Simple as Water
Guests Expected
Director Megan Mylan, Producer Robin Hessman, Co-Producer Hazem Obid and subjects Omar Sabha and Abed Sabha are expected to attend. The screening will be followed by a Q&A.
Description
The modern world has become all too familiar with images of refugees fleeing their homes, desensitized to the onslaught of harrowing images and heartbreaking stories. But what happens after these displaced individuals find sanctuary and slip from the headlines? Academy Award-winner Megan Mylan trains her lens on the everyday acts of courage and determination that drive her protagonists, featuring families in Turkey, Greece, the US, and Syria. From a soft-spoken Uber driver who sacrifices everything for his teenage brother to far-flung parents urged on by parental love, this timeless film explores ties that bind and the dreams that empower humans to overcome the unthinkable.
Co-Presented By
Megan Mylan creates intimate observational non-fiction films. She has been recognized with an Academy Award, Emmy nominations, an Independent Spirit Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Her work includes: Smile Pinki (2003), Lost Boys of Sudan (2008), Raça (2013), and numerous short documentaries. Megan served for several years on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Executive Committee for Documentary and was guest director of the documentary film program at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. Before beginning in film, she worked with Ashoka, an international development non-profit, in the US and Brazil.
Robin is a documentary filmmaker and creative producer. She produced and directed the Peabody-award winning documentary, My Perestroika (2010), which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and is a New York Times Critics’ Pick. Previously, Robin produced several award- winning PBS films and was Filmmaker-in-Residence at WGBH in Boston. Throughout the 1990s Robin lived in Russia making documentaries and working as the on-site producer of Ulitsa Sezam (1996), the Russian co-production of Sesame Street. Robin is Vice-President and a founding board member of the Karen Schmeer Film Editing Fellowship and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She graduated from Brown with a joint degree in Russian and Film and received her graduate degree in film directing from the All-Russian State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) in Moscow. She is a member of the Documentary Producers Alliance and of the Documentary Branch of AMPAS.
Hazem is a photographer and media producer. Raised in Masyaf, Syria, Hazem currently lives in Frankfurt, Germany and works in Europe and Africa. He graduated from the University of Damascus in Media Studies. He left Syria in 2014. In Germany, Hazem completed a Master’s degree in International Media and Cultural Work from the Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences.
Film Details
Language Arabic, English
Year 2021
Premiere California
Runtime 98
Country USA, Syria, Greece, Turkey, Germany
Director Megan Mylan
Executive Producer Susan Bay Nimoy, G. Barrie Landry
Producer Robin Hessman, Megan Mylan, Hazem Obid, Alaa Hassan, Yara Hassan
Editor Purcell Carson, Megan Mylan
Cinematographer Lars Skree, Rafia Salameh, Michael Chin
Music Hanan Townshend
Print Source HBO, Principe Productions
