Dr Yasmin Fedda, BA, MA, PhD, FHEA
Senior Lecturer
Email: y.fedda@qmul.ac.ukRoom Number: Room 1.30, Arts OneWebsite: yasminfedda.com
Profile
My work as a filmmaker, artist, researcher, and film programmer has focussed on film, anthropology, and political sciences, with a focus on documentary, interactive storytelling, forced migration, representation, film & ethics, language, disability, activism and human rights.
My film work has been screened worldwide, is multi award-winning (best film, best director and audience awards), BAFTA-nominated and screened at galleries, broadcast television (BBC and Al Jazeera English), online, in public spaces and at numerous international festivals including Sundance, Edinburgh Film Festival, CPH:Dox, Carthage film Festival, Abu Dhabi Film Festival, Thessaloniki, amongst many more.
My films have focussed on subjects from Edinburgh bakeries (Breadmakers, 2008), technology and activism (Steal from the Capitalists, 2015) and poetry (Waiting for Spring, 2012; Found in Translation, 2016).
I have made several feature length films in Syria or on Syrian subjects including A Tale of Two Syrias (2012), Queens of Syria (2014) about an ancient Greek play being re-enacted by a group of Syrian refugee women in Jordan, and Ayouni (2022) about forced disappearances.
Most recent is the co-directed film How We Work (2024), filmed in 5 countries and created with 39 co-directors. This film came out of the large multi country UKRI funded research project titled Protracted Displacement Economies (https://www.displacementeconomies.org/) from 2020-2024, where I was co-investigator.
I have been a Fellow of the Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences (IHSS) at QMUL since 2022.
The Pathogen of War (2024) is my most recent work, an immersive documentary installation about the world's most antibiotic-resistant bacteria and the research of Iraqi medical anthropologist Dr. Omar Dewachi. This previewed at the Battersea Arts Centre as part of Shubbak Festival 2023. It was supported by a residency at the National Theatre Immersive Storytelling Studio and CPH:LAB and premiered at CPH:DOX in 2024.
I have held artist residences at the Mothlight Micro Cinema, Detroit, the British School at Rome, Italy and the National Theatre Immersive Storytelling Studio.
I have programmed multi arts festivals including Reel Afghanistan (2008) Reel Iraq (2009 & 2013), Reel Festivals (Syria/Lebanon/Scotland, 20201); Reel Syria (2012), and the strand Global Racialisations at the RAI Film Festival (2021). I have organised screenings, talks and events at Queen Mary through the Centre for Film and Ethics, and between 2023-2025 I have organised a series of screening and events with colleagues across the university focussing on Palestine – under the umbrellas Films for Palestine, and Focus on Palestine.
I have taught different aspects of film around the world with universities, NGOs and civil society organisations. I received my MA in visual Anthropology from the University of Manchester and PhD in Trans-Disciplinary Documentary Film from the University of Edinburgh.
Teaching
Currently
FLM7204 - Activist Film and Media
FLM6211 – Research Project by Film Practice
FLM7201 – Documentary Theory and Practice
Previously
FLM5211 - Cinema and Disability
FLM6033 - Film Practice and Manifestos
SMLM041 - Auteur Direction
FLM7210 - Film Studies 1
FLM7211 - Film Studies 2
FLM7200 – MA Final Film Project
Research
Publications
Installations
The Pathogen of War, 2024, 30 mins
Filmography
How We Work, 2024, 76 mins (producer and co-director with 39 co- directors).
Blink and You’ll Miss Us, 2020, (producer)
Ayouni, 2020, 85 mins
Found in Translation, A Digital Poetry Film Project Made in Iraq, 2016
Abu Hawash, 2015, 1 mins
Rebel Geeks: Steal from the Capitalists, 2015, 25 mins
Queens of Syria, 70 mins, 2014
Siamo Tornati, 2013, 8 mins
A Tale of Two Syrias, 2012 65 mins
Poets of Protest: Waiting for Spring, 2012, 65 mins
Moving Pictures, 2009, 16 mins
Breadmakers, 2007, 11 mins
Milking the Desert, 25 mins, 2004
Articles/ Chapters
"Researching protracted displacement" and "A new political economy of displacement", in Refugees in a World Without Aid (co-written chapter; book edited by Ceri Oeppen, Ali Ali, Michael Collyer, Priya Deshingkar, Anne-Meike Fechter, and Tahir Zaman), Open Press, University of Sussex, 2025
"Three Nights in Free Syria", The Markaz Review, 24 January 2025, with Daniel Gorman
"Time, grief, and hope on film", HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 2022
Am I still a filmmaker?", Raising Films, 2021
Filming the Invisible", New Lines Magazine, 28 October 2020.
Creation and Displacement – Developing New Narratives Around Migration, with Daniel Gorman and Tory Davidson, IETM – International Network for Contemporary Performing Arts, 2016
"Cinema of Defiance", with Daniel Gorman, Critical Muslim, 11.2, 2015.
Awards
Eurimage Award, for Best Prototype for The Pathogen of War at CPH:DOX, 2022
Commendation, RAI Film Prize, Royal Anthropological Institute Film Festival, 2021
Best Documentary Feature, Twin Cities Arab Film Festival, Minneapolis, Queens of Syria, 2016
Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature, Twin Cities Arab Film Festival, Minneapolis, Queens of Syria, 2016
UNHCR/CONARE Director Prize, CineMigrante Festival, Argentina, Queens of Syria, 2015
Tanit de bronze for Best Documentary, Carthage Film Festival, Queens of Syria, 2015
Best Documentary Film Award, Salé International Festival of Women's Film, Morocco, Queens of Syria, 2015
Special mention from the UNHCR, Human Screen Film Festival, Tunis, Queens of Syria, 2014
Black Pearl for Best Director from Arab World, Abu Dhabi Film Festival, Queens of Syria, 2014
Special Jury Mention, Gdansk DocFilm Festival, Breadmakers, 2009
Palme Dewar Award, Heartland Film Society, Breadmakers, 2008
Black Pearl Short Documentary Award, Middle East Film Festival, Abu Dhabi, Breadmakers, 2008
Best Short Film, Emotions Film Festival, Greece, Breadmakers, 2008
Scottish Short Film Award, Edinburgh International Film Festival, Breadmakers, 2007
BAFTA nomination for best short film, Breadmakers, 2007
Debut competition Jury Prize, Moscow Visual Anthropology Film Festival, Milking the Desert, 2006
One World Broadcasting Trust award, Milking the Desert, 2004
Film Festivals (selection)
RAI Film Festival, 2021
CPH:DOX 2020; 2024
Carthage Film Festival, 2014
Abu Dhabi Film Festival, 2013
Full Frame, 2008
True/False, 2006
The Middle East International Film Festival, 2008
Sundance, 2008
Krawkow Film Festival, 2008
Docudays, Beirut, 2007
Edinburgh International Film Festival, 2007
Exhibitions and Screenings (selection)
Ayouni (group show), Art of the Revolution, Beit Farhi, Damascus, 2025
The Pathogen of War, Kunsthall Charlottenburg, CPH:DOX, Copenhagen, 2024
The Pathogen of War, Battersea Art Centre with Shubbak Festival, 2023
Abu Hawash (group show), Syria Off Frame, Fondazione Cini, Venice, (L. Benetton Collection), 2015
Breadmakers (group show), Art on the Underground, Canary Wharf Screen, 2014
Siamo Tornati & Breadmakers (group show), Studio Osk, ZKU, Berlin, 2014
Siamo Tornati (group show), Centro Luigi Sarro, Rome, 2014
Siamo Tornati, Breadmakers, A Tale of Two Syrias (solo show), Upper Lab, Bergamo, 2013
Siamo Tornati, Breadmakers, Spring Mostra, British School at Rome, 2013
Moving Pictures, GV5, The Lot, Edinburgh, 2008