I am from Palestine: MEMO in conversation with filmmakers Rifk Ebeid and Iman Zawahry

Join us as we speak to the filmmakers behind ‘I am from Palestine‘, a new animated children’s film following the story of Saamidah, a young Palestinian-American girl, as she deals with questions about where she comes from and where Palestine is on a map.

Iman Zawahry and Rifk Ebeid discuss the ups and downs of making a short feature and telling Palestinian stories through film.

Zawahry is one of the first hijabi American-Muslim filmmakers. She has worked on numerous films that have played at over 150 venues worldwide. She’s an Emmy award winner, Princess Grace Award recipient, a Lincoln Center Artist Academy Fellow, and Sundance Momentum Fellow and Sundance Universal Fellow. She is also the co-creator of the first American Muslim film grant with Islamic Scholarship Fund where she currently serves as Director of Film Programs. Iman works to amplify the underrepresented female voice and frequently consults and speaks across the nation on the topic of Muslims in Film. Her debut film, Americanish, has won 26 awards, including best director and best film and has been acquired by Sony Pictures.

Ebeid is a Palestinian-American Muslim writer, attorney and pediatric speech language pathologist. She is the author of two children’s picture books about Palestine, including ‘You Are The Color’, and ‘Baba, What Does My Name Mean? A Journey to Palestine‘, which was nominated for the Palestine Book Awards 2020 and came in highly recommended by our panel of judges. She has a JD from George Mason University, an MA in Human Rights Studies from Columbia University, an MA in Speech-Language Pathology from the University of Northern Colorado and a BA in Political Science and Near Eastern Language and Cultures from the University of Florida.

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