Ms. JIHAN EL-TAHRI
The 2017 IREPRESENT International Documentary Film
Festival is proud to announce that our guest of Honour will be the
award-winning internationally renowned French/Egyptian filmmaker, Ms. JIHAN
EL-TAHRI. Each day of the festival will feature a special highlight of her
major films on the politics and history of Africa’s march from colonialism to
democracy. The star selections to be screened include “CUBA – An African
Odyssey,” “Egypt’s Modern Pharaohs” and “Behind the Rainbow.”
Each film will be followed by an extensive session of
“JIHAN IN CONVERSATION” where she will be talking about how she builds her
stories around archival resources. Jihan will also teach a Masterclass in the
Producers-Roundtable segment of the festival.
Jihan El Tahri is an award winning director, writer,
producer and visual artist. She is an Egyptian and French national, who started
her career as a Foreign Correspondent covering Middle East Politics. In 1990
she began directing and producing documentaries for the BBC, PBS, Arte and
other international broadcasters. Since then she has produced and directed
numerous documentaries, her most recent is “Nasser” part of this year’s
official selection at Toronto International Festival. She has also Produced and
directed the acclaimed documentaries “Behind the Rainbow”, “ Cuba, an African
Odyssey”, as well as the Emmy nominated House of Saud. Her writings include
“Les Sept Vies de Yasser Arafat” (Grasset) and “Israel and the Arabs, The 50
Years war” (Penguin).
El-Tahri is also engaged in various associations and
institutions working with African cinema. She has served as treasurer of the
Guild of African Filmmakers in the Diaspora, Regional Secretary of the
Federation of Pan African Cinema (FEPACI) and as an Advisor on Focus Feature’s
Africa first Program.
