Sabah Haider

Between the yellow chalk scrawled Beatles lyrics covering the walls of Mama Shelter Hotel’s bar/restaurant in Belleville, Montreal filmmaker Sabah Haider recounts to us her international filmmaking and writing journey that has now brought her to Paris as she works towards completing her PhD in anthropology and cultural studies at the École des Hautes Etudes Sciences Sociales (EHESS). Born in Den Haag, The Netherlands, raised in Canada and later transplanted to San Diego, London and Beirut, Sabah moved to Paris this summer, where she juggles making films with PhD research about the role of transnational movements during the Cold War in the Middle East.

My heart is in cinema through and through, and I consider myself a filmmaker doing a PhD, rather than an academic. I did my MA in Film Studies at UCL in London, and it’s during that period that I started experimenting with the possibilities of moving image on a practical level. While writing my MA thesis on Palestinian cinema, I moved to Beirut and decided to stay because it’s an incredibly inspiring place with a rich, supportive and engaging community of artists and filmmakers – so, so many of whom I admire so much. It’s there that I started making short films and developing my first feature film project. I really wanted to focus on filmmaking and I quit my job as a writer/editor at a local university to dedicate myself. The next few years were amazing – I wrote, directed and produced two shorts, learned how to be a script supervisor and worked on three features, gave filmmaking workshops to kids in underprivileged communities and refugee camps, went to so many film festivals all over the world, participated in amazing script development workshops in Italy, Lebanon, Dubai, Berlin, and moved to Dubai to teach screenwriting and Arab cinema at the American University. However, I hit a wall. I realized that I am truly deeply interested in the social, cultural and political dimensions of national cinemas and that is something in parallel to my practical interest in filmmaking – for me, one informed the other, and I wanted to further explore this but not from a purely film studies position. Having already done my MA in Film Studies I wanted to study film from a truly interdisciplinary position that was primarily rooted in cultural anthropology. I researched programs and the EHESS proposed amazing possibilities with all of its brilliant scholars and research – particularly on the Middle East. From there I learned that as a Canadian at a Quebec university I could do a joint program (co-tutelle) with them, and so I started the interdisciplinary PhD Humanities program at Concordia University in Montreal, in co-tutelle with the EHESS in Paris.  After finishing my requirements in Montreal, I moved to Paris this summer, where I’m carrying on and so excited to finish this next phase of my PhD here. There’s no place like Paris.

2. When did you know you wanted to come to Paris? Did you fall into this step naturally or was it a goal you set out to achieve?

While I was teaching in Dubai and researching PhD programs, I met someone that suggested that I look into the EHESS because of its great focus on anthropology and it’s fantastic scholars. Another friend of mine from Lebanon who was finishing his MA at Sciences Po at the time also spoke highly of the institution. For me being an Anglophone with my previous degrees in English, from Canada and the UK, the decision to come to Paris to do a PhD was terrifying because I was not confident that my French was good enough (it wasn’t) – but my supervisor in Paris was more supportive than anyone could dream of and encouraged me to jump into the pit and that I’d improve my French along the way (and I did!).

3. Can you tell us a little about your creative process? How do you go about developing an idea and turning it into a project? (Regardless of medium) Finally, have you got any exciting plans in the works? What’s next for you?

It really depends. Every project has it’s own story. But basically, if I fall in love with an idea, I’ll pursue it. I always have a film in the works, however unfortunately my filmmaking has really suffered since I started my PhD 4 years ago – it’s been next to impossible to find the time to dedicate to making films, to the extent that I want to and need to in order to finish a film. I’m hoping to finish my PhD by the end of 2018 so … hoping and praying that I can be back in the swing of writing and making films at that point!

4. What is your favorite part about living here?/ What has been the most challenging aspect of living in Paris?

I’m a serious foodie and I love, love, love cooking, so of course the food and the markets and the produce inspire me every day. In terms of cinema, there’s no greater city on earth than Paris for it’s vibrant cinema culture. There are cinemas playing great films everywhere, archives, cinemathèques, familiar sites and faces and expression … Most cinéphiles have heavily explored French cinema and there’s something really wonderful about being in France as a filmmaker (even if I’m mostly working on my PhD at the moment!). And finally there are so many interesting people we meet every day in Paris! I’ve lived in a lot of cool cities, and whether it’s London or New York or Paris … you never know who you’ll meet that day … the randomness and spontaneity of city life is something that I love. The most challenging aspect of living in Paris has been how bloody expensive it is here.
I think I live in the best part of Paris! It’s so multicultural and vibrant and rich in everything. Great cafés and restaurants popping up all the time, great cinemas, great residents. Bastille, Nation, Gambetta, Belleville, République … everything is a stone’s throw. And I’m fiercely loyal to the markets of the 11^ème and 20^ème.

5. Where’s your favorite place in Paris and why?

I don’t have one specific place. In 2013 I was a filmmaker in residence at the Cité Internationale des Arts in the Marais, and while I lived there I did a lot of exploring. I used to bike everywhere in Paris and I realized that this city offers something for everyone. So, it really depends upon my mood. When I want to be inspired I may go to the Centre Pompidou, when I want to read, I love going to the beautiful Institut du Monde Arabe, I love the parks and gardens in the summer. They’re so wonderful for people watching. When I want to write, I really like to sit in my pretty apartment with the buzz of the TV in the background. I feel that Paris lacks good places to write, with comfortable chairs, big tables and quiet and fast internet. The only place I’ve found in Paris that I think ticks all the boxes is WeWork’s Paris location — WeWork Lafayette, which is just an amazing, amazing, amazing space to work and create and be productive and the building is just so beautiful, but unless you pay a small fortune for monthly access, it’s not a feasible workspace for PhD students or independent filmmakers.