Naz (working title)
Fall Grants 2017 - Development Stage
Omar El-Khairy, Ana Naomi de Sousa / Feature Documentary / Palestine, United Kingdom, Qatar / 90 min / Original Language: Arabic, English / Interests: Music, Sports, Biography, Islam, Fashion, Creative Documentary
Synopsis
One of the most successful and entertaining sporting icons of the 1990s, Naseem Hamed’s unique position as a second-generation British Arab with mass appeal resonated deeply with an under-represented Arab community in Britain and beyond, as well as with a new generation in the Middle East, all coming of age at a similar time. ‘Naz’ explores the tension between Hamed’s near-cult status within certain communities, and the ambivalence of the British nation-at-large, which never really took him to heart.
Credits
- Director
- Omar El-Khairy, Ana Naomi de Sousa
- Screenwriter
- Omar El-Khairy, Ana Naomi de Sousa
- Producer
- Elhum Shakerifar
- Production Company
- Hakawati
About the Director
Omar El-Khairy is a playwright and screenwriter, and holds a Ph.D in Sociology from the London School of Economics and Political Science. A former Leverhulme Associate Playwright at the Bush Theatre, his plays include ‘Burst’, ‘Sour Lips’, ‘The Keepers of Infinite Space’, ‘The Chaplain: or, a short tale of how we learned to love good Muslims whilst torturing bad ones’, and ‘Homegrown’. His work is published by Oberon Books. ‘No Exit’ (2014), his first short film, had its world premiere at the Dubai International Film Festival. His new short film, ‘White Girl’, is currently in production.
Ana Naomi de Sousa is a documentary filmmaker and journalist working between London, UK, and Lisbon, Portugal. She was a BAFTA Breakthrough 2021 in recognition of her work around spatial politics, identity, and resistance. Between 2016 and 2019, she collaborated with the Turner-prize nominated Forensic Architecture agency, including as director of the interactive documentary ‘Saydnaya’, which won a Peabody in 2018. From 2009-2014, she produced documentaries and television programmes for Al Jazeera English, directing the films’ Angola Birth of a Movement’, ‘Guerrilla Architect’, ‘The Architecture of Violence’, ‘Ecuador’s Hidden Treasure’, and ‘Hacking Madrid’. She collaborates with the Decolonizing Architecture collective on projects about colonial architectural heritage and legacies in Sweden, Italy, Ethiopia, and Eritrea. Her work has been screened and exhibited in galleries, including the ICA, London, the Venice Architecture Biennale, and MACBA, Spain. Her journalism on Portugal is published by The Guardian, Al Jazeera English, The Funambulist, and Architectural Review.