Love Your Neighbor Screenings
- Screenings
April, 2024, at the American University in Bulgaria | Academic Version
April, 2024, at the American University of Rome | Academic Version
September, 2024, at UNESCO partnered World Without Anger conference in Kathmandu, Nepal
October, 2024, at Kopriva Social Space in Sofia, Bulgaria
November, 2024, at Skidmore College in Albany, New York
Ibrahim Ahmed Abu El-Hawa - March 2022
Love Your Neighbor Academic Cut Reflection
Ibrahim, the Jerusalemite who runs a peace hostel's great ambition is to love your neighbor no matter what but is faced with a persistent dilemma: how can you love your neighbor in a land that is systematically apart?
Although I am proud of the first version of 'Love Your Neighbor' that came from two years of filming, four trips to the Holy Lands, and countless hours of editing; there are many things to change. The most drastic and important change is to the structure of the story. I am personally much too prevalent in a story that is not about me and I used myself to guide and tie the many different sub-stories into a larger narrative, but, it weakened the overall argument and theme.
I believe I have captured Ibrahim's (the protagonist) message and the greater dilemma both with journalistic integrity, and passion for the struggle his story represents. But, I will continue working on this piece. I will cut myself and my grandfather out of the story and create a new structure based on connections I saw after stepping away for a while.
Love Your Neighbor Academic Cut
The first version of 'Love Your Neighbor' was used as my graduating thesis for the American University in Bulgaria.
Israel-Hamas video Reports
Gaza reports
A day after the October 7th Hamas attack, I made a video explaining some events that occurred within the days leading up to the attack.
I felt that many within my circle were looking at this event as if it happened in a vacuum, I shared a point of view that many hadn't considered at the time. The video now has over 24K views
Five days after the October 7th Hamas attack, I made a second video explaining how tensions were rising in the region and how humanitarian disasters were continuing.
Possible revision points: More emphasis on
Why the days before October 7th were significant. Why it mattered that there's a pattern in history that gives more context to the attack.
Zoopark Blagoevgrad Reflecting
I played guitar for the Bears to process culture shock when I moved to Bulgaria. I felt alien to my surroundings and I imagine so did they.
For a semester I would go biweekly to take photos of how the conditions changed. My goal was to help raise awareness of the Zoo for the university community. It was only a 20-minute walk from the university and many of my peers never went so I decided to show them what it's actually like. This was also my final project for a documentary photography class.
Writing
This is a written report about Israel's press freedom index score in 2022. I wrote it for a 'Writing for Media' class project at the American University in Bulgaria.