Short Shorts An American Muslim teenager secretly changes into "short shorts" before heading off to school each day. Struggling to fit into two cultures, she attempts to find common ground between her family and her life at school. <img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/eventive-static/236a149e1fdf3f8f73ace404184835d7.jpg" width="162" style="display: inline; margin: 0px 1em 1em 0px; float: left;">Karina Adriana Dandashi is a Syrian-American writer, director, and actress living in Brooklyn, NY. She has worked under independent film companies such as A24 and Stay Gold Features. Her films aim to explore nuances in identity through the intersection of family, religion, and culture in Arab-American and Muslim communities. Her debut short film, Short Shorts, is a coming of age about an American Muslim teenage girl who uses clothes to inform identity between two cultures. Her second short, Barzakh, uses the Sci-Fi genre to reflect upon the sociopolitical divide in the United States and the treatment of Muslims, refugees, and undocumented immigrants. Karina is the 2021 Silver Sun Diverse Voices Filmmaker Fellow at the Jacob Burns Film Center, where she will be working on two narrative shorts about sexuality and colorism and two short docs that thematically accompany them.

Short Shorts

An American Muslim teenager tries to maintain both her family’s approval and that of her friends. A coming of age story about the little ways we divert from our upbringings with the choices we make.

Barzakh Living in a dystopian future where the U.S. government is sending refugees and undocumented immigrants to a recently colonized Mars, a Syrian refugee misses her deportation launch and makes a musical connection with a local DJ. <img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/eventive-static/a09a49a0e9db44cf971df41a28b9d86c.jpg" width="164" style="display: inline; margin: 0px 1em 1em 0px; float: left;">Karina Adriana Dandashi is a Syrian-American writer, director, and actress living in Brooklyn, NY. She has worked under independent film companies such as A24 and Stay Gold Features. Her films aim to explore nuances in identity through the intersection of family, religion, and culture in Arab-American and Muslim communities. Her debut short film, Short Shorts, is a coming of age about an American Muslim teenage girl who uses clothes to inform identity between two cultures. Her second short, Barzakh, uses the Sci-Fi genre to reflect upon the sociopolitical divide in the United States and the treatment of Muslims, refugees, and undocumented immigrants. Karina is the 2021 Silver Sun Diverse Voices Filmmaker Fellow at the Jacob Burns Film Center, where she will be working on two narrative shorts about sexuality and colorism and two short docs that thematically accompany them.

Barzakh

August 4 Yara's latest project, August 4, portrayed and explored the psychological and emotional impact of the Beirut Explosion on its inhabitants on that fateful afternoon of August 4th, 2020. <img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/eventive-static/6ca65a67aa50073acc8b0c57ee7a9ca8.jpg" width="137" style="display: inline; margin: 0px 1em 1em 0px; float: left;">Yara Matilda Melki is an aspiring filmmaker from Beirut, Lebanon. In 2020, she graduated from the International College of Beirut with an IB Diploma and is now studying Film &amp; Television at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Yara aims to tell the untold stories of hardships faced by people all over the world — starting with her home country of Lebanon. Her latest project, August 4, portrayed and explored the psychological and emotional impact of the Beirut Explosion on its inhabitants on that fateful afternoon of August 4th, 2020.

August 4

Yara's latest project, August 4, portrayed and explored the psychological and emotional impact of the Beirut Explosion on its inhabitants on that fateful afternoon of August 4th, 2020.

How does politics inform our art? How does coming from different backgrounds shape our voices as artists? Filmmakers Karina Dandashi &amp; Yara M. Melki share their stories and future aspirations. Join us in conversation followed by Q&amp;A Tuesday, March 30, 2021LIVE / 6PM PDT

The Future of Arab Cinema is Our Story - Karina Dandashi and Yara M. Melki

In Conversation with Filmmakers Karina Dandashi and Yara M. Melki

Short Films and Conversation with Karina Dandashi and Yara M. Melki

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