With 35 years proffesional experience in the film industry.
As a 1st Assistant Director I see my role as integral and vital to any production – being the Director’s support, the Producer’s Representative, and the Crew’s motivation. Having worked my way up through the ranks, my day-to-day perspective is fueled by years of hands-on experience within various disciplines of the industry.
Fundamental attributes of being a First AD, as I see it, are to anticipate where delays or problems could occur, and to take steps in advance to prevent them. Also to ensure that the AD team under my supervision is a hub that allows information to travel in all directions between the technical, creative and logistical teams, to hopefully accomplish works of art. In addition to this, flexibility is key due to constantly changing logistics. To this end, I am painfully aware that schedules must be adhered to for budgetary reasons.
Specialties: Ability to give orders effectively and adaptable to change at short notice.
Appart from the normal work, I work with all sorts of animals and children. Car shoots and stunts are part of my every day work.
I am a recent graduate in Film Directing from the University of West London and before that I had the chance to study and work in the UAE for 8\9 years. Those years have been the most formative of my life and that is why I consider Abu Dhabi to be my second home. After getting a scholarship from the Crown Prince Court to study at Sorbonne I worked on Abu Dhabi’s Major events till I finally switched industries and became a media analyst for a government think tank.
That allowed me to understand the important role the press plays in shaping public opinion but it also gave me the motivation to leave all this life behind and take on a career in film and that is why i moved to Berlin to do my Masters in film directing. Now it’s been a year since I graduated and I hope to be able to mix my knowledge in law, politics and dramaturgie to write and direct films that are relevant to the region but in the meantime it is essential for me to collaborate on projects to improve my skills and work alongside a group of like minded people.
Below is a modest list of projects i have worked on:
–Cast for “Incendies” (2010) directed by Denis Villeneuve
-Extra for ”Rosewater” (2014) directed by Jon Stewart
-PA for Stand-up comedy shows with “Jamel Debbouze” and “Gad Elmaleh” (2014)
-Writer/Producer/Director of short documentary “Dhahiyet al-Hussein” (2019)
-Writer/Director/Editor of commercial “2020: Toilet Paper Space Odyssey” (2020)
-PA, DIT & Assistant Editor for Feature film “Spectre” (2021) directed by Saeed Rashed
