Muriel Aboulrouss
Muriel Aboulrouss is an award-winning cinematographer from Beirut, Lebanon. She is the first woman to actually work as a cinematographer in the Arab world.
Muriel has been working very selectively for the past 25 years on documentaries and feature films following her passion, exercising the art of making films. She shot:
- “Stray Bullet”, a drama from the 70’s by Georges Hashem. It won Best Cinematography at Namur Film Festival and Best Arab Film at Dubai Film Festival in 2010.
- “Teta Alf Marra", a biographical documentary by Mahmoud Kaabour featuring his grandmother. It won the Audience Award for Best Documentary at Doha Tribecca Film Festival, Docs Box Damascus Festival in 2010-2011, and in London International Film Festival.
- “The Shower”, a short film by Michel Kamoun. It won Best Cinematography at the Arab Screen International Awards.
- “Falafel”, a feature film by Michel Kamoun. It won Best Film at Namur Film Festival in 2006.
Her numerous cinematography credits also include award-winning documentaries: “The Oil Spill”, "Lesson in History”, "Marcedes" and “Ya Omri”, all by Hady Zaccak.
Muriel is also the cinematographer for “Shankaboot”, the first Arab web series produced by the BBC trust fund and Batoota Films. It won Reflet d’Or for Best Web Series Fiction at Geneva Film Festival 2010, and the Digital Emmy Award in 2011.
As a teacher and lecturer, Muriel created and led Cine-Jam the Film Lab in 2012. It was relaunched as Home of Cine-Jam Intuitive Film Lab in 2021, where she conducted “Ana Beirut”, a series of 10 -12 episodes, in faith that authentic art and intuitive cinematic portraits of emotions will heal and empower their creators as well as their viewers.
In 2014, she debuted as a director with “Zyara the Documentary Series”, produced by her own humanitarian arts association "Home of Cine-Jam", which she set up together with Denise Jabbour. Zyara has won 45 international awards so far and a new season of 12 episodes will be produced every year.
For Muriel, learning and teaching are the ultimate destination and the greatest act of resistance.