Kasem Kharsa
Kasem Kharsa (born 1977) is an Egyptian-American filmmaker and visual artist based between the Middle East and United States. He spent his childhood in the US, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
His films are inspired by his own fragmented past and center around memory, identity and survivorship. His work has been supported by both regional and international funding bodies and he is a fellow of the Sundance Directors/Writers Lab and Binger Film labs.
Filmographie (excerpts):
SHELTER // Feature Film project in development // Writer & Director // Binger Directors & Writers Lab '11 Participant // Sundance Directors and Writers Lab '10 Participant // Awarded Shasha Development Grant
PAPER DRESS // 6 min doc // Director & Production Designer // Aqaba, Jordan 2009 // presented at Arab Shorts 2011 + 2012
Beleza Film
Beleza Film is composed of Jessica Landt & Falk Nagel. We are realizing features and documentaries as well as transmedia projects focussing on personal and character-driven stories. The company was founded in 2009 and is based in Hamburg (in the house of the young producers / Studio Hamburg) as well as in Berlin.
Both producers have finished the French-German Masterclass /Ludwigsburg-Paris and are among the founders of the initiative www.hamburg-lebt-kino.de (Hamburg lives Cinema).
Right from the beginning the projects have had a strong international objective. In 2010 Beleza Film realized the film workshop “One Day in the West Bank“ together with 10 young film makers in Palestine in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut Ramallah, in 2011 the short film „Little Red“ (nominated for the Berlin Today Award 2011) directed by Romanian Eva Pervolovici was completed.
In 2012 the Turkish-German coproduction “Küf” (in Coproduction with Motiva Film and Yeni Sinemacilar) held its premiere at the Venice Critic’s Week and won the “Lion of the Future – “Luigi De Laurentis” Venice Award for the best debut film. Beleza Film has launched the transmedia project “Tell Me Who You Are./yourbeat.org” a story platform on breaking and street dance (www.yourbeat.org). In 2013 we finished the documentary „Make Me A Match“ about matchmaking in Israel and in 2014 the documentary “Peter Nagel” about the painter of the same name was shown in cinemas. 2015 premiered “Hello I am David” about Australian pianist David Helfgott at Hofer Filmtage and started in the cinemas in Germany, Austria and Switzerland with screenings also in 2016.
Also we are working on the first feature Coke.Champagne.&Cigarettes. by writer/director Mariana Jukica, which is a Berlin film in postproduction (Produced by F.U.C. Film in coproduction with Penny Lane Film, Austria and Beleza Film, Germany).
In development are e.g. several features, documentaries and a children’s film: “I Dreamt of Empire” by Kasem Kharsa, which is set in Egypt, “Game with Friends” by Lena Liberta, “Zoe’s List” by Mariana Jukica , and “Devilish Christmas” (“Verteufelte Weihnachten”) a children’s Christmas story by writer Anna Lott.