In this op-ed for the film journal IndieWire, director Faiza Ambah talks about quitting her job as a foreign journalist for the Washington Post to pursue becoming a filmmaker. “I knew first-hand that Arab stories were deeper and richer than the images in news and films,” she pens. “So I became a filmmaker to put a human face to the political story.”
Ms. Ambah’s first film is called Mariam which, according to the filmmaker, “tells the story of a French-Muslim teenager who wears the hijab headscarf and is forced to choose between her hijab and school when France passes a law banning religious symbols from public schools, as it did in 2004.”
“Mariam” has screened worldwide and last year won the Special Jury Prize at the Dubai International Film Festival. It is available on iTunes.
