Doha Film Institute
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Cinema Alkhaleej Short Film Programme
In 1980, Laila Abdulaziz, a pioneer of Gulf music, left Kuwait and never looked back. Through rare archive footage, this documentary asks what happened to her.
Laila Abdulaziz is a musical legend but not celebrated as one, a champion of the arts but not treated as one, a part of Kuwaiti history but not recorded as one. The first Kuwaiti woman to graduate from Cairo’s Higher Institute of Arabic Music, she left Kuwait in 1980 and never looked back. Through rarely seen archive footage and recordings, Haya Alghanim’s documentary traces her journey, up to a performance she gives today.

Credits

Director
Haya Alghanim
Producer
Haya Alghanim
Cinematographer
Fatima Alfulaij
Editor
Waleed Alqahtani
Production Designer
Moudhi Altouq
Music
Laila Abdulaziz
Cast
Laila Abdulaziz

About the Director

Haya Alghanim
Haya Alghanim is a Kuwaiti filmmaker based between New York City and Kuwait City. Her short films have screened at international film festivals and exhibition venues. She is developing her first narrative feature, ‘Road 250’, a selection of the Rawi Screenwriters Lab and the Red Sea Lodge. She holds an MFA in Film from Columbia University and a BA from The New School. Through her artistic and prof