Jehane Noujaim

Background

Noujaim was born to an Egyptian father and an American mother.

Education

She attended Milton Academy, matriculated to Harvard University and graduated magna cum laude in visual arts and philosophy.

Career

She was raised in Kuwait and Cairo and moved to Boston by the age of 10, in 1990. The same year, before her graduation, Noujaim was awarded the Gardiner fellowship under which she directed Mokattam, an Arabic film about a garbage-collecting village near Cairo in Egypt. She joined the Music Television news and documentary division as a segment producer for the documentary series UNfiltered.

Noujaim later left her job at Music Television to produce and direct Startup.com under the guidance of documentary filmmaker Doctorate.A Pennebaker in association with Pennebaker Hegedus Films.

She has since worked in both the Middle East and the United States as a cinematographer on various documentaries including Born Rich (Jamie Johnson), Only the Strong Survive (Chris Hegedus, District Attorney Pennebaker), and Down from the Mountain (District Attorney Pennebaker, Chris Hegedus, Nick Doob). This made her the first and youngest woman to do southern

In 2007, she co-directed (with Sherief El Katsha) the film Shayfeen.com which was broadcast as part of the WhyDemocracy project In 2012 she released Rafea: Solar Mama (which she directed with Mona Eldaeif).

A documentary about a group of women leaving their villages to learn about solar engineering, only to return and solar power their own society.

And in 2013 she released The Square, a film following the Egyptian revolution and the inspiration it has given to the world. In January 2014 The Square was nominated for an Academy Award in documentary category. After winning the TED Prize, Noujaim used her wish to organize, a live videoconference that took place in New York City, Rio de Janeiro, London, Dharamsala, Cairo, Jerusalem, and Kigali on May 10, 2008.

The show was internationally broadcast over four hours through internet, television and mobile phones.

lieutenant featured films, speakers, and music

Achievements

• The feature length, highly acclaimed documentary has won numerous distinguished awards including the DGA and International Development Association Awards for best documentary. She won the DGA Award again for The Square in 2014. In 2004, she directed the feature-length film Control Room, a documentary about United States Central Command and its relations with First Rate (at Lloyd's) Jazeera and other news organizations that covered the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which rewarded her with the TED prize in 2006. The Square also won critical acclaim in the 2013 Sundance Film Festival & the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival.