Tanzania
Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...
of Asian origin, who has made award-winning documentaries for the
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
,
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...
, Al Jazeera International, and other UK, US and European broadcasters. Her films have covered international stories — in Africa, Asia, Europe, South America, the USA, and the Middle East — dealing with social and political issues about women religion, poverty, health, and human rights."Ruhi Hamid (British)" 2014 Finalists, Rory Peck Awards. A graduate of London's
Royal College of Art
The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public university, public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City, London, White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design uni ...
Mwanza
Mwanza City, also known as Rock City to the residents, is a port city and capital of Mwanza Region on the southern shore of Lake Victoria in north-western Tanzania. With an urban population of 1,104,521 and a population of 3,699,872 in the region ...
, Tanzania, to
Indian
Indian or Indians may refer to:
Associated with India
* of or related to India
** Indian people
** Indian diaspora
** Languages of India
** Indian English, a dialect of the English language
** Indian cuisine
Associated with indigenous peoples o ...
Muslim
Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...
parents,"About the director" Brooklyn Film Festival, 2007. and moved to England at the age of 12. After earning a BA in
Information Graphics
Infographics (a clipped compound of " information" and " graphics") are graphic visual representations of information, data, or knowledge intended to present information quickly and clearly.Doug Newsom and Jim Haynes (2004). ''Public Relations ...
from
Middlesex Polytechnic
Middlesex University London (legally Middlesex University and abbreviated to MDX) is a public research university based in Hendon, northwest London, England. The university also has campuses in Dubai and Mauritius. The name of the university is ...
in 1980, she attended London's
Royal College of Art
The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public university, public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City, London, White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design uni ...
, and on graduating worked as a graphic designer: in the
Netherlands
, Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
Zimbabwe
file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map
Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...
as part of a collective of young black designers and photographers, the Maviyane Project, and in London at the
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
Community Programme Unit
The Community Programme Unit was established by the BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the Br ...
on the
BAFTA
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...
award-winning series ''
Video Diaries
''Video Diaries'' is a BBC television programme produced by the Community Programme Unit. The series of programmes was created in 1990 by producer Jeremy Gibson. The programme's production team offered members of the public basic video training a ...
'' and ''
Video Nation
Video Nation is a BBC television project in social anthropology and audience interactivity, which ended in 2011.
History
Beginning in 1993, the BBC encouraged people to record their lives on video. These video diaries were then shown on BBC TV ...
'',"Ruhi Hamid" Independent Journalism 101. before leaving in May 2000 to work as a freelance producer/director."L'Arbitre , About Ruhi Hamid" ESPN, 5 July 2011. For her debut as a freelance, she gained unprecedented access to the
Pakistani
Pakistanis (, ) are the citizens and nationals of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Pakistan is the fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the second-largest Muslim population as of 2023. As much as ...
criminal courts to make the three-part
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...
series ''Lahore Law'' (2002), which was nominated for a
Grierson Award
Grierson: The British Documentary Awards, commonly known as The Grierson Awards, are awards bestowed by The Grierson Trust to recognise innovative and exciting documentary films, in honour of the pioneering Scottish documentary filmmaker John ...
. Specialising as a solo director/camerawoman, often at significant personal risk, she went on to make other well regarded films for the BBC, Channel 4,
Arte
Arte (, , ; ' ('), sometimes stylised in lowercase or uppercase in its logo) is a European Union, European public service Television channel, channel dedicated to culture. It is made up of three separate companies: the Strasbourg-based Europea ...
and Al Jazeera International, including ''Women and Islam'' (2004), ''The Rockstar and the Mullahs'' (2003), and ''Women, Weddings, War and Me'' (featuring
Nelufar Hedayat
Nelufar Hedayat (born 1 January 1988) is a British journalist and presenter who hosts the podcast Course Correction and is the correspondent for Doha Debates. She has worked in television across the BBC, as well as on Channel 4, Netflix, Fusion ...
, 2010). Hamid has also collaborated with prominent broadcasters including
Jonathan Dimbleby
Jonathan Dimbleby (born 31 July 1944) is a British presenter of current affairs and political radio and television programmes, author and historian. He is the son of Richard Dimbleby and younger brother of television presenter David Dimbleby.
...
and
BBC Three
BBC Three is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes for a 16 to 34-year-old target aud ...
's Reggie Yates.
Her films have been described as "informative journeys into the world of people and their cultures", her projects having included documentaries about the
Hmong people
The Hmong people ( RPA: , CHV: ''Hmôngz'', Nyiakeng Puachue: , Pahawh Hmong: , , zh, c=苗族蒙人) are an indigenous group in East Asia and Southeast Asia. In China, the Hmong people are classified as a sub-group of the Miao people. Th ...
trapped in the jungle of
Laos
Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR), is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast, and Thailand to the west and ...
(she filmed the first ever footage of their plight and went on to campaign on their behalf at the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...
, the
US State Department
The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs o ...
Brussels
Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
,
New Orleans
New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...
in the aftermath of
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina was a powerful, devastating and historic tropical cyclone that caused 1,392 fatalities and damages estimated at $125 billion in late August 2005, particularly in the city of New Orleans and its surrounding area. ...
, gang crime and violence in
Cape Flats
The Cape Flats () is an expansive, low-lying, flat area situated to the southeast of the central business district of Cape Town. The Cape Flats is also the name of an administrative region of the City of Cape Town, which lies within the larger geo ...
,
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
, and ''At the Epicentre'', a film on the aftermath of the Asian tsunami in
Banda Aceh
Banda Aceh (; , Jawi script, Jawi: ) is the capital and largest city in the province of Aceh, Indonesia. It is located on the island of Sumatra and has an elevation of 35 metres. The city covers an area of and had a population of 223,446 peopl ...
,
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...
, that won the
Rory Peck Award
The Rory Peck Award is an award given to freelance camera operators who have risked their lives to report on newsworthy events.HIV/AIDS
The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...
in rural
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
.
According to
ESPN
ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...
,
"Hamid's empathy and gift for understanding the ordinary person has enabled her to gain access to peoples, cultures and institutions around the world, including the Amazonian Indians,
Shamans
Shamanism is a spiritual practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with the Spirit (supernatural entity), spirit world through Altered state of consciousness, altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of th ...
in the Siberian forests, refugees in
Uganda
Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...
, women in
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...
and the British Foreign & Commonwealth office in Pakistan. Hamid is able to work with children and old people alike and turn her skills to more populist programmes working with rock stars, untried and professional presenters and celebrities like
Michael Palin
Sir Michael Edward Palin (; born 5 May 1943) is an English actor, comedian, writer, and television presenter. He was a member of the Monty Python comedy group. He received the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award, BAFTA Fellowship in 2013 and was knig ...
on a film about transport, explorer
Benedict Allen
Benedict Colin Allen FRGS (born 1 March 1960) is an English writer, explorer, traveller and filmmaker known for his technique of immersion among indigenous peoples from whom he acquires survival skills for hazardous journeys through unfamiliar ...
, newscaster
Samira Ahmed
Samira Ahmed (born 15 June 1968) is a British journalist, writer and broadcaster at the BBC, where she presents '' Front Row'' on Radio 4 and '' Newswatch'' on the BBC News channel and BBC One during '' BBC Breakfast'', and regularly present ...
, the food writer and broadcaster
Stefan Gates
Stefan Gates (born 19 September 1967) is a British television presenter, author, broadcaster and live-show performer. He has written books about food, cooking and science. He has presented over 20 TV series, mostly for the BBC, including '' Cook ...
and more recently a film in a three-part series on Africa with
Jonathan Dimbleby
Jonathan Dimbleby (born 31 July 1944) is a British presenter of current affairs and political radio and television programmes, author and historian. He is the son of Richard Dimbleby and younger brother of television presenter David Dimbleby.
...
.
Hamid's interest lies primarily in telling intimate human stories of people caught up in complex political or social conditions in our world today. She has a talent for gaining the trust and collaboration of those sensitive and suspicious of the media.... Her documentaries are always character driven with strong narratives."
Together with her partner Misha Maltsev, also a film and music professional, she runs Partisan Films.
Selected filmography
Awards
*2004: "Outstanding story on South Asia - Broadcast" award from the
South Asian Journalists Association
The South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA) was founded in 1994 in New York City. Sree Sreenivisan, Dilip Massand, M.K. Srinivasan and Om Malik co-founded SAJA as a networking organization for South Asian journalists. It is a group of more th ...
for ''The Rock Star and the Mullahs''
*2005:
Rory Peck Award
The Rory Peck Award is an award given to freelance camera operators who have risked their lives to report on newsworthy events."Hamid Ruhi" International Journalism Festival.
*2010: Shortlisted for
Grierson Award
Grierson: The British Documentary Awards, commonly known as The Grierson Awards, are awards bestowed by The Grierson Trust to recognise innovative and exciting documentary films, in honour of the pioneering Scottish documentary filmmaker John ...