20.05.12

When Mariam Al Nuaimi got her first camera, she couldn't stop taking pictures. Next, Al Nuaimi became immersed in cinema, devouring film after film. "I started watching movies and I told my mom, 'I want to do that,'" said the 25-year-old college student from Dubai, clad in a flowing Emirati abaya and black wrap-around headscarf.

Al Nuaimi has gone on to direct short documentaries, including one that won an award at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival this year, and is now at work on her first horror film. She stands among the ranks of young artists in the Arab world that saturate what experts are calling a great cultural renaissance in the region.

At a time of political upheaval and social change, this generation of Arabs are turning to various modes of expression, conveying their realities, and in some cases, pushing the envelope with their subject matter. It comes when some countries, particularly in the Gulf, are making massive investments into the arts and entertainment industry, while other nations are struggling to preserve arts of the past.

Source: Knowledge@Wharton