Fatima Al-Banawi
Fatima AlBanawi is a creative writer, actress, performance and theatre director from Saudi Arabia. This multi-hyphenate creative who aspires to deepen the conversation and strengthen the bridge between social impact and the arts is the founder of The Other Story Project - Jeddah city’s public space mover and shaker since 2015. The project has collected almost 5000 real life stories from strangers and packaged many into productions, such as the short film "A Blink of an Eye". From the first touring Biennale in the world inaugurated in Buenos Aires, to Palais de Tokyo in Paris, Al-Banawi travels locally and internationally to perform human stories. Though a challenging endeavor in a private society, she believes in the power of storytelling to channel vulnerable and intimate conversations. She was selected as a Next Generation Leader by Time Magazine for her unique ventures, and was called the (Sophie Calle of Saudi Arabia) by members of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Paris after the great reception of her performance “Amours Saoudiennes”. Al-Banawi received a masters in Theological Studies from Harvard University while focusing her scholarly writings on Gender and Identity in Muslim diaspora and contemporary Middle East, and shedding light on the sociology of film, literature, and issues of representation in both.
