Amin Matalqa is a writer and director who grew up in Jordan dreaming of becoming a filmmaker although he has spent more than half of his life in Ohio where he attended school and college. “I think my love for writing came from my sense of isolation after immigrating to the US. While other kids were at football games or going out on dates, I was in my room writing stories, drawing storyboards and shooting movies with my camera, using my little brother or his action figures. Whatever subject I could get in front of my camera, I made a movie with it,” he said. Amin has made 25 short films. By the time he was completing his MFA in Directing at the American Film Institute in 2007, he was already in Jordan directing his first feature film, Captain Abu Raed, which he also wrote and co-produced.

Director CAPTAIN ABU RAED