Frames of Belonging: Cinema, Culture, and Civic Voice: Nujoom Alghanem

This special screening of Nearby Sky, a film by Nujoom Alghanem, offers a deeply personal and socially-charged narrative.

The documentary follows Fatima, a determined woman who breeds camels but is repeatedly denied entry into beauty contests and races simply because she is a woman. Through Alghanem’s lens, Nearby Sky reveals the tensions between tradition and modernity, gender and societal expectations, as well as resilience in the face of exclusion. The screening invites the audience to reflect on Fatima’s journey, the challenges she faces, and the broader questions of belonging, agency, and cultural identity.

By foregrounding one woman’s struggle in a male-dominated space, Nearby Sky underscores the power of cinema to illuminate the complexities of civic participation and social transformation.

The screening will be followed by an open discussion with Nujoom Alghanem and curator Fatoş Üstek.

About the Artist

Nujoom Alghanem is an Emirati poet, artist, and film director. She was born in Dubai, UAE, 1962 and has published 11 poetry collections in the Arabic language. Her work has been translated to several languages including English, Spanish, French, German, Turkish, Macedonian, and more. Nujoom is also a renowned filmmaker. She has produced more than 20 films including seven feature non-fiction, short fiction, short documentaries, and art films. Her films have won over 40 regional and international prizes. Her achievements in the arts have been recognized both nationally and internationally. She is the recipient of the Pride of the UAE Medal through the Mohammed bin Rashid Government Excellence Award and the Rashid Award for Scientific Outstanding. In 2019, she was the solo artist of the UAE National Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, and in 2017, she was one of five artists that had participated in the same pavilion.

Alghanem started her professional career in the early 1980s as a journalist for more than ten years and was the head of the cultural department for Dubai and the Northern Offices of Al-Ittihad Newspaper, the first regular publication of the UAE. She then became head of training and human resources development at the Emirates Media Incorporated in Abu Dhabi and finally the director of the new media division at the same organization. Alghanem was one of the founding members of the Emirates Writers’ Union in 1984 and used to be a board member of Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage. In 2010, Nujoom co-founded Nahar Productions, a film production company based in Dubai. Since then, alongside her artistic endeavors, she has worked as a mentor and trainer in art, filmmaking and creative writing as well as a cultural consultant. She is the holder of a master’s degree in film production from Griffith University in Australia and a Bachelor’s degree in video production from Ohio University in the United States.

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