Julia Bacha
Julia Bacha (born 1980) is a Brazilian documentary filmmaker. She is a media strategist and award-winning filmmaker whose work has been exhibited at Sundance, Tribeca, Berlin, Jerusalem, and Dubai International Film Festivals, and broadcast on the BBC, HBO, Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya television channels. Since graduating Magna Cum Laude from the Columbia University School of General Studies in 2003, she has strategically used film to highlight under documented stories from the Middle East. Julia started her filmmaking career in Cairo, where she co-wrote and edited Jehane Noujaim’s critically acclaimed documentary, Control Room (2004), for which she was nominated to the Writer’s Guild of America Award. Since 2004, Julia has been working closely with Ronit Avni to develop and implement Just Vision’s media strategy. She wrote and co-directed Encounter Point (2006), which was broadcast on Al Arabiya and endorsed by the Israeli Education ministry, directed and produced Budrus (2009), which had a palpable impact on US and Arab media coverage of nonviolent resistance in the Middle East, and directed and produced the upcoming My Neighbourhood (2012), which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in April 2012. She has been a guest on numerous television shows such as Charlie Rose, MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchel Reports and Al Jazeera’s Frost over the World. For her influential work in shaping media in the US and beyond, Julia is the co-recipient of the 2009 King Hussein Leadership Prize, 2010 Search for Common Ground Award, 2011 Ridenhour Film Prize and the 2012 O Globo “Faz Diferença” Award. Her TED talk "Pay Attention to Nonviolence" has been viewed by hundreds of thousands of people worldwide.