Taghreed Elsanhouri ( ) is a British-Sudanese

documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

filmmaker Filmmaking or film production is the process by which a Film, motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, beginning with an initial story, idea, or commission. Production then continues through screen ...

, film producer and author, based in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. She is mainly known for ''All about Darfur'' (2005), a film about the

war in Darfur The War in Darfur, also nicknamed the Land Cruiser War, was a major armed conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan that began in February 2003 when the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army, Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equalit ...

. For her 2012 documentary ''Our Beloved Sudan'', she interviewed Sudanese politicians as well as a Sudanese citizen with parents from both the northern and southern parts of Sudan, presenting both political and individual stories before independence of

South Sudan South Sudan (), officially the Republic of South Sudan, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered on the north by Sudan; on the east by Ethiopia; on the south by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda and Kenya; and on the ...

in 2011.

Life and career

Elsanhouri started working for TV news and entertainment programmes, such as MBC and

Al Jazeera Al Jazeera Media Network (AJMN; , ) is a private-media conglomerate headquartered in Wadi Al Sail, Doha, funded in part by the government of Qatar. The network's flagship channels include Al Jazeera Arabic and Al Jazeera English, which pro ...

. After this, she continued her career as freelance filmmaker and film consultant for international

development Development or developing may refer to: Arts *Development (music), the process by which thematic material is reshaped * Photographic development *Filmmaking, development phase, including finance and budgeting * Development hell, when a proje ...

projects. Further, she created a community video film project for social change and

peacebuilding Peacebuilding is an activity that aims to resolve injustice in nonviolent ways and to transform the cultural and structural conditions that generate deadly or destructive conflict. It revolves around developing constructive personal, group, and ...

, called '''Cultural Healing'.'' The project provided training for people from different backgrounds "to make short documentary films that express their own culture and traditions". It was sponsored by the European Union and implemented in Sudan from 2011 to 2013. Her first documentary film ''All about Darfur'' won the Award of Commendation from the

American Anthropological Association The American Anthropological Association (AAA) is an American organization of scholars and practitioners in the field of anthropology. With 10,000 members, the association, based in Arlington, Virginia, includes archaeologists, cultural anthropo ...

in 2006 and a prize at the

Zanzibar International Film Festival Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF), also known as Festival of the Dhow Countries, is an annual film festival held in Zanzibar, Tanzania and one of the largest cultural events in East Africa. ZIFF is a non-governmental organization establis ...

(ZIFF) in 2005. It was also shown at other film festivals, such as the

Toronto international Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world. Founded in 1976, the festival takes place every year in early September. The organi ...

2005. ''All About Darfur'' intends to present "eloquent, at times contradictory, voices from within Sudan", as Elsanhouri interviewed "ordinary Sudanese in outdoor tea shops, markets,

refugee camp A refugee camp is a temporary Human settlement, settlement built to receive refugees and people in refugee-like situations. Refugee camps usually accommodate displaced people who have fled their home country, but camps are also made for in ...

s and living rooms." These interviews attempt to explain how persistent prejudices of people involved could "suddenly burst into a wild fire of ethnic violence." In 2007, her screenplay for the narrative feature project ''Khartoum Story'' was selected for the

Berlinale Talents Berlinale Talents, formerly Berlinale Talent Campus, is the talent development programme of the Berlin International Film Festival (also called Berlinale). An annual summit and networking platform for 200 outstanding creatives from the fields of ...

of the

Berlin International Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (), usually called the Berlinale (), is an annual film festival held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europ ...

. ''Mother Unknown'', Elsanhouri's second independent film won the

UNICEF UNICEF ( ), originally the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, officially United Nations Children's Fund since 1953, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Development a ...

Child Rights award in 2009. The same year, she made a documentary film for Al Jazeera International for their documentary series Witness''' and a number of films on traditional children’s games in the Gulf region for

Disney Channel Disney Channel is an American pay television television channel, channel that serves as the flagship (broadcasting), flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney Entertainment business segment of the Walt Disney Company ...

Dubai. ''Our Beloved Sudan,'' her third documentary feature, premiered at the

Dubai Film Festival The Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF, ) was the largest film festival in the Arab region. With particular emphasis on showcasing Arab, Asian, and African cinema, it also helped to develop industry and talent in the region. It was held i ...

in December 2011. It was awarded the special Jury Silver distinction at the

Luxor African Film Festival The Luxor African Film Festival (LAFF) is an annual film festival for African cinema in Luxor, Egypt. In October 2019 the Malmö Arab Film Festival recognized LAFF for having "made great strides and ecomeone of the most important festivals sp ...

in February 2012 and was also shown at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum, New York, as part of their exhibition 'Lines of Control' in the same year. It presents the biographical story of Amira Alteraify, a Sudanese woman, who was born to a mother from southern and a father from northern Sudan before the separation in 2011. Further, she was able to interview Sudanese politicians such as

Sadiq al-Mahdi Sadiq al-Mahdi (; 25 December 1935 – 26 November 2020), also known as Sadiq as-Siddiq, was a Sudanese political and religious figure who was Prime Minister of Sudan from 1966 to 1967 and again from 1986 to 1989. He was head of the National Um ...

and Hassan al-Turabi.

Variety magazine ''Variety'' is an American trade magazine owned by Penske Media Corporation. It was founded by Sime Silverman in New York City in 1905 as a weekly newspaper reporting on theater and vaudeville. In 1933, ''Daily Variety'' was launched, based in ...

's film critic Jay Weissberg wrote about this film: "Though working on a shoestring budget (and it shows), Elsanhouri got access to major players in the country’s internecine conflicts, and was on hand for the recent independence of

." Commenting on Sudanese society and politics, she has contributed articles on the

Sudanese revolution The Sudanese revolution () was a major shift of political power in Sudan that started with street protests throughout Sudan on 19 December 2018 and continued with sustained civil disobedience for about eight months, during which the 2019 S ...

for the news magazine

Middle East Eye ''Middle East Eye'' (MEE) is a United Kingdom-based media website and channel that primarily focuses on news related to the Middle East, North Africa, and the broader Muslim world. The ownership of the organisation is undisclosed. Some sources ...

Filmography

* ''All About Darfur'' - documentary film (2005) * ''Witness: the Orphans of Mygoma'' - TV documentary for Al Jazeera (2009) * ''Mother Unknown'' - documentary film (2009) * ''Our Beloved Sudan'' - documentary film (2012)

References

External links

*
Taghreed Elsanhouri
in Allmovie.com *
All About Darfur
', detailed presentation on

California Newsreel California Newsreel is an American non-profit, social justice film distribution and production organization based in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1968 as the San Francisco branch of the national filmmaking collective Newsreel. The ...

'English Documentaries on the Sudans You Should Watch'
Magazine article on Sudanese documentary films
Musa - short documentary film
by Mohamed Marzoug, produced 2012 under the Cultural Healing project on

Vimeo Vimeo ( ) is an American Online video platform, video hosting, sharing, and services provider founded in 2004 and headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices and operates on a ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Elsanhouri, Taghreed Sudanese artists Sudanese film producers Sudanese screenwriters Sudanese women artists Sudanese documentary film directors Sudanese women film directors Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Sudanese film directors

Life and career

Filmography

See also

References

External links