Mai Masri, an award-winning film-maker, has produced and directed several documentary films that communicate the political and social situation in Lebanon and Palestine. Among the films she has directed are Wild Flowers: Women of South Lebanon (1986), Children of Fire (1990), Children of Shatila (1998) and Frontiers of Dreams and Fears (2001). Her productions include In the Shadows of the City (2000) and Women Beyond Borders (2004).
Most recently Mai won the Best Documentary Feature Film for “Beirut Diaries: Truth, Lies and Videos” at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards on 13 November 2007. Beirut Diaries, through the story of a young Beirut woman, provides an eyewitness account of the spontaneous sit-in by hundreds of thousands of young Lebanese people after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
The Asia Pacific Screen Awards is an international cultural initiative of the Queensland Government in collaboration with CNN International, UNESCO and FIAPF. The Awards honour the works of filmmakers across a region covering more than 70 countries and half the world’s film output.
These films have been broadcast by more than 100 television channels around the world. The awards won by these films are too numerous to list. By way of example, however, Mai Masri’s Hanan Ashrawi: a Woman of Her Time (1995) claimed the Best Documentary award at the One World Media Awards (London, 1996), the Award of the Public at the IMA Festival (Paris, 1996) and the CMCA Award for Best Documentary (Palermo, 1997).
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