Habibi Collective Podcast

A conversation with Hisham Fageeh, Saudi actor, writer, producer, and comedian. In this episode, we discuss comedy as a tool for activism, its shelf-life, Hisham's experience with cinema in Saudi, the gaps between cultures, capitalism, and more. 

Speaker bio: Hisham Fageeh is a full-fledged artist who has co-produced and starred in the 2016 film "Barakah meets Barakah." He was previously Head of Content at Telfaz11. Hisham originally gained popularity doing YouTube videos - including "No Woman No Drive," which went viral in 2013 - and has done numerous stand-up comedy shows worldwide. 

Donate! Please consider donating towards our work: Patreon.com/habibicollective. A small monthly donation goes a long way towards paying innumerable costs including: screening fees for filmmakers, MGs, design assets, and the endless web costs of developing a streaming service. Habibi Collective operates completely on a volunteer-led basis—is vital that we stay independent.

A conversation with Butheina Kazim, co-founder of the UAE's arthouse cinema, Cinema Akil. We talk programming, navigating the online and offline market, and constructing a spatial politics for cinema, independently. 

Speaker bio: Butheina Kazim is the co-founder of Cinema Akil, an independent cinema in Dubai. She has been involved in programming a number of cinema pop-ups, including Focus on the United Arab Emirates, and is the producer of the short documentary film Letters to Palestine, which won the Special Jury Prize at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival (2010). She has served on the jury for the iEmmys Asia & Africa Competition, among many others, and is a member of the UAE Academy Award Committee. She has also worked as a project manager in television and radio stations in the UAE at the media conglomerates Arab Media Group and Dubai Media Incorporated.

Donate! Please consider donating towards our work: Patreon.com/habibicollective. A small monthly donation goes a long way towards paying innumerable costs including: screening fees for filmmakers, MGs, design assets and the endless web costs of developing a streaming service. Habibi Collective operates completely on a volunteer-led basis—is vital that we stay independent.

A conversation with Iraqi feature-length film editor Shahnaz Dulaimy about the many layers of editing. We discuss storytelling, sound, pacing, gender, and more.

Speaker bio: Shahnaz Dulaimy is a feature film editor who started her career in the Arab film industry working on Annemarie Jacir’s When I Saw You (2012), Naji Abu Nowar’s Oscar nominated Theeb (2014), and Shahad Ameen's Oscar selected Scales (2019). She studied filmmaking in Rome, and delved into extensive research of film editing theories, and applying them in practice. Shahnaz went on to become the first Avid certified editor in the Middle East, and has been actively cutting films since.

Donate! Please consider donating towards our work: Patreon.com/habibicollective. A small monthly donation goes a long way towards paying innumerable costs including: screening fees for filmmakers, MGs, design assets and the endless web costs of developing a streaming service. Habibi Collective operates completely on a volunteer-led basis—is vital that we stay independent.

An honest conversation about the Hollywood creative industry with actress Alia Shawkat. We talk about how to self-represent as a queer Arab woman in Hollywood, biracial ‘passing’ and Western privilege and breaking through the role of the ‘ethnic best friend’.   

Speaker bio:  Alia Shawkat is an Irish-Iraqi actress, scriptwriter and artist working in Hollywood. She has appeared in over 45 TV shows and movies, she is known for her TV roles as Hannah Rayburn in State of Grace, Maeby Fünke in the Fox/Netflix television sitcom Arrested Development and Dory Sief in the TBS and HBO Max comedy series Search Party. Selected movies include Whip It, Animals and The Runaway; Shawkat co-wrote and starred in queer indie drama Duck Butter. She is also a painter and is currently writing a pilot for a TV show about her life. 

Donate! Please consider subscribing to our Patreon on our website. A small monthly donation goes a long way towards paying innumerable costs including: screening fees for filmmakers, MGs, design assets and the endless web costs of developing a streaming service. Habibi Collective operates completely on a volunteer-led basis—is vital that we stay independent.