Rooj Alwazir Joins SidexSide Studios as Producer
Our short film “Finding Us” has won the 2023 Reel South of North Carolina PBS award at the 12th Annual Richmond International Film Festival. The festival included 195 Official Selection films; from more than 20 countries plus 35 live music acts throughout the week.
Reel South is a PBS documentary series co-produced by PBS North Carolina, South Carolina ETV, and Louisiana Public Broadcasting, and produced in association with Alabama Public Television, Arkansas PBS, Texas PBS, Tennessee Public Television Council, and VPM. Reel South is a platform for and a service to non-fiction filmmakers in the American South working within the region’s tradition of storytelling.
Film Synopsis: Georgetown University sold hundreds of enslaved people to stave off bankruptcy, scattering families across the South, never to see each other again. With the help of DNA databases, their descendants are reconnecting six generations later. “Finding Us” is a portrait of four descendants who are using their unique talents to regrow the family trees felled nearly two centuries ago.
SideXSide is excited to welcome Rooj to the team as a producer! In this role, Rooj will lead production on a slate of our branded film projects.
For Rooj, the ability to tell stories is freedom. The daughter of exiled Yemeni activists, she was taught that storytelling has consequence and life-altering power, and from an early age she was drawn to social justice storytelling. Rooj began her career in Yemen, where she co-founded the film collective SupportYemen. Since then, she has worked on social campaigns for major brands and media outlets in America and Europe. Rooj has also had her photography exhibited in galleries in Paris, Brussels, London, and Washington D.C, and her writing has been featured in publications including Rolling Stone and Al Jazeera.
