Mohanad Yaqubi

(Filmmaker, Producer, one of the Founders of Idioms Film)

Born in Kuwait 1981 for a Palestinian Moroccan father and Syrian mother, Mohanad Yaqubi grows on memories of generational displacement experiences, since his hometown Al-Majdal (south of Yaffa) was occupied after the establishment of the state of Israel in Palestine 1948. Yaqubi is a filmmaker, producer and one of the founders of Idioms Film, an arthouse producer based in Ramallah since 2004. He is also a member of Subversive Film, a curatorial collective that seeks to research and redistribute militant cinema from Palestine and beyond. He has been a lecturer/ researcher at KASK school of the Arts, Ghent since 2017.

Yaqubi is a mechanical engineer by training and hold holds a Master in feature films from Goldsmiths, University of London. His research focuses on archival practices within transnational solidarity movements, asking questions about politics, aesthetics and cinema, while at the same time, re-thinking imperfect archives as a mechanism to bridge living memories. His first feature film Off Frame AKA Revolution Until Victory (2016) made its premiere at TIFF in Toronto, Berlinale, Cinéma du réel, Dubai IFF, and Carthage among fifty other premiers and screenings around the world. His 2nd feature R21 AKA Restoring Solidarity (2022) made its premier at Documenta 15, IDFA, Marrakesh FF, True/False, Melbourn among others.

Yaqubi’s filmography as a producer includes the documentary feature Infiltrators (dir. Khaled Jarrar, 2013), Suspended Time (Several directors, 2013) the narrative short Pink Bullet (dir. Ramzi Hazboun, 2014), and co-produced several films including the narrative feature Habibi (dir. Susan Youssef, 2010), the short narrative Though I Know the River is Dry (dir. Omar R. Hamilton, 2012), and the feature documentaries Ambulance (dir. Mohammed Jabaly, 2016) and Ouroboros (dir. Basma Sharif, 2017), Ibrahim: A Fate to Define (dir: Lina Alabed, 2019) and As I Want (dir. Samaher Al Qadi, 2021)