh Alaa
      Length: 15 mins
      Synopsis: After being separated for 82 days, Adam travels down a rough road to be reunited with the one he loves, whatever it takes.

    Co-presented with Arab Community Centre of Toronto and Canadian Arab Institute.

    The Arab Community Centre of Toronto | ACCT logo
    Canadian Arab Institute Logo

  • TAFF2021: Screening “Abou Leila//أبو ليلى”

    Event Details
    May 27, 2021
    6:00 pm EDT
    Virtual

    Screening:

    Abou Leila//أبو ليلى
    • Abou Leila//أبو ليلى

      Country: Algeria  
      Director: Amin Sidi-Boumedine
      Length: 135 mins
      Synopsis: Algeria, 1994. With Civil War raging for years in the north of the country, each day continues to bring its share of death and horror. Police officers S. and Lotfi, two childhood friends, travel through the desert looking for Abou Leila, a dangerous terrorist on the run. In the immensity of the Sahara, their quest seems absurd, but Lofti has only one priority: to keep S. as far from the capital as possible, knowing his friend is too fragile to face more bloodshed. But the deeper they get into the desert, the more they are confronted with their own trauma and violence.

    Co-presented with Arab Community Centre of Toronto and Canadian Arab Institute

    The Arab Community Centre of Toronto | ACCT logo
    Canadian Arab Institute Logo

  • TAFF2021: Screening “The Unknown Saint//سيد المجهول” + “The Tomb//الضريح”

    Event Details
    May 27, 2021
    6:00 pm EDT
    Virtual

    Screenings:

    The Unknown Saint//سيد المجهول
    • The Unknown Saint//سيد المجهول

      Country: Morocco  
      Director: Alaa Eddine Aljem
      Length: 126 mins
      Synopsis: Amine steals a big bag of money and escapes into the hills with the police hot on his trail. Before he is arrested, he digs a grave to bury the cash and disguises it as a modest tomb. Years later, Amine is released from prison and sets off to find his money. In the meantime, a religious shrine has been built directly over the place he buried his cash. The mausoleum honours an unknown saint from the region whose tomb was recently discovered. Down the hill from the resting place of the “The Unknown Saint”, a new village subsists on the pilgrims who travel from far and wide to visit the mausoleum. Amine settles into the village and begins plotting a way in. But with the loot now hidden in a holy place, retrieving it suddenly becomes much more complicated.

    The Tomb//الضريح
    • The Tomb//الضريح

      Country: Sudan  
      Director: Eltayeb Mahdi
      Length: 17 mins
      Synopsis: The Tomb tells the story of a man who claims to be able to heal people.

    Co-presented with Association Marocaine de Toronto.

    Association Marocaine de Toronto AMDT Logo

  • TAFF2021: Screening “Sugar Cage//قفص السكر”

    Event Details
    May 27, 2021
    6:00 pm EDT
    Virtual

    Screenings:

    Sugar Cage//قفص السكر
    • Sugar Cage//قفص السكر

      Country: Syria  
      Director: Zeina Qahwaji
      Length: 60 mins
      Synopsis: In an attempt to record a standstill time, the filmmaker examines her intimate life with her aging parents over the course of 8 years since the beginning of war in Syria. The film is questioning a life style, and scenes of isolation and stagnancy that overshadow life in Syria. In parallel, it is observing an intimate, human affection that’s maybe rooted deeper than we may imagine.

    Co-presented with Al Markaz.

    AL MARKAZ logo

  • TAFF2021: Shorts Film Collection (Available Globally)

    Event Details
    May 27, 2021
    6:00 pm EDT
    Virtual

    Screenings:

    Pacific
    • Pacific

      Country: Belgium, Lebanon
      Director: Angie Obeid
      Length: 23 mins
      Synopsis: Whenever I walk through the dark reddish hallways to reach my apartment, whenever I would look out of my windows and dive into that expended view of the city of Brussels, unusual feelings would emerge. Until the day I read an article about my building PACIFIC, entitled “the suicide tower”.

    Foam (Écume)
    • Foam (Écume)

      Country: Canada
      Director: Omar Elhamy 
      Length: 28 mins
      Synopsis: The car repair shop is their second home and their colleagues are like family. Everyone has their quirks and is accepted for the way they are. But then comes the bad news: they are soon to be squeezed out by a more lucrative new building project. How should they respond? How can they support each other? A buddy film about life’s little and larger transformations, about social class and solidarity, captured in sensitively telling images.

    Clench My Fists
    • Clench My Fists

      Country: United States
      Director: Sarah Trad
      Length: 6 mins
      Synopsis: A found-footage collage video that explores the process of growing up in an Arab family deeply affected by death and grief. “Clench My Fists” is part of a series of work focusing on not only decolonizing Imperialist Western understandings of the Middle East but to also show the beauty of the artist’s heritage, outside the context of her family.

    The Girls Who Burned The Night//من يحرقن الليل
    • The Girls Who Burned The Night//من يحرقن الليل

      Country: Saudi Arabia
      Director: Sara Mesfer
      Length: 24 mins
      Synopsis: In an engagement night, a denied request pushes two sisters to their edge. Salsabel, a 13 years old Saudi girl who fights to go to the grocery shop in a city where it’s socially unacceptable experiences hardship in her relationship with her older sister Wasan who the fear of the night’s darkness and refuses to go. Later that day, the two sisters find a way to their desires by burning the night.

    And The Night Will Carry Us
    • And The Night Will Carry Us

      ​Country: Tunisia 
      Director: Koudhai Amine 
      Length: 11 mins
      Synopsis: A dog walks at night.

    One Of Us Left The Photo//أحدنا غادر الصورة
    • ​One Of Us Left The Photo//أحدنا غادر الصورة

      ​Country: Syria
      Director: Malas Twins
      Length: 16 mins
      Synopsis: A Syrian refugee lives in France with his French woman. His twin brother, pro the Syrian regime, arrives unexpectedly from Syria and lives with them in the same house.

    Aziza
    • Aziza//عزيزة

      Country: Syria, Lebanon
      Director: Soudade Kaadan
      Length: 13 mins
      Synopsis: Ayman, Syrian refugee in Lebanon, teaching his wife how to drive his car, the only thing left for him from his country. The lesson takes a wrong turn into madness and nostalgia.


  • TAFF2021: Filmmaker Roundtable 1

    Event Details
    May 28, 2021
    7:00 pm EDT
    Virtual

    Watch

    Filmmaker Roundtable with: Halima Ouardiri (Clebs), Omar Elhamy (Foam), Yza Nouiga (Jardins Paradise) and Sara Trad (Clench My Fists)

    Moderator:

    Karam Masri, Filmmaker
    • Karam Masri

      Karam Masri is a Program Consultant for Film & Television at Ontario Creates, the provincial agency that supports the economic development of Ontario’s cultural sectors. Prior to joining Ontario Creates, Karam was the Business Analyst at the Bell Fund, a private fund that supports the creation and development of Canadian digital/TV multi-platform projects. Karam holds two Master’s degrees: an MFA in Film Production and an MBA from the Schulich School of Business. She also wrote & directed the short film “Juha the Whale”, winner of the York Thesis prize.


    Speakers:

    Omar Elhamy (Foam)
    • Omar Elhamy

      Omar Elhamy was born and raised in Egypt. Established in Quebec, Canada for a few years now, he is a director, writer and editor. His films have been acclaimed in several festivals and art galleries. He directed Tartarus (2019), Paria (2015). In 2018-2019 he presented Five seasons behind the sun his first expanded cinema works at the Dazibao Gallery in Montreal. Foam (2020), his latest short film, is part of the International Short film Competition at the 70th Berlinale. He is currently working on his first feature film, Frère Raison.

    Yza Nouiga (Jardin Paradise)
    • Yza Nouiga

      Yza Nouiga is a French Moroccan director, and digital film distributor based in Montreal. Born and raised in Morocco, she’s been living in Canada for the last 10 years. Her work evolves around themes of identities, dual nationality, and homecoming through fiction and non-fiction narratives. She co-wrote a first feature-length documentary film, Circo, that received the supports of many Canadian arts councils and institutions (SODEC, CALQ). Her last work, Jardins Paradise, was selected by the Goethe-Institut as part of a special programming. Yza is currently working on two shorts films.

    Sara Trad (Clench My Fists)
    • Sarah Trad

      Sarah Trad (she/her) is a Lebanese-American artist and curator based in Philadelphia. She is currently the Co-Director of Programming for the MENA Film Festival in Vancouver, as well as a Juror for the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival and a member of the Community Advisory Board for the Asian Arts Initiative. Trad is the recipient of the 2019 Rutland Vermont Art Center 77Art Artist Residency, the 2019 Plyspace Residency and Fellowship, and 2011 Carol N. Schmuckler Award for Outstanding Achievement in Film. Sarah’s work has been screened at the Gimli Film Festival, Toronto Arab Film Festival, Antimatter Media Art Festival, Rendezvous With Madness Festival, Everson Museum of Art, and Currents New Media.


  • TAFF2021: Filmmaker Roundtable 2

    Event Details
    May 29, 2021
    12:00 pm EDT
    Virtual

    Watch

    Filmmaker Roundtable with: Maha Al Saati (Fear: Audibly), Amine Koudhai (And The Night Will Carry Us), Rand Abou Fakher (So We Live)

    Moderator:

    Zeinah Kalati, Programmer

    Speakers:

    Maha Al Saati (Fear: Audibly)
    • Maha Al-Saati

      Maha Al-Saati is an independent, experimental filmmaker interested in exploring women’s stories in the Arab World. She is TIFF Filmmaker Lab 2020 and TIFF Writers’ Studio 2021 Alum, and honorary recipient of the Share Her Journey Award and The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) residency 2021. Her short films include Hair: The Story of Grass (18), an official selection of Fantastic Fest 2018, Slamdance 2019, and HollyShorts 2019; Cycle of Apples (19); and Fear: Audibly (17). Her feature project Hajj to Disney was selected for development by the Red Sea Lodge in partnership with TorinoFilmLab.

    Amine Khoudhai (And The Night Will Carry Us)
    Rand Abou Fakher (So We Live)
    • Rand Abou Fakher

      Rand Abou-Fakher studied as a flutist in the Syrian Conservatory, broadening her practice in Brussels to audiovisual arts. Today, she works as a director, theatre actor, (art) project manager and programmer. Her short films Braided Love (2018) and So We Live (2020) have been shown at festivals and museums worldwide. In the process, So We Live won an Oscar Qualifying Award.


  • TAFF2021: Filmmaker Roundtable 3

    Event Details
    May 30, 2021
    12:00 pm EDT
    Virtual

    Watch

    Filmmaker Roundtable with: Malas Twins (One of Us Left the Photo), Suzannah Mirghani (Al-Sit), Sara Mesfer (The Girls Who Burned the Night)

    Moderator:

    Hiba Sleiman
    • Hiba Sleiman

      Hiba Sleiman is a Montreal-based artist and drama therapist. She is an actor and a writer for stage and screen and started her psychotherapy practice in 2023. Hiba’s curiosity for human behaviour has informed her creative work as her writing contemplates themes of identity, belonging, and politics of the self and the other. Hiba has worked with acclaimed filmmakers and stage directors in Lebanon, Canada, and the States. She recently developed the script for the upcoming music concert of the Canadian Arabic Orchestra. She is currently developing an
      immersive piece taking place “off stage” and working on producing her second independent short film.

    Speakers:

    Sara Mesfer (The Girls Who Burned the Night)
    • Sara Mesfer

      Sara Mesfer is a Saudi Director based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. She holds a bachelor degree in Cinematic Art from Effat University, Saudi Arabia.

      She started her journey working in different roles in films that participated in local and international film festivals. In 2018 she wrote and directed her first short film “Balcony”. In 2019 she Wrote and Produced “Quareer Chapter Three” A short film that is part of a Collective Feature Film that highlights five different stages of a woman’s life in Saudi Arabia.

      Sara Wrote and Directed her short “The Girls who Burned The Night” Which got the Jury Special Mention award in Cairo international Film festival in its 42nd edition. Sara’s latest is her participation as a Writer and Director of “Al Dabah” in “Becoming” Omnibus Feature with four female directors by the support of Red Sea international film Festival in 2020.

    Suzannah Mirghani (Al-Sit)
    • Suzannah Mirghani

      Suzannah Mirghani is a writer, researcher, and media studies/museum studies graduate. Sudanese-Russian, she is interested in stories about the complexity of identity. Suzannah is the writer, director, and producer of AL-SIT (2020, Sudan/Qatar), screening on Netflix Middle East, and winner of the Canal+ Award at Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival in 2021 as well as 6 Academy Award qualifying prizes at Tampere Film Festival; LA Shorts; BronzeLens; New Orleans Film Festival; AFI Fest; and Interfilm Berlin. Her latest short is the experimental documentary/social media satire VIRTUAL VOICE (2021), which premiered at Tribeca Film Festival. Suzannah is working on her first feature COTTON QUEEN, which won the ArteKino Award at L’Atelier de la Cinefondation at the Cannes Film Festival in 2022.

    Malas Twins (One of Us Left the Photo)

  • TAFF2021: Producing Masterclass

    Event Details
    May 30, 2021
    1:00 – 4:00 PM EDT
    Virtual

    This workshop is suited for emerging producers, those who are trying to elevate their practice to produce low-budget, festival worthy short films and features. Learn everything you need – and what it takes – to produce low-budget, independent films. 

    Instructor:

    Dina Emam
    • Dina Emam

      Named one of Variety’s 10 Producers to Watch in 2018, Dina Emam is an Egyptian-American film producer and educator working between New York and Cairo. Her first feature, Yomeddine, had its world premiere at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival in the Main Competition, and was Egypt’s submission for the 91st Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

      In addition to producing, she teaches filmmaking/producing workshops and masterclasses for aspiring filmmakers in the MENA region. Prior to becoming a film producer, Emam worked in television market research and production management at MTV Networks in New York City.

      Emam holds a BS from New York University’s Stern School of Business in Marketing and International Business and an MFA in Creative Producing from Columbia University’s School of the Arts. She has previously served as an AmeriCorps volunteer.


    Sponsored by: Trinity Square Video

    TSV Logo

  • TAFF2021: Arab/Futurism: Speculative Storytelling in Arab Cinema

    Event Details
    July 8, 2021
    4:00PM EST
    Virtual

    Watch

    Over the past few decades, we have witnessed a new wave of Arab cinema, deeply grounded in the realities and politics of everyday life in the Arab world and its disparate diasporas. More recently, Arab filmmakers have experimented with alternative genres and modes of storytelling. While certainly popularized by the proliferation of Western culture, speculative fiction – fantasy, science fiction and magic realism – are not a foreign form of storytelling in the Arab world.

    These genres, and by extension, the stories they portray, have proved both timeless and timely. Can Arab cinema translate this success into film? Instead of only looking at and examining our immediate present and our recent tumultuous past, should we be rethinking, reconfiguring, and restructuring how we tell stories?

    Moderator:

    Rolla Tahir, Filmmaker, TAF Co-founder & Artistic Director
    • Rolla Tahir

      Rolla Tahir is a filmmaker and director of photography based in Toronto. She’s lensed short, narrative and experimental films, which screened across Canada and internationally, including the UK, Germany, and the United States. Obsessed with the durability, longevity and spontaneity of the analog film medium, Rolla has worked with Super 8, 16mm and 35mm to explore the analog process and its possibilities.

    Speakers:

    Desirée Custers, Arabic literature translator and Researcher
    • Desirée Custers

      Desirée Custers is a writer, researcher, and translator of Arabic literature. Her translations from Arabic to Dutch have appeared in poetry magazines and cultural platforms in Belgium, and in 2019 she translated the novel Brusselse Vrouwen (‘Women of Brussels’) by the Palestinian author Nisma Alaklouk. For her masters’ degree in Arabic and Islamic Studies, Desiree submitted a thesis on Arabic science fiction with the title Arabic science fiction as vehicle for criticism, in which she focused on the novel Harb al-Kalb al-Thaniyyah (‘Dog War II’, 2018) by Palestinian/Jordanian author Ibrahim Nasrallah. The thesis was short-listed for the Flemish thesis prize in 2019. Desiree writes about Arab sci-fi and literary and cultural topics on her bi-lingual Arabic/English blog, issabramil.com. She also holds an M.A. in Conflict Studies and Human Rights from Utrecht University, the Netherlands. 

    Nehal El-Hadi, Writer, Researcher, Editor
    • Nehal El-Hadi

      Nehal El-Hadi investigates the relationships between the body (racialised, gendered), place (urban, virtual), and technology (internet, health).

      She completed a Ph.D. in Planning at the University of Toronto, where her research examined the relationships between user-generated content and everyday public urban life.

      As a scholar, her hybrid digital/material research methods are informed by her training and experience as a science and environmental journalist.

      Nehal advocates for the responsible, accountable, and ethical treatment of user-generated content in the fields of journalism, planning, and healthcare.

      Her writing has appeared in academic journals, general scholarship publications, literary magazines, and several anthologies and edited collections.

      Nehal is the Science+Technology Editor at The Conversation Canada, an academic news site, and Editor-in-Chief of Studio Magazine, a biannual print publication dedicated to contemporary Canadian craft and design. She currently holds a residency at Toronto’s Theatre Centre, where she is developing a live arts event that explores surveillance, privacy, and consent.

      Nehal sits on the Board of Directors of FiXT POINT Arts & Media and Provocation Ideas Festival. She is a member of the Digital Communities Advisory Panel at the Centre for Free Expression. She was previously a Visiting Scholar at the City Institute at York University.

    Ayham Jabr, Filmmaker, Editor, Graphic Designer
    • Ayham Jabr

      Ayham Jabr is a Surreal Collage Artist, a Video Editor, a Videographer and a Graphic Designer. He studied Electronics at Damascus University, and lives in Damascus, Syria. His love for science fiction films, stories, and theories are a main source of inspiration behind his primarily digital art works.