A scene from the film “Palestine 36” by Annemarie Jacir. (Credit: Watermelon Pictures)
On the fifth floor of a building overlooking Ramallah, Sawsan Qaoud welcomes visitors into the offices of her production company. With her carefully styled hair, makeup and polished smile, the former MBC correspondent in the occupied Palestinian territories appears as if she has stepped straight off a television set. As she pours herself tea, she explains her shift in career."I had had enough of announcing bad news. I'm the kind of person who wants to tell the story of the beauty of Palestine, so I turned to cinema."After studying audiovisual media and film production in Moscow and Cardiff, she released the documentary Gazagrad last year. The film follows a Palestinian-Russian couple fleeing Gaza with their two daughters before settling in Russia in hopes of rebuilding their lives.Qaoud, her smile both warm and tinged with...
On the fifth floor of a building overlooking Ramallah, Sawsan Qaoud welcomes visitors into the offices of her production company. With her carefully styled hair, makeup and polished smile, the former MBC correspondent in the occupied Palestinian territories appears as if she has stepped straight off a television set. As she pours herself tea, she explains her shift in career."I had had enough of announcing bad news. I'm the kind of person who wants to tell the story of the beauty of Palestine, so I turned to cinema."After studying audiovisual media and film production in Moscow and Cardiff, she released the documentary Gazagrad last year. The film follows a Palestinian-Russian couple fleeing Gaza with their two daughters before settling in Russia in hopes of rebuilding their lives.Qaoud, her smile both warm and tinged...