Rawand Haress
Profession:
Director | Video Editor
City of residence:
Tripoli – Libya
Biography:
Rawand Al Haress is an experimental film director and art director. She was born in 1996 in Tripoli, Libya. She has a Bachelor of Arts in TV/Films from the Lebanese American University.
During her studies, she worked on different student films as a cinematographer, camera assistant (AC), and art director. In 2017, she travelled to do a semester abroad at UC Berkeley. During her stay, she took a “16 mm” class where she learned how to shoot using analogue film cameras and started her journey in producing films and videos through an experimental approach toward the usage of visuals and sound.
As an independent film director, her films invite the viewer to unravel and raise moral questions through one’s cultural identity, mental health issues, the socio-political issues in the Arab region, minorities issues, and aborting the prejudicial blinding binaries.
Her films were screened during the Green Book exhibition (2019) in Morocco, Proyector Festival (2019) in Spain, and BAMPFA (2017) in the USA.
During her undergraduate studies, she became interested in humanitarian work, where she became an intern with AIESEC India and volunteered at the Ketermeye refugee camp in Lebanon.
In 2019, she worked as an ambassador and videographer for the Europe on Track Project, where she traveled along with two teams across Europe for a month to discuss how young people see the future of Europe and how they can participate in politics, inspiration, and empowerment to take an active role in today’s changing world.
Upon her return to Libya in 2019, she combined her passion for films, storytelling, and humanitarian work. Rawand currently works as a Community Engagement and Communications Assistant at the International Organization for Migration. During her current role with IOM, she works on the media coverage of projects that assist migrants in distress and highlight migrants’ struggles and accomplishments in Libya through written and visual stories.
