Mai Masri ( ar, مي المصري; born April 2, 1959) is a
Palestinian
Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...
filmmaker, director and producer.
Her films are primarily documentaries which focus on the real life struggles of the women and children living in the occupied Palestinian territories and Lebanon. She has received over 60 international awards for her films and is hailed as a pioneer in the Middle Eastern film industry.
Early life
Masri was born in
Amman, Jordan
Amman (; ar, عَمَّان, ' ; Ammonite: 𐤓𐤁𐤕 𐤏𐤌𐤍 ''Rabat ʻAmān'') is the capital and largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of 4,061,150 as of 2021, Amman is ...
on April 2, 1959.
She is the daughter of
Munib Masri
Munib Rashid al-Masri ( ar, منيب رشيد المصري), also known as the "Duke of Nablus", and "the Godfather"(b. 1934), is a Palestinian industrialist, philanthropist, and patriarch of the al-Masri family.
Relatives of his include his c ...
from
Nablus and an American mother from
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
. She spent her early childhood in Amman and Nablus moving to
Beirut
Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...
when she was in the first grade.
Masri was introduced to politics early in her life through her father, Munib al-Masri. Her father was close friends with the leaders of the
Palestine Liberation Organization including
Yasser Arafat
Mohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf al-Qudwa al-Husseini (4 / 24 August 1929 – 11 November 2004), popularly known as Yasser Arafat ( , ; ar, محمد ياسر عبد الرحمن عبد الرؤوف عرفات القدوة الحسيني, Mu ...
and
Khalil al-Wazir
Khalil Ibrahim al-Wazir Standardized Arabic transliteration: '' / / '' ( ar, خليل إبراهيم الوزير, also known by his '' kunya'' Abu JihadStandardized Arabic transliteration: ' —"Jihad's Father"; 10 October 1935 – 16 April 1 ...
who would often visit them in their home. Politics played a large role in her family as her father acted as a minister in Jordan in the 1970s.
In 1976 she visited
Berkeley, California
Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and E ...
where she had attended a lecture on film theory that fascinated her and led her to pursue an education in film.
She graduated from
San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different ...
in 1981 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in film production and technique.
Soon after, she returned to Beirut and began making films.
Personal life and career
Masri met her husband, Lebanese filmmaker Jean Chamoun, in 1977 while visiting Beirut on her summer break from college. The pair connected through their shared love of film making and its ability to influence people’s lives.
Masri then went back to
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
to finish her degree and returned to Beirut in 1981.
At this time the
Israeli invasion of Lebanon had begun, and Masri and Chamoun had to abandon a project they were working on.
Instead that summer the pair shot rousing footage under dangerous conditions which they would later use in their films Wild Flowers (1986), Suspended Dreams (1992), Under the Rubble (1983) and War Generation (1989).
In 1986 Masri and Chamoun were married and had founded Nour Productions.
The couple have two daughters. On August 9, 2017 Masri's husband Jean Chamoun passed away after a long battle with
Alzheimer's disease.
The pair's partnership led to the production of a total of 15 films, all of which gave voice to stories of peoples living under the hardships of war. Their work is praised for becoming the instrument of change and creativity which they had bonded over and set to achieve.
After their first film, ''Under the Rubble'' (1983), Masri and Chamoun bought their own equipment allowing them to produce low budget films on their own terms. They lived in Paris for a year to network outside of the Arab film industry, in order to be able to produce and distribute films abroad. The pair received their big break when the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
commissioned War Generation for their Inside Story.
and have won awards at film festivals throughout the world. Her films revolve around the lives of ordinary people who are living in bizarre times of conflict and how they manage to keep their humanity throughout the reality of their devastating situations. Her films aim to capture authenticity and as a result tell a different story to the stereotypical dehumanization and dismissing of Palestinians rights portrayed in dominate discourses.
* ''Under the Rubble'' (1983)
* ''Wild Flowers: Women of South Lebanon'' (1986)
* ''War Generation'' (1989)
* ''Children of Fire'' (1990)
* ''Suspended Dreams'' (1992)
* ''Hanan Ashrawi: A Woman of Her Time'' (1995)
* ''Children of Shatila'' (1998)
* ''Frontiers of Dreams and Fears'' (2001)
* ''Beirut Diaries'' (2006)
* ''33 Days'' (2007)
* ''
*Masri, Mai. (January 2008
''This Week in Palestine''.