In the second session of our Voices From series, taking place on Thursday 30th January at 3 PM (UTC +1), we welcome Vanessa Bowles and Carol Sansour as our speakers. Vanessa and Carol are joined in a conversation around representation, film and ways to reclaim female Arab voices within the arts sector. 

Carol Sansour, born in Jerusalem, is a Palestinian poet and cultural producer based in Athens, Greece. Her debut poetry collection في المشمش (In the Time of the Apricots) was published in 2019 as a trilingual edition. Since then, her poetry has been featured in prestigious international journals and translated into multiple languages. In addition to her literary contributions, Carol is the director of the Athens Palestine Film Festival and the founder of Dounias, a non-profit organization dedicated to producing and exhibiting Palestinian and Arab art and culture in Greece. She will be speaking about her experience as a poet and also a coordinator for Palestine Film Festival in Athens and the challenges she faced to put this together.

Vanessa Bowles is a Lebanese/British producer and director based in London since she moved from Beirut in 2011. Her film Kill Zone: Inside Gaza has aired recently on Channel 4. Vanessa has also directed Queer Egypt Under Attack in 2023 and has produced multiple award-winning documentaries and current affairs films and series, like Once Upon a Time in Iraq (2020) which won a BAFTA, a Grierson, and a Royal Television Society and Saudi Arabia Uncovered (2016) which won an Emmy award, the Royal Television Society TV journalism award & Jury Grand Prize at the Golden Nymphs. Vanessa will be speaking about her most recent film and the difficulties in making it happen, especially the brave work of the team working on the ground. 

The 90-minute session is curated and moderated by Marina Barham (Artistic Director Al-Harah Theater - Palestine) and Raisa Desypri (Curator and Cultural Manager of ASTRO Collective and OYL - Germany/Greece).

The event is based on registration. Register by filling out the form here.