Tala Hadid (born in London) is a film director and producer. She is also a photographer. Her work has been shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, The Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis, The Smithsonian National Museum, The National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington D.C., L'Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris and other locations.
Early life
Hadid was born to a Moroccan mother, Kenza Alaoui while her father was
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...
Mohammed Hadid
Mohammed Hadid (January 1, 1907 – August 3, 1999) was an Iraqi economist, democracy advocate, Minister of Finance of Iraq between 1958 and 1963 and the father of internationally recognized architect Dame Zaha Hadid.
Early years and family ...
was imprisoned under
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolutio ...
. Her aunt was the noted architect
Zaha Hadid
Dame Zaha Mohammad Hadid ( ar, زها حديد ''Zahā Ḥadīd''; 31 October 1950 – 31 March 2016) was an Iraqi-British architect, artist and designer, recognised as a major figure in architecture of the late 20th and early 21st centu ...
.
Hadid co-produced and directed her first full-length film while she was studying as an undergraduate at
Brown University
Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...
. The film, '' Sacred Poet'', focuses the lens on the Italian poet and filmmaker
Pier Paolo Pasolini
Pier Paolo Pasolini (; 5 March 1922 – 2 November 1975) was an Italian poet, filmmaker, writer and intellectual who also distinguished himself as a journalist, novelist, translator, playwright, visual artist and actor. He is considered one of ...
with rare interviews with
Laura Betti
Laura Betti ( Trombetti; 1 May 1927 – 31 July 2004) was an Italian actress known particularly for her work with directors Federico Fellini, Pier Paolo Pasolini and Bernardo Bertolucci. She had a long friendship with Pasolini and made a document ...
,
Bernardo Bertolucci
Bernardo Bertolucci (; 16 March 1941 – 26 November 2018) was an Italian film director and screenwriter with a career that spanned 50 years. Considered one of the greatest directors in Italian cinema, Bertolucci's work achieved international ...
,
Sergio Citti
Sergio Citti (30 May 1933 – 11 October 2005) was an Italian film director and screenwriter, born in Rome. He often worked with Pier Paolo Pasolini, but also worked for others such as Ettore Scola. His own films include '' We Free Kings'', f ...
and
Ninetto Davoli
Giovanni "Ninetto" Davoli (born 11 October 1948) is an Italian actor who became known through his roles in several of Pier Paolo Pasolini's films.
Biography
Davoli was born in San Pietro a Maida, Calabria. He was discovered by poet, novelist ...
.
The author of several short films, in 2000 while she was working on a project on the Macedonian
Roma
Roma or ROMA may refer to:
Places Australia
* Roma, Queensland, a town
** Roma Airport
** Roma Courthouse
** Electoral district of Roma, defunct
** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council
* Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...
community in
Naples
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adm ...
, Italy, she was awarded a fellowship to study film at the graduate film department at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
in New York City.
Career
In 2001 she directed '' Windsleepers'', a film set in
St Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
, Russia, with poets
Genya Turovskaya
Genya Turovskaya is a Ukrainian American poet, translator and psychotherapist born in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Early life and education
Genya Turovskaya was born in Kyiv, Ukraine and grew up in the Bronx.
She studied comparative literature at Bard College ...
and Vladimir Kucheriavkin.
In 2005 Hadid completed her thesis film, '' Tes Cheveux Noirs Ihsan''. The film, shot in Northern
Morocco
Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to A ...
and in the
Rif Mountains
The Rif or Riff (, ), also called Rif Mountains, is a geographic region in northern Morocco. This mountainous and fertile area is bordered by Cape Spartel and Tangier to the west, by Berkane and the Moulouya River to the east, by the Mediterrane ...
, was awarded the 2005 Cinecolor/Kodak Prize and in June 2005 received a
Student Academy Award
The Student Academy Awards are presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in an annual competition for college and university filmmakers.
Description
The awards were originally named the Student Film Awards and were first ...
. It has screened at numerous Film Festivals including the
New York Film Festival
The New York Film Festival (NYFF) is a film festival held every fall in New York City, presented by Film at Lincoln Center (FLC). Founded in 1963 by Richard Roud and Amos Vogel with the support of Lincoln Center president William Schuman, i ...
at the
Lincoln Center
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 milli ...
, the
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,6 ...
, the
Rotterdam Film Festival
The International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) is an annual film festival held at the end of January in various locations in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Since its foundation in 1972, it has maintained a focus on independent and experimental f ...
(where it was nominated for a Tiger Award), the Fajr Film Festival in Tehran, the Kiev International Film Festival, the
Sydney Film Festival
The Sydney Film Festival is an annual competitive film festival held in Sydney, Australia, usually over 12 days in June. A number of awards are given, the top one being the Sydney Film Prize.
the festival's director is Nashen Moodley.
Histo ...
, the International Film Festival Oberhausen and L'Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris. The film went on to win numerous awards including the Global Lens Prize, A BAFTA special mention and a Special Jury Prize and best Actress Award at the Tangiers International Film Festival. In February 2006 the film won the Panorama Best short Film Award at the
Berlin Film Festival
The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the fest ...
.
Hadid's work has been shown at the
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of t ...
(MOMA) in New York City, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Smithsonian National Museum, the
National Museum of Women in the Arts
The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA), located in Washington, D.C., is "the first museum in the world solely dedicated" to championing women through the arts. NMWA was incorporated in 1981 by Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay. Since openi ...
in Washington D.C, L'Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, the Goteberg Kunsthalle in Sweden, the Goethe Institute, Cairo, the Seville Biennale in Spain, the Jonathon Schorr Gallery NYC, the Los Angeles County Museum (LACMA), the Cinémathèque Française in Paris, the Slought Foundation in Philadelphia as well as the Photographer's Gallery in London and the Cinémathèque de Tanger.
In 2010/2011 Hadid worked on an independent project entitled ''Heterotopia'', a series of photographs documenting life in a New York City brothel. In 2012 she was awarded the Peter S Reed Foundation Arts grant in support of her documentary film work in Morocco. In the autumn of 2013 a small volume of a selection of her photographs was published by Stern Fotografie Portfolio series of emerging photographers.
In 2014 Hadid completed work on ''Itarr el Layl'' (''The Narrow Frame of Midnight''), a feature film about a man in search of his missing brother. The main character Zacharia, played by
Khalid Abdalla
Khalid Abdalla ( ar, خالد عبدالله; ; born 26 October 1980) is a Scottish actor and activist of Egyptian descent. He came to international prominence after starring in the 2006 Academy Award-nominated and BAFTA-winning film '' United ...
, journeys through Morocco to Turkey and eventually to Iraq during the second Iraq War. The film premiered at the Toronto film Festival and went on to screen at various film festivals and venues, including the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center at the Lincoln Center in New York, the Rome Film Festival, London Film Festival and the Walker Arts Center among other places. The film stars
Marie-Josée Croze
Marie-Josée Croze (; born February 23, 1970) is a Canadian actress. She also holds French citizenship, which she obtained in December 2012.
Early life
Croze was born in Montreal, Quebec, was adopted, and grew up in Longueuil with four other ch ...
, Fedwa Boujouane, Hocine Choutri and
Hindi Zahra
Hindi Zahra ( Tamazight: ⵀⵉⵏⴷⵉ ⵣⴰⵀⵕⴰ, Arabic: هندي زهرة, born 20 January 1979 in Khouribga, Morocco) is a Moroccan singer. When coming up with a stage name, she simply inverted her birth name. Her songs are mostly in ...
. In early 2015 the film won best film and critics prize at the Tangier National film festival, Jury Prize at Pleins les Yeux in the Netherlands, Credit Agricole Prize in Nice, France and the audience award for Best Narrative feature at the
Mizna
Mizna is a nonprofit arts organization located in St. Paul, Minnesota. Founded in 1999, Mizna describes itself as “a critical platform for Arab and Southwest Asian and North African (SWANA) film, literature, and art.” Since 1999, Mizna has pu ...
Film Festival in Minneapolis. In September 2015, Hadid's project ''House in the Fields'' was selected to screen as a work-in-progress at the 72nd Venice Biennale International Film Festival where it was awarded two prizes. In February 2017, the film premiered at the Berlin Film Festival where it was nominated for the Glashütte Original Documentary Award. The film was also the recipient of the Commune di Milano Prize for Best Feature Film at the FCAAL Milano Film Festival 2017, the Firebird Award for best Documentary at the Hong Kong International Film Festival 2017, the Fiction/Non Fiction Best Film Award at the Millennium Docs against Gravity International Film Festival in Warsaw 2017, the 2M Grand Prize at FIDADOC 2017, the 2017 John Marshall Award in the US, the Special Jury Prize at the 2018 National Film Festival in Tangiers, and the Grand Prize of the city at the 2018 International Mediterranean Film Festival of Tetouan. In 2019 Hadid photographed and produced the installation project ''Floodplain'' based on Tablet XI of Gilgamesh for the 2019 Rabat Biennale. Hadid’s work is part of the Ruben Bentsov Moving Image Collection at the Walker Museum in the US. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.