Netflix, in partnership with The Arab Fund For Arts and Culture (AFAC), announced on Monday that five women filmmakers and producers in the Arab world will receive a Netflix Fund for Creative Equity to begin their film projects.
Launched in 2021, Netflix Fund for Creative Equity gives more opportunities to filmmakers from different communities to create films. A grant of $250,000 is being allocated to support the women filmmakers in the region.
Nuha El Tayeb, Netflix Director of Content Acquisitions for the Middle East and Turkey, issued that “the Fund for Creative Equity helps the industry as a whole to have a much more dynamic, interesting, [and] multidimensional representation of women.”
She added that “this is one step in the journey to enabling more women to tell their stories.”
Out of the five women selected to receive the grant, three Lebanese women producers were selected with their fiction projects, including:
#1 Diala Kachmar – From the Other Shore
Diala Kachmar’s movie From the Other Shore follows the journey of two friends, Sylvana and Mohamed, who often roam the streets of Beirut together.
Sylvana in a wheelchair and Mohamed, who is blind, decide to “walk” together despite the obstacles.
#2 Jana Wehbe – The Day Vladimir Died
Jana Wehbed’s movie The Day Vladimir Died revolves around an old resident of Beirut named Vladimir who attends funerals daily. Following an unusual encounter, he starts searching for his notice.
#3 Tania Khoury – Manity
Tania Khoury’s movie Manity tells the story of a young boy named Firas who accompanies his father Tayseer and his father’s friend Rayan to a bird hunting activity on the Lebanese mountainside.
Tayseer finds this as an opportunity to toughen up his son and gives him a knife to slaughter a bird. However, Firas refuses to defy his “oppressing father’s logic of the concept of manhood”.
This movie, as the Netflix Find’s selected ones, meets particular criteria in that it uses the power of “moving images” to “shed the light on the realities of the region,” as put forward by Rima Mismar, AFAC’s Executive Director.
AFAC stated that “the investment in the Fund for Creative Equity is another way to amplify women’s voices and ultimately bring fresh and authentic content to audiences in the region.”
You can meet the five women filmmakers here:
