Education
El Jeiroudi graduated with a degree of English Literature from the Damascus University, Syria.
El Jeiroudi graduated with a degree of English Literature from the Damascus University, Syria.
El Jeiroudi also received professional training in film producing and distribution at the INA/Sorbonne in France
Her first film as director, The Pot (2005), a short documentary film, was screened in more than 60 countries, and received high critical acclaim. Her second film was entitled Dolls, A Woman from Damascus (2008), was premiered in IDFA and screened in more than 40 countries worldwide. Dolls, A Woman from Damascus was very well received by critics too, CounterPunch wrote: "Sometimes there is a film that encapsulates all the tensions and contradictions of a people and a state.
El Jeiroudi"s films were also shown in art events and venues, including Kunsthalle Wien, Berlin State Museums, Taipei Biennial, among others
As producer of documentary film, El Jeiroudi worked on various successful projects, including Silvered Water, Syria Self-Portrait, which premiered in 2014 Cannes Film Festival, and awarded a Grierson Awards in the BFI London Film Festival 2014, and The Mulberry House, by Scottish-Yemeni filmmaker Sara Ishaq, premiered in IDFA 2013. In her other capacity, as a documentary film promoter and trainer, El Jeiroudi heads DOX BOX"s professional activities side, through which she managed to make the festival the region"s most remarkable documentary film platform.
The international documentary film festival grew quickly into the most important documentary film gathering in the Arab World. The festival started with screenings in Damascus cinemas but from 2009 on screenings were expanded to other Syrian cities including Homs and Tartus.
Along with the annual festival, many workshops and activities were offered to young Syrian filmmakers.
The fifth edition of the festival, planned for March 2012, was cancelled in protest of the Syrian government"s crackdown on protesters during the on-going Syrian uprising. In 2015, El Jeiroudi was one of the jury members for the first-ever documentary film award "L"Œil d"or" or "The Golden Eye" in 2015 Cannes Film Festival.
El Jeiroudi was also one of the producers of the 2014 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize Winner documentary The Return to Homs. Instead, El Jeiroudi advocated for Syrian documentary films to be shown in festivals around the world in what was termed the "Dox Box Global Day." The aim, according to the DOX BOX website, was to show "how poverty, oppression and isolation do not prevent humans from being spectacularly brave, stubborn and dignified." Her work with DOX BOX earned her and her partner, Orwa Nyrabia, several awards including the Katrin Cartlidge Award and the European Documentary Network"s Award in 2012. In 2014, after moving to Berlin, El Jeiroudi announced the creation of DOX BOX e.V., a non-profit association aimed at the support, promotion and education of a new generation of documentary makers in the Arab World, in addition to being a co-founder and general manager of the association, El Jeiroudi continued to produce and direct films herself too.
