5 Minutes from Home, 2008, Collection Martha Melhes (1964).
5 Minutes from Home, 2008, photo by Nahed Awwad
The Fourth Room, 2004, photo of Abu Jameel family
Name
Nahed Awwad
Biography
Nahed Awwad is a Palestinian independent filmmaker and a film curator based in Berlin. She has been working in Film and Television since 1997. Awwad was professionally trained in Canada, Qatar, and Belgium. In 2004 she got her film diploma from the European film college in Denmark and has since released eight films, among them “25 km”, “Going for Ride?”, “5 Minutes from Home”, and “Gaza Calling”; all were meticulously researched. The ethos of Awwad’s filmmaking is to provide intimate access to the characters featured in her films. Audiences feel they know – and understand – the protagonists.
Category Tags / Research Areas
Artist Statement
"I grew up in a country that has been controlled by foreign military and where one's identity and existence is questioned on a daily basis. The circumstances are subject to unforeseeable, dramatic changes from one day to the other. Your normal way to school or work is cut off by pop-up checkpoints or by the construction of an eight meter high wall. For over 20 years now, I have been instinctively driven to collect and preserve the memory of the people and the landscape of my homeland. This urge to protect memory is the reason for me making films.
Today, memory and archive became the leitmotif of my work. For example, in my film “5 Minutes from Home” about the Jerusalem Airport, I was not only able to revive the memory of a forgotten place, but also assemble material from private collections to build an archive that did not exist in the public domain".
Today, memory and archive became the leitmotif of my work. For example, in my film “5 Minutes from Home” about the Jerusalem Airport, I was not only able to revive the memory of a forgotten place, but also assemble material from private collections to build an archive that did not exist in the public domain".