Filmmakers of color often encounter pushback from the industry around how to tell our stories our way. We are nudged to sacrifice our vision, our creativity, and sometimes even the truth, in the name of commercial viability and mass audience appeal. How can we be supported to tell stories outside of the dominant gaze, if most formative spaces for international artists are trying to make a film “accessible” to a mass audience?
Jude Chehab
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Jude Chehab is an award-winning Lebanese-American filmmaker whose cinematic interests have drawn her to the exploration of the esoteric, the spiritual and the unspoken. A richly layered visual and intimate personal shooting style developed under the mentorship of Abbas Kiarostami’s final student group; her work has been awarded fellowships through: CAAM, Points North Institute, Firelight Media and Chicken & Egg. Jude’s first feature documentary, Q, was named one of the best documentaries of 2023 by Vogue Magazine. It was supported by: IDA, ITVS, TFI, and the Sundance Institute and won the Albert Maysles award for Best New Documentary Director at Tribeca and the Grand Jury Award for Best First Feature at Sheffield DocFest. The film won a Cinema Eye Honor and was nominated for two IDA awards. She is part of DOCNYC's '40 under 40' list and Filmmaker Magazine named her one of the 25 New Faces of Independent Film.