Maha Al-Saati
Maha Al-Saati is a Saudi filmmaker, university professor and graduate of Simon Fraser University who has taught both in Vancouver, Canada and Saudi Arabia. Her style is experimental and is inspired by MTV music videos. Her research covers the representation of architectural spaces, education through the use of film, and the influence of religion and culture on media.
Her film, "Fear: Audibly" is about a girl's fear of the trumpet of doom which will end the world. The film reflects a religious period in Saudi Arabia between the 1980s and 1990s. Its dependence on sound is influenced by the Islamic restriction on visual depictions, often depending on oral narrations distributed through cassette tapes. She is influenced by Slavoj Žižek's Psychoanalytic description of sound as a disembodied entity floating unnaturally like a ghost.
Her film "Hair: The Story of Grass" is about the beauty standards regarding body hair in the Arab World. It critiques the treatment of the mentally ill, gender roles and the culture of consumerism. Her feature film "A Trip to Disney" is about a woman who travels from Saudi to Disney World, Florida only to find out she is abandoned by her prince. She collaborated with American electronic opera composer Alice Shields on making the film "Cycle of Apples".
