Before We Forget by Nawaf Al Janahi

Biographies

Nawaf Al Janahi

Nawaf Al Janahi is an actor and a film director who was born in Abu Dhabi (UAE) on 7 February 1977 to an Egyptian mother and an Emirati father. He started acting at 7, and at the age of 19 he moved to California (USA) to study the arts of cinema. His first feature length film The Circle was described by film critics as “a major turning point in Emirati and Gulf cinema”. Al Janahi’s second feature film Sea Shadow was released in cinemas across the Arabian Gulf in 2011 and reached in the 1st week the 2nd place in the top 5 movies in UAE, the biggest cinema market in the Arab world. Later, the film went on a global tour to 27 countries, the most remarkable tour for an Emirati feature film to date. Beside making films, Nawaf Al Janahi is also the founder of a number of initiatives such as the Emirati Cinema Campaign, Black Box Cinema, and Cineolio.

Nezar Andary

Nezar Andary grew up all over the Arab World, received his bachelor’s from Columbia University, was a Fulbright scholar, and at UCLA received his Ph.D. Andary has dedicated his career to being a creative intellectual. As a filmmaker, his creative documentary Unlocking Doors of Cinema screened in over 20 festivals worldwide, including Cairo International Film Festival, Doc Lisboa, London International Documentary Festival, San Francisco Documentary Film Festival. Andary is also supporting new creative talent, and is a creative executive at Arab Film Studio, with over 10 documentary short films that have screened in over fifty festivals. Andary also has a passion for curation, with various UAE cultural events, including his role as the Artistic Director of Al Sidr Environmental Film Festival in Abu Dhabi. Andary’s creative pursuits also hit the stage, and with his production Memories of Childhood Andary introduced the concept of documentary theatre to the UAE. As an academic, Andary taught cinema and the humanities and is an accomplished writer. As the co-editor for Palgrave MacMillan’s book series ‘Focus on Arab Cinema’, he has over six books, the first written by Andary ‘Cinema of Muhammad Malas: Vision of a Syria Auteur’. In 2020, after 17 years in the UAE, Andary is honored to be one of the first recipients of the Golden Visa in the cultural sector.