Alia Ibrahim

A Dance with Reality

“My personal dream is to revolutionize storytelling.”

Journalist and self-described “realist utopian” Alia Ibrahim is a seasoned news correspondent who has been reporting on the Arab region since 1996. Between 2005 and 2011, her opinion and news stories appeared in important publications including The Washington Post, where she was a contributing reporter. Ibrahim also held a position as Senior Correspondent at Al-Arabiya News Channel and since 2015, she has produced and directed investigative reports for the network’s Special Mission program. She has also been a journalism instructor at the Lebanese American University.

In 2017, Ibrahim and a group of fellow journalists cofounded Daraj.com, an independent digital media platform of which she is the CEO. “Our main objective is to produce high-quality and impactful content,” she says. “My personal dream is to revolutionize storytelling.”

Rif Halab, 2012, ©Hazem el Amin
Saida, Lebanon, 2008
Sarakeb, Northern Syria, 2012. Photo: Fadi Zaidan

“The more professional I grew, the more convinced I became that by focusing too much on what we, as journalists, assume is what people want or need to know, we outtake some of the best parts of the narrative,” Ibrahim explains. “After more than twenty years in the field, my passion for journalism and belief in its importance continued to grow. And as attached as I am to the principles of strong, fearless journalism that holds power into account, I believe a lot can be done to push for more inspiring and empathetic storytelling.”

As a mentor, Ibrahim is interested in working with applicants who want to explore boundaryless forms of storytelling. She encourages writers to apply, but also artists, filmmakers, choreographers, or anyone else who feels curious about or inspired by what she describes as “the magic of the mundane.”

Mosul, 2017. Photo: Talal Khoury
Istanbul, Turkey, 2016. Photo: Talal Khoury

“I view this mentorship as an opportunity to learn about other forms of content production and to maybe even liberate myself from the limitations of the profession I love so much,” she adds.  “In return, I would be there to share my knowledge, my passion, and my will to dance the dance.”

daraj.com

 

Watch the video statement to find out more about what Ibrahim is looking for in applications:

Nominees

Alexis Guillier

Purgatoire (Cinema that Kills)

Based on his artistic research into accidents on film sets, Alexis Guillier’s project looks at a deadly fire that broke out on the set of the 1968 Lebanese film Koullouna Fidayoun by Gary Garabedian. The film, characteristic of cinema supporting the Palestinian resistance at the time, deals with a group of Fedayeen and in particular with a member of the group, who was captured by the Israeli army and confessed under torture the location of his comrades. A final scene was meant to show their revenge: a bombing at a Tel Aviv nightclub. The Lebanese club Purgatoire was chosen for the shoot, but when the explosives were detonated, a fatal flash fire broke out. Guillier’s research delves into the complexity of the film’s context, the precariousness of Lebanese cinema, and the investigation of the accident.

Siu Hei Chung

Quick Sketches about Hong Kong

Theater’s long production times prevent it from being a medium suited to producing an immediate response to current affairs. The Hong Kong-based director Siu Hei Chung seeks to explore new and adaptive ways in which theater can respond to the drama and absurdity of real-life events and the role journalism can play in shaping these experiments. He proposes to test out a format that would combine texts—using news writing as well as longform investigative journalism—readers’ participation, and performance. As in all other theater formats, the audience remains crucial for the work’s completion; at the Forecast Forum, Chung intends to involve the public in a workshop on this concept.

Yurika Higashikawa

The Unbearable Burden of Peace Time

Artist and writer Yurika Higashikawa proposes a work which highlights and recontextualizes the embedded hopes, dreams, and contradictions of Ireland's purported neutral status. The research-based exploration questions whether such self-imagining is even possible within the techno-political context of our time. Through the use of interviews, staged reenactments, and journalistic approaches that prioritize the collective over the individual, Higashikawa blurs the boundaries between legend and materiality, blueprint and situated object, replica and original while also drawing attention to her own culpability as non-neutral facilitator of this story. Overall, the work searches—perhaps misguidedly—for an alternative to the relentless weaponization of innovation.

Mentee

Purgatoire (Cinema that Kills)

Alexis Guillier

Mentors Edition 7

Daliso Chaponda

Daliso Chaponda

Humor and Storytelling

Alia Ibrahim

A Dance with Reality

Florentina Holzinger

Bodies in Action

Laura Huertas Millán

Reworlding Stories

Ana Prvački

Ana Prvački

Slapstick and Seduction

Rully Shabara

Rully Shabara

Your Voice Is Your Sound