Rola Nashef
Born
Sidon, Lebanon
Occupation(s)Director, Screenwriter, Producer and Artist
Years active2012–present

Rola Nashef is an American director, screenwriter, producer and multimedia artist based in Detroit.[1][2] She is best known for her award-winning film, Detroit Unleaded.[3]

Early life

Nashef was born in Sidon, Lebanon to Franco and Salima Nashef. Her father Franco is from Maghdouché, where her mother Salima is from Deir Mimas; both small Christian villages in the south of Lebanon. In 1978, her family fled the Lebanese Civil War and immigrated to the United States where they settled in Lansing, Michigan where her father worked as a skilled tradesmen at General Motors.[4]

Nashef graduated from Waverly High School and went on to study at Lansing Community College. She then attended Michigan State University, Madonna University and Oakland Community College where she studied political science, marketing research, paralegal studies, sociology, accounting, art and photography, before graduating from the Motion Picture Institute in [1997] with a degree in Directing and Producing.[5][6]

Career

Nashef's debut short film, 8:30 , a romantic comedy short film that was presented at the Arab Screen Independent Film Festival in Doha, Qatar during 2001.[7] She raised 20,000 through a letter writing fundraising campaign to develop and direct her second short film, Detroit unleaded, and won “Best Short Film” at the Trinity Film Festival and "Best Performance" at the New Haven Underground Film Festival.[8]

As a slice-of-life dramedy that centers around an Arab-owned 24-hour gas station, Detroit Unleaded holds its place in American cinema history as the very first Arab-American romantic comedy portraying second generation Arab characters specific to Detroit and Dearborn.[9] The film premiered in 2012 at the Toronto International Film Festival, won the inaugural Grolsch Film Works Discovery Award.[10] Prior to its release, Detroit Unleaded, was supported by the Sundance Institute Screenwriters Lab, IFP New York, Lincoln Center and the A2E Distribution Lab, SFFS.[11][12]

Nashef worked and served as a multimedia artist on Facing Identity, a permanent installation in the Arab American National Museum.[13]

Awards

References

  1. ↑ "Rola Nashef on Her Untraditional "Detroit Unleaded"". sagharborexpress.com. Retrieved 2019-03-29.
  2. ↑ "2012 Sundance Predictions: Rola Nashef's Detroit Unleaded". ioncinema.com. 8 November 2011. Retrieved 2019-03-29.
  3. ↑ "Film Review: 'Detroit Unleaded'". variety.com. 19 November 2013. Retrieved 2019-03-29.
  4. ↑ "Discover: Rola Nashef Penetrates The Glass Cage with "Detroit Unleaded"". filmlinc.org. 2 May 2013. Retrieved 2019-03-29.
  5. ↑ "Rola Nashef". comartsci.msu.edu. Retrieved 2019-03-29.
  6. ↑ "MPI GRAD ROLA NASHEF'S FEATURE FILM "DETROIT UNLEADED" PREMIERES IN DETROIT". mpifilm.com. Retrieved 2019-03-29.
  7. ↑ "Detroit Unleaded (USA/Lebanon, 2007, 20 min, 16mm)". mizna.org. Retrieved 2019-03-29.
  8. ↑ "Michigan Festival shorts" (PDF). michigan.gov. Retrieved 2019-03-29.
  9. ↑ "Rola Nashef: Redefining Arab-American Narratives Through Romantic Comedy". truthout.org. 5 March 2014. Retrieved 2019-03-29.
  10. ↑ "Detroit Unleaded premieres at Toronto International Film Festival". alliedmedia.org. Retrieved 2019-03-29.
  11. ↑ "Sundance picks seven projects for Middle East Writers Lab". screendaily.com. Retrieved 2019-03-29.
  12. ↑ "IFP and Film Society of Lincoln Center Announce the 25 Emerging Visions Filmmakers". indiewire.com. 13 September 2011. Retrieved 2019-03-29.
  13. ↑ "Detroit Unleaded". arabamericanmuseum.org. Retrieved 2019-03-29.
  14. ↑ "ROLA NASHEF". kresgeartsindetroit.org. Retrieved 2019-03-29.
  15. ↑ "ROLA NASHEF". adrienneshellyfoundation.org. Retrieved 2019-03-29.
  16. ↑ "First-Ever Audience Award Winners Announced". miznablog.org. Retrieved 2019-03-29.
  17. ↑ "2012 Toronto International Film Festival Awards Announced; SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK and SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS Among Winners". collider.com. 16 September 2012. Retrieved 2019-03-29.
  18. ↑ "25 New Faces of Independent Film – 2011". filmmakermagazine.com. 20 July 2011. Retrieved 2019-03-29.
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