Hisham Bizri

Hisham Bizri
Film director Hisham Bizri in Venice
Born 4 February 1966
Beirut, Lebanon
Education Boston University, Harvard University, New York University, University of Illinois at Chicago
Occupation Film director, Film producer, Actor, Screenwriter, Curator, Professor
Years active 1987-present
Spouse(s) Michelle Mason (1986-present)
Children 1

Hisham Bizri is a film director, writer, producer, and scholar born in Beirut, Lebanon. He started working in films in the US and Hungary with filmmakers Stan Brakhage, Raoul Ruiz,[1] and Miklós Jancsó. and has directed 25 short films to date. He taught film at MIT, UC Davis, NYU, Boston University, The School Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), the University of Minnesota, and in Lebanon, Korea, Japan, Ireland, and Jordan where he initiated a number of academic film programs. His students have gone on to study film at NYU, USC, AFI, UCLA, La Fémis (Paris) and FAMU (Prague).[2] He is currently a Professor of Filmmaking and Screenwriting in the Literary Arts Department at Brown University.[3]

Life & Career

Bizri's work has been shown in international venues including Sundance,[4] Cannes, Berlin, Oberhausen, Moscow, and Abu Dhabi film festivals as well as the Louvre, Institut du Monde Arabe, Cinémathèque Française, Centre Pompidou, MoMa, and Anthology Film Archives (NY). He is recipient of awards such as the McKnight, Salomon, LEF, Jerome, Rockefeller, Guggenheim, and “the Rome Prize” from the American Academy.[5]

In 2005, Bizri co-founded The Arab Institute of Film (Amman, Jordan) with the Syrian filmmaker Omar Amiralay and Danish producer Jakob Høgel, with support from the Danish government, International Media Support (Denmark), and the Ford Foundation. He served as Producer at Future TV (Lebanon), Creative Director of Orbit Communications Company (Rome/Dubai/Beirut/Cairo), and President & Creative Director of Levantine Films (NYC).[6]

Bizri is now working on several short films and a feature. He cites Henry James as a key figure in shaping some of his views on art and literature: “It is art that makes life, makes interest, makes importance… giving fresh meaning to contemporary life.” [7]

On his website, Bizri lists the films he appreciates, including: "Arabic Series" (Stan Brakhage, 1981), "Red River" (Howard Hawks, 1946), "The Sun Shines Bright" (John Ford, 1953), "Au Hasard, Balthazar" (Robert Bresson, 1966), "Gertrud" (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1964), "The 47 Ronin" (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1942), "The Earrings of Madame de..." (Max Ophuls, 1953), "India: Matri Bhumi" (Roberto Rossellini, 1959), The Tarnished Angels (Douglas Sirk, 1957), and "The Masseurs and a Woman" (Hiroshi Shimizu, 1938), as well as the films of D. W. Griffith and Gregory Markopoulos.[8]

Bizri lives in Providence, RI with his wife and daughter.

Filmography

Films

Year Title Length Format Notes
1989 The Dream 7 minutes Super-8
1989 The Sun 5 minutes Super-8
1990 The Third of May 9 minutes 16mm film
1990 The Dream of a Ridiculous Man 22 minutes 16mm film
1991 The Leaves of a Cypress 15 minutes Betacam SP
1991 Vertov's Valentine 12 minutes Betacam SP
1992 Message from a Dead Man 20 minutes 16mm film
1997 Mitologies Stereoscopic Cinema
1997 Las Meninas Stereoscopic Cinema
2002 City of Brass 24 minutes Betacam
2002 La Rencontre 28 minutes DV Based on the short story "Emma Zunz" by Jorge Luis Borges.
2002 Chabrol á Biarritz 23 minutes DV Interview with Claude Chabrol
2005 Vertices: Beirut.Dublin.Seoul 32 minutes DV A film for three screens.
2005 Asmahan 21 minutes 35mm film
2008 Song for the Deaf Ear 18 minutes 16mm film/High-definition video Silent but for the last minute.
2010 A Film 8.32 minutes 16mm film/High-definition video
2012 Sirocco 18 minutes 35mm film Sundance Film Festival selection in New Frontier Shorts American Competition
2015 Beneath the wide wide Heaven 15 minutes 35mm film

Awards and honors

References

  1. ↑ Ruiz, Raoul (1996-06-07), The Golden Boat, retrieved 2016-02-08
  2. ↑ Hisham Bizri's website Retrieved 4 October 2015
  3. ↑ Brown University "News from Brown" Retrieved 4 October 2015
  4. ↑ "New Frontier Shorts Q & A @ 2013 Sundance Film Festival" YouTube Published on 10 February 2013, Retrieved 4 October 2015
  5. ↑ Hisham Bizri's website Retrieved 4 October 2015
  6. ↑ Brown University "News from Brown" Retrieved 4 October 2015
  7. ↑ Brown University "News from Brown" Retrieved 4 October 2015
  8. ↑ Hisham Bizri's website "Favorites" Retrieved 4 October 2015

External links

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