(un)veiled introduces the audience to ten Muslim women from various backgrounds who now live in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Their discussion about hijab, the headscarf, revolves around a lecture on the same topic that was banned last minute but delivered anyway. In a time when Islam and especially Muslim women are represented as monolithic and beset by backwardness, the women in (un)veiled show the diverse, lively, argumentative debates in Muslim societies about the meanings of modernity, emancipation, and feminism.
Dubai, where the filmmaker lived for eight months, becomes a character in itself, showing the complex face of a contemporary Arab city.
SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS
Second Jury Prize, Black Maria Film Festival, 2008
Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, 2008
MESA Film Festival, 2008
Women's International Film Festival, Miami, FL, 2009
Days of Ethnographic Film, Slovenia, 2009
University of British Columbia Ethnographic Film Festival, Canada, 2009
American Psychological Association Convention, Toronto, 2009
American Sociological Association Film & Video Festival, San Francisco, CA 2009
Open Frame 2009, New Delhi, India
Newburyport Documentary Film Festival, MA, 2009
Rocky Mountain Women's Film Festival, CO, 2009
International Festival of Ethnological Film, Belgrade, Serbia, 2009
3rd Women's Film Festival, Chennai, India, 2010
Luminato - Toronto Festival of Arts & Creativity, Canada, 2010