Arab female film directors have helped change the landscape of Arab cinema in recent years, presenting stories that haven't been told before and claiming space in an industry in a region that rarely makes room for women to grow. Four influential female directors took part in this year's Red Sea Film Festival in Jeddah, paving the way for more diverse narratives in Arab cinema. The festival, bringing together 38 directors, showcases Saudi Arabia's heavy investment in film, gaming and sports as part of its broader transformation efforts. Some rights groups have criticized these actions, saying they serve to draw away attention from the kingdom's human rights record, including its high rate of executions and restrictions on free expression. Cherien Dabis Palestinian American filmmaker Cherien Dabis premiered her new film "All That's Left of You," a multigenerational story tracing one family's experience from the 1948 Nakba, Arabic for catastrophe, the mass expulsion of Palestinians before and during the Arab-Israeli war that followed Israel's establishment, to 2022. The film deals with themes of Palestinian displacement and personal loss. "It tells the story of one family over three generations and how they survive the Nakba in 1948 and the ongoing occupation," she said. "It gives people context for how we got to where we are today and shows how much Palestinians have had to endure throughout the decades." Dabis, born and raised in the United States to Palestinian-Jordanian parents, said her passion and inspiration to become a filmmaker grew from a lack of authentic Arab and Palestinian representation in Western media. "I became aware that I wanted to go into storytelling in order to tell our authentic stories, because I couldn't find us... Read More