Omar al-Qattan

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Omar al-Qattan (Arabic: عمر القطان‎) (May 4, 1964- ) is a Palestinian British film director and film producer.

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[edit] Early life

Qattan was was born in Beirut, Lebanon to Palestinian parents. Abd al-Rahman Qattan, his father came from Jaffa, but fled the city with thousands of other Arabs in the midst of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, becoming refugees. Omar lived in Beirut until he was eleven years old. His family moved to London at the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War in 1975, and Qattan enrolled in public school. Originally, he distanced himself from his past in the Arab world and adapted to his "new life" as "British public schoolboy". In 1982, Qattan was strongly influenced by the Sabra and Shatila massacre and began to move closer towards his Arab heritage. It was during this year, that he moved to Cairo to learn in Qur'anic school.[1]

[edit] Filming career

Qattan began his filming career by directing 15 to 20-minute documentaries and dramas. In 1987, he directed his first documentary Je suis...tu es? and then in 1988, his first drama La Danse — which was in partnership with Michel Khleife. In the next two years, Qattan continued to film these types of films.[2]

His first full-length film, Dreams & Silence, was a documentary directed and produced by Qattan in 1991. The film portrayed a Palestinian woman refugee in Jordan and her struggles with the religious and social constraints around her at a time of great tension and anguish. The documentary received the Joris Ivens Award and was broadcast in five European countries and Australia. His success led him to found his own film company Sourat UK in 1992, later becoming Sindibad Films Ltd in 1993.[2]

Qattan developed a close partnership with Khleife, and the two co-produced and directed Tale of the Three Jewels and Forbidden Marriages in the Holy Land. The latter, filmed in 1994 was about mixed marriages between Jews and Arabs in Palestine/Israel and the former, filmed in 1995 was entirely shot in the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip and received several international awards.[2]

Qattan's latest full-length film and perhaps the most controversial was Muhammad, Legacy of a Prophet, a two-hour documentary on Muhammad's life and his legacy with Muslims in the United States. It was aired on American television by PBS on December 22, 2002. The film was criticized by some right-wing journalists as "too soft on the topic", but it won great acclaim by the US public.[2]

[edit] Filmography

  • Je suis...tu es?, (1987)
  • La Danse (1988)
  • Conte de l'Aveugle et du Paralytique (1989)
  • Cantique des Pierres (1990-91)
  • L'Ordre du Jour (1992)
  • Executive Producer on Tale of the Three Jewels (1994-95)
  • Forbidden Marriages in the Holy Land (1995)
  • Going Home (1996)
  • Jerusalem (1998)
  • Homesick (1999)
  • Rachel Leah Jones' 500 Dunam on the Moon, a fifty-two minute documentary on the story of the Palestinian village of Ein Hawd - broadcast on France 2, Spring 2003.
  • Amal, My Star (2000)
  • Muhammad, Legacy of a Prophet (2000-02)
  • Midwest/ Midwest Field (2002)
  • Diary of an Art Competition (Under Occupation) (2002)
  • Route 181- Fragments of a Journey to Palestine and Israel (2003-04)[2]

[edit] References

  1. ^ How Muhammad Migrated to America On Translating Mythologies Qattan, al-Omar. 2003-01-11.
  2. ^ a b c d e Omar Al-Qattan Sindibad Films.