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.

92min | documentary | DE / JO | shaghab films, tondowski films

IN POSTPRODUCTION

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.

11min | animated documentary | JO / FR | piano sano films, shaghab films

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.

90min | hybrid documentary | JO | shaghab films

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

TELL THEM ABOUT US

documentary | 2024 | 92min | DE / JO

ENCOUNTERING SAMIR

animated fiction | 2020 | 5min | DE / JO

NUDAR

documentary | 2018 | 21min | DE / JO

HALFWAY

animated doc | 2017 | 5min | DE

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

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

AWARDS, SCHOLARSHIPS & RESIDENCIES

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), Arab Cinema Award at Cairo Film Connection (Egypt, 2020 | Tell Them About Us), Graduate Scholarship of the Film University Babelsberg (Germany, 2019-2022), Winner of Mifa Animation du Monde (Lebanon, 2020 | Shadows ), Award for Best Pitch at Empfang der Filmhochschulen (Germany, 2020 | Tell Them About Us), Film Prize of the Robert Bosch Stiftung for International Cooperation – Nominations (2020 | Shadows), Film Prize of the Robert Bosch Stiftung for International Cooperation (2018 | Encountering Samir), 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)

WORKSHOPS (SELECTION)

Berlinale Talents (Germany), Beirut Talents (Lebanon), Rotterdam Lab (Netherlands), 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 & CONFERENCES

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)

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