The MENA Canada Filmmaking Grant is a one of a kind funding stream for a MENA/SWANA-identifying filmmaker or team in Canada to help fund a short film to be presented at the fifth annual MENA Film Festival!
Presented in partnership with Movies Move Us, the short film grant 2023 provides a single $5,000 initial or “top-up” fund for new and emerging talent.
MENA Film Festival and Movies Move Us are pleased to announce the winner of the third MENA Canada Filmmaking Grant: “Hair! (مو)” by Sara Jade Alfaro.
Sara is a filmmaker and writer hailing from Oshawa, Ontario whose films explore unique experiences within multi-cultural families - often stemming from her upbringing with an Iranian mother and Mexican father. She frequently writes about language, gender and domestic family dynamics, within a whimsical and dramatic lens.
In “Hair! (مو)”, Fariba (aka “Maman”), Miriam and Layla are three middle aged witchy sisters with years of baggage and inches of stubborn body hair.
As the matriarchs gather for their monthly hair removal and chai session, their daughters – 18-year-old Rina and 11-year-old Nora, observe and are engulfed in the madness of hair and the whirlwind of emotions that come with unfinished business for the suburbanite Iranian diaspora.
