- "Sara Ishaq's journey from making a family film to the Oscar-nominated documentary Karama Has No Walls | The National". Retrieved 2016-11-28.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
Sara Ishaq | |
|---|---|
| Born | Edinburgh |
| Nationality | Yemeni-Scottish |
| Alma mater | University of Edinburgh Edinburgh College of Art |
| Occupation | Film Director |
| Awards | Academy Award Nomination, BAFTA Scotland Nomination |
Sara Ishaq is a Yemeni-Scottish film director. Ishaq directed and produced the critically acclaimed film Karama Has No Walls (2012).[1] The short film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject) and BAFTA Scotland New Talents award. In 2013, her award-winning feature film The Mulberry House,[2] which deals with her relationship with her family against the backdrop of the 2011 Yemeni uprising, premiered at IDFA.[3]
Sara Ishaq attended Yemen Modern School (YMS) until the summer of 2001. At the age of 17, she continued her education at Linlithgow Academy in Scotland for a year of high school (2001-2002) before her higher education. Ishaq then joined University of Edinburgh in 2003, where she obtained her MA (Honours) in Humanities and Social Sciences, with a focus on religious studies, social and political theory, International & Human Rights Law & Modern Middle Eastern Studies in 2007.
She returned to academia in 2010 to pursue an MFA in Film Directing from Edinburgh College of Art that she finished in 2012.
In 2011, Ishaq co-founded the #SupportYemen[4] Media Collective, an organizing and strategizing effort to advance social justice, build a democratic civic state, promote non-violence and break the silence on human rights violations in Yemen. In 2017, Ishaq co-founded Comra - a film production company and academy for film training in Sana'a.
Her earliest and most prolonged humanitarian pursuit occurred between 2009 and 2016, teaching rehabilitative yoga classes at the Nablus Women's Centre while volunteering with Project Hope (Palestine), as well as various studios across Cairo (Egypt), focusing on women suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. In 2015 Ishaq was barred from entering Palestine to participate in the Palestine Festival of Literature and banned for another 5 years.[5][6] Sara also ran Arts & Crafts workshops for children that had survived airstrikes in Yemen after the onslaught of the 2015 war.[7]
The Mulberry House (2013)
Karama Has No Walls (2012)
Television credits
