Rafea: Solar Mama | |
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Directed by |
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Produced by | Mette Heide |
Cinematography | Mona Eldaief |
Edited by |
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Music by | Jonas Colstrup |
Production companies |
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Distributed by | PBS |
Release dates |
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Running time | 75 minutes |
Country | United States |
Languages |
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Rafea: Solar Mama is a 2012 American documentary film, directed by Jehane Noujaim and Mona Eldaief. It follows Rafea, an illiterate Jordanian Bedouin as she follows her aspirations of lighting up her village by harnessing the power of solar energy by enrolling in the Barefoot College solar program in India.
The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 10, 2012. It was released on November 5, 2012, by PBS, as part of the Why Poverty? project.
The documentary depicts the trials and tribulations faced by Rafea, an illiterate Jordanian Bedouin as she follows her aspirations of lighting up her village by harnessing the power of solar energy by enrolling in the Barefoot College solar program in India. The story takes the viewer through Rafea's and her neighbour's physical and emotional journey before she triumphs. [1] [2]
Following the release of the film, Eldaief stated Rafea and her aunt installed 80 solar panels in one week and Rafea's determination remains unshaken in spite of personal and financial burdens. [3]
The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 10, 2012. [4] It was released on November 5, 2012, by PBS. [5] [6] The film went onto screen at DOC NYC on November 12, 2012, where the film won the Special Jury Prize and Audience Award, [7] [8] [9] The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam on November 19, 2012, where the film won the Oxfam Novib audience award. [10] [11] [12]
Control Room is a 2004 documentary film directed by Jehane Noujaim, about Al Jazeera and its relations with the US Central Command (CENTCOM), as well as the other news organizations that covered the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Jehane Noujaim is an American documentary film director best known for her films Control Room, Startup.com, Pangea Day and The Square. She has co-directed The Great Hack and The Vow with Karim Amer.
Startup.com is a 2001 American documentary film directed by Jehane Noujaim and Chris Hegedus. D. A. Pennebaker served as a producer on the film. It follows the dot-com start-up govWorks.com, which raised $60 million in funding from Hearst Interactive Media, KKR, the New York Investment Fund, and Sapient.
Julia Bacha is a Brazilian documentary filmmaker. She has filmed under-documented stories from the Middle East including issues related to Palestine. Her 2021 film, Boycott, explores anti-boycott legislation and related freedom of speech issues.
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Julie Sokolow is an American film director, musician, and writer. Her body of work includes documentary films, personal essays, and musical compositions. She directed the films Barefoot: The Mark Baumer Story (2019), Woman on Fire (2016), Aspie Seeks Love (2015), and the Healthy Artists series (2012-4). She first came to public attention with her music album Something About Violins (2006).
Barefoot College, previously known as the Social Work and Research Centre ("SWRC") is a voluntary organisation working in the fields of education, skill development, health, drinking water, women empowerment and electrification through solar power for the upliftment of rural people, which was founded by Bunker Roy in 1972. It is registered under Friends of Tilonia Inc.
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The Square is a 2013 Egyptian-American documentary film by Jehane Noujaim, which depicts the Egyptian Crisis until 2013, starting with the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 at Tahrir Square. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 86th Academy Awards. It also won three Emmy Awards at the 66th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards, out of four for which it was nominated.
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Rokhsareh Ghaemmaghami is a Sundance Award-winning Iranian documentary filmmaker who was born in Tehran. She has directed one full-length documentary, four short documentaries and one animated documentary.
Don Edkins is an international documentary filmmaker and producer. He was born in Cape Town in 1953. At the age of twenty-two he left South Africa for political reasons, and returned in 1994 to take part in his country’s first democratic elections.
Geralyn White Dreyfous is an American film producer. She has produced multiple documentary and narrative films focusing on social justice issues including The Invisible War (2012), The Square (2013), The Hunting Ground (2015), Won't You Be My Neighbor? (2018), The Great Hack (2019), and On the Record (2020). Dreyfous has been nominated for Primetime Emmy awards.
Karim Amer is an Egyptian-American film producer and director. He worked on The Square (2013) and The Great Hack (2019); the former was the first Egyptian film to earn an Academy Award nomination and went on to win three Emmy Awards, while the latter got nominated for an Emmy and a BAFTA Award. In 2020, he produced and directed The Vow, an HBO documentary series about the self-improvement group, NXIVM. In 2022, he produced and directed Flight/Risk for Amazon Studios, revolving around whistleblowers at Boeing.
The Vow is an American true crime documentary series directed by Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer that revolves around the cult NXIVM and its leader Keith Raniere. The NXIVM documentary series premiered on August 23, 2020, on HBO. In October 2020, the series was renewed for a second season, which premiered on October 17, 2022.
93Queen is a 2018 documentary film on Hasidic women in Borough Park, Brooklyn who form Ezras Nashim, an all-female ambulance corps. The film follows Judge Rachel Freier, a Hasidic lawyer running for public office as a New York Judge, and mother of six who is determined to shake up the “boys club” in her Hasidic community by creating the first all-female ambulance corps in the United States, as she negotiates her community initiative within the context of a male-dominated Hasidic community.
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Vikram Gandhi is an Indian American documentary filmmaker, producer, actor, and journalist. His works included Kumaré (2011), Barry (2016), Trigger Warning with Killer Mike(2019), 69: The Saga of Danny Hernandez (2020).