''From the Sky'' is a 2014 short film written and directed by Ian Ebright, who also produced it with Jess Grant. The independently produced drama features an Arab father and son traveling through a region that often experiences

drone strikes Drone warfare is a form of aerial warfare using unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAV) or weaponized commercial unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). The United States, United Kingdom, Israel, China, South Korea, Iran, Italy, France, India, Pakista ...

. The film premiered at the Newport Beach Film Festival on , 2014 and was released on the video-sharing website

Vimeo Vimeo, Inc. () is an American video hosting, sharing, and services platform provider headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices. Vimeo's business model is through software as ...

on , 2014.

Premise

Hakeem and his son Abbas travel through a region that often experiences drone strikes. Abbas suffers from

posttraumatic stress disorder Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental and behavioral disorder that can develop because of exposure to a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, warfare, traffic collisions, child abuse, domestic violence, or other threats on ...

and struggles to keep it under control with the threat of drones. Two men, Dhiya and Samir, visit their camp, and trouble arises.

Cast

*Maz Siam ... Hakeem *Mohamad Tamini ... Abbas *Steven Soro ... Dhiya *Georges Chalhoub ... Samir

Production

''From the Sky'' was written, produced, and directed by Ian Ebright, who studied at the

Seattle Film Institute The Seattle Film Institute (SFI) is a private for-profit film school in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1994, SFI offers part-time classes, bachelor's degrees, master's degrees, and certificate programs in film and digital video production. ...

and followed news coverage about drone strikes in Asia and the Middle East. He collaborated with Muslims and American advisers on the Middle East and developed an Arabic-language screenplay for the film's production. He used

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

to raise two-thirds of what would be a final budget of $30,000.

Release

''From the Sky'' premiered at the Newport Beach Film Festival on , 2014. It also screened at the Seattle International Film Festival on , 2014. The film was nominated for four awards at the Short Film Awards. The film was released online through the video-sharing website

on , 2014.

References

External links