Rand
Beiruty

Writer, director and creative producer
based between Amman and Berlin.
Founder of shaghab films.

NOW SHOWING

TELL THEM ABOUT US

In the East-German province, a clique of Arab, Kurdish, and Roma teenage girls navigate the complexities of culture, friendship, and self discovery, boldly staging their conflicts and dreams in front of the camera.

logos of funders of Tell Them About us

NOW SHOWING

SHADOWS

At an over crowded airport, Ahlam, a 14-year old runaway mother, fights the lurking shadows that attempt to steal the only dream that will set her free.

IN DEVELOPMENT

PORTRAIT OF A.

Guided by an enigmatic narrator, “Portrait of A” weaves 22-year-old Andrea’s journey into womanhood and motherhood with shared experiences of resilience and self-discovery among other Roma women.

Project took part in Berlin Artist-in-Residence AiR 2023 & CIRCLE Women Doc Accelerator 2024-25

TELL THEM ABOUT US

SHADOWS

ENCOUNTERING SAMIR

NUDAR

HALFWAY

ABOUT

Who gets to tell whose story? Why does representation matter? How can I fully acknowledge my positionality and responsibilities as a documentarian? What does accountability look like? Those are some of the questions that I continue to pose in my filmmaking practice. My journey thus far taught me the importance of rigorous introspection that challenges my own preconceptions as well as prevalent conventions of story and form. The inquisitive researcher and the creative practitioner merge on a path of discovery and self-reflection, generating new understandings of visual storytelling and the creation of subversive narratives.

EDUCATION

Design Thinking – Hasso Plattner Institute
Practice-based Ph.D. – Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF
MA Media Arts and Design – Bauhaus University Weimar
BA Design and Visual Communication – German Jordanian University

RESIDENCIES & SCHOLARSHIPS

Villa Aurora Residency  (USA, 2025 | Portrait of A), Ciclic Animation Residency (France, 2024 | Shadows), Berlin Artist-in-Residence AiR (Greece, 2023 | Portrait of A), Fontevraud Residency (France, 2021 | Shadows), Haus Am See Residency (Germany, 2021 | Tell Them About Us), Graduate Scholarship of  the Film University Babelsberg (Germany, 2019-2022), Film Prize of the Robert Bosch Stiftung for International Cooperation – Nominations (2020 | Shadows & 2018 | Encountering Samir).

AWARDS

ECFA Award for Best European Feature Documentary for Young Audience (Czech Republic, 2024 | Tell Them About Us), Arab Cinema Award at Cairo Film Connection (Egypt, 2020 | Tell Them About Us),  Winner of Mifa Animation du Monde (Lebanon, 2020 | Shadows ), Award for Best Pitch at Empfang der Filmhochschulen  (Germany, 2020 | Tell Them About Us), Winner of Best Elevator Pitch at Fajr International Film Festival (Iran, 2019 | Shadows), The Tribeca Film Institute – If/Then Competition grant at CPH:DOX (2017 | Nudar), Special mention at Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung Nachwuchstag (2017 | Nudar), ESP Jury Prize for the International Script Pitch at Interfilm Berlin (2016 | Encountering Samir)

TALENT LABS (SELECTION)

Berlinale Talents (Germany), Beirut Talents (Lebanon), Rotterdam Lab (Netherlands), Circle Doc Accelerator (Greece, Serbia, Italy), Film Leader Incubator Asia (Korea, Thailand, Japan), Documentary Campus (Germany), Locarno Documentary School (Switzerland), Robert Bosch Film Prize (Egypt, Germany), ANIDOX:LAB (Denmark, Sweden), Talent Campus (Iran), Producers Guild of America PGA (Jordan), Interaction Camp (Serbia), Artivits for Change (Greece), Nisi Masa – European Short Pitch (Malta, Poland), Arab Animated Forum ITFS (Germany),  Film Independent (Egypt) and Ji.hlava Academy (Czech Republic).

TALKS, WORKSHOPS & CONFERENCES (SELECTION)

Film University Babelsberg – Guest lecturer, 2024 
Athens International Children’s Film Festival workshop ‘The Director’s Perspective: How to Create a Documentary?, 2024
Documentary Association Europe & Goethe Institut – Masterclass titled “Transitional Filmmaking Practices: Positionality and Story Dynamics”, 2024
Munich International Documentary Film Festival, workshop “Towards a Participatory Approach” , 2022
AG Animation “Political Animation – Animation Politics”- Symposium, 2021
Film University Babelsberg – Experimentelles Erzählen Seminar, 2021
Film University Babelsberg & GEECT – Transversal Entanglement – Artistic Research in Film conference, 2021
Zurich University of the Arts  – “GADGETS, PHONES AND DRONES” conference, 2021
Women Make Film – Panel discussion, 2020
FilmArche Berlin – Documentary film workshop, 2020
Bauhaus University Weimar – Migration/ Collaborative Filmmaking, 2017

PUBLICATIONS

Contribution to: “Positions and Perspectives on Artistic Research in Film” – IJFMA No. 1 GEECT – Transversal Entanglement, P118. (2022)

“Towards a Participatory Approach: Reversing the Gaze when (re)presenting Refugees in nonfiction film” – International Journal of Film and Media Arts (2020)

OTHER

DW Akademie’s “Power of Images: Overcoming the crisis by constructive visual journalism” – Developed a training curriculum and materials in a co-creation process.

PRESS (SELECTION)

Arabian Moda – Interview
Gouna Star – Interview
Business Doc Europe – Interview
Women Cinemakers Vol. 33 – Interview
Interfilm Berlin – Interview 
Film Ohne Grenzen Festival – Haus am See Scholarship Interview

MEMBERSHIPS

AG DOK, Film Independent, Documentary Association Europe (DAE), DOX BOX, Brown Girls Doc Mafia

CONTACT

mail

imdb

vimeo