Amber Fares

Amber Fares is a New York City based Director, Producer and Cinematographer 

Credits: Director, Writer

As the Taliban claimed power in 2021 and banned women and girls from participating in sports, the members of the Afghanistan Youth Women’s National Football Team needed to escape their own country or risk being captured. What happened next is an extraordinary story of survival, sisterhood and the human right to privacy. Presented by WhatsApp.

Production Company: Modern Arts, Anonymous Content

Broadcast: Amazon

Awards:

Cannes Lion Grand Prix - Entertainment

2 x Cannes Lion Gold - Entertainment: Non-Fiction Film: 5-30 Minutes and Entertainment Lions in Sport: Film Series and Audio

Cannes Lion Bronze - Entertainment Lions in Sport: Brand Storytelling

Best Director - Sundance Brand Storytelling Conference 2024

Best in Genre - Branded Entertainment Film at the One Screen Short Film Festival 2024

AICP Award - Branded Content & Entertainment: Standalone

AICP Award - Post: Docu-Style

D&AD Awards - Non-Scripted Long Form

Media:

Anonymous Content Wins Cannes Lions Grand Prix for WhatsApp Documentary We Are Ayenda

Ad Age

Cannes Lions

Credits: Director Ep 5/ Cinematographer Ep 2

Inspired by the Clintons’ acclaimed New York Times bestselling book, “The Book of Gutsy Women,” the docuseries features Hillary and Chelsea as they embark on a thought-provoking journey to speak with pioneering women artists, activists, community leaders and everyday heroes who show us what it truly means to be gutsy.

Production Company: Hidden Light

Broadcast: Apple TV

Credit: Co-Director

Activists and volunteers work through the darkest days of 2020, galvanizing social change amidst chaos as governments start to fail local communities. This epic, globally spanning and deeply passionate documentary serves as a clarion call that great change can be born of crisis.

Production Company: Grain Media. Story Syndicate

Broadcast: Netflix

Awards:

Nominated for TV Emmy

Credits: Director/Producer

Noam Shuster is a peace builder-turned-comedian whose political satire makes headlines across the Middle East.

She was about to launch her one-woman US comedy tour when the first coronavirus wave hit. She returns to Israel and soon finds herself recovering from COVID-19 in a government-assigned hotel – where Palestinians and Israelis laugh together at her jokes.

But, as the pandemic sends the world into a tailspin, exposing racial and economic injustice, Noam is reminded how much work needs to be done in Israel.

Broadcast: Al Jazeera Witness

Media

The New Yorker

The Guardian

The Stream

Haaretz

Credit: Cinematographer

Boycotts have long been a tool used by Americans rallying for political change, from civil rights leaders to anti-apartheid activists. But in recent years, over 30 states have introduced anti-boycott legislation designed to penalize individuals undertaking boycotts against Israel. Award-winning filmmaker Julia Bacha (Budrus) looks at the cases of a publisher, attorney, and teacher whose careers are threatened by the harsh measures of these new laws in this bracing look at shifting politics and threats to freedom of speech.

Director: Julia Bacha

Production Company: Just Vision

Broadcast: Al Jazeera Witness

Credits: Field Director/Cinematographer

In a polarized America, where the dual forces of white supremacy and patriarchy threaten to further erode our democracy, a game-changing transformation is happening at the grassroots. As demographics shift toward a non-white majority, elections will be decided by Americans inspired to vote for the first time. Many of these voters, who are often poor, and largely immigrant, are ignored by politicians and journalists alike. But a defiant group of women of color- as candidates and organizers- are harnessing the political power of this New American Majority.

And She Could Be Next, POV’s first broadcast miniseries, asks whether democracy itself can be preserved- and made stronger- by those most marginalized.

Directed by: Grace Lee + Marjan Safinia

Executive Producer: Ava DuVernay

Broadcast: PBS, 2 part series

Website

Media:

NY Times

Hollywood Reporter

Credit: Supervising Producer

In the six-part documentary series, Couric travels the country to speak with people bearing witness to the most complicated and consequential questions in American culture today. Full series can be seen here.

Production Company: ABC/Lincoln Square Production

Broadcast: National Geographic/Hulu

Awards:

Front Page Award

Media:

Variety

Credit: Associate Producer

Winner of eight Emmys and two Golden Globes, TRANSPARENT returns for a fourth season The Pfeffermans take off on a spiritual and political journey as they dig deep into their family's history. Maura heads to Israel to speak at a conference and makes a startling discovery. Adrift in the desert, Maura, Ali, Sarah, Josh and Shelly set off on their own paths to find acceptance, love, and truth.

Creator/EP: Joey Solloway

Production Company: Topple

Broadcast: Amazon

Credits: Co-Producer, Cinematographer

When she was a young lawyer, Kholoud Al-Faqih walked into the office of Palestine’s Chief Justice and announced she wanted to join the bench. He laughed at her. But just a few years later, Kholoud became the first woman judge to be appointed to the Middle East’s Shari’a (Islamic law) courts. THE JUDGE offers a unique portrait of Judge Kholoud—her brave journey as a lawyer, her tireless fight for justice for women, and her drop-in visits with clients, friends, and family. With unparalleled access to the courts, THE JUDGE presents an unfolding vérité legal drama, with rare insight into both Islamic law and gendered justice. In the process, the film illuminates some of the universal conflicts in the domestic life of Palestine—custody of children, divorce, abuse—while offering an unvarnished look at life for women and Shari’a.

World Premiere at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. Broadcasted on PBS 2019. Website

Directed + Produced by: Erika Cohn

Broadcast: PBS/Amazon

Awards:

2018 Peabody Awards-George Foster Peabody Award

2018 News and Documentary Emmy Awards-Outstanding Politics and Government Documentary Nomination

Media:

NY Times

LA Times

The Guardian

http://speedsisters.tv/

The Speed Sisters are the first all-woman race car driving team in the Middle East. Grabbing headlines and turning heads at improvised tracks across the West Bank, these five women have sped their way into the heart of the gritty, male-dominated Palestinian street car-racing scene. Weaving together their lives on and off the track, SPEED SISTERS takes you on a surprising journey into the drive to go further and faster than anyone thought you could. Website

Credits: Director, Producer, Cinematographer

Awards:

Sportel Awards, Monaco Peace and Sport Documentary Prize

Irish Film Institute Doc Fest Audience Award for Best Feature

Vail Film Festival Best Documentary

Adelaide Film Festival Jury Award for Best Documentary

CMCA PriMed Youth Jury Award

Media:

NY Times

Indiewire

Credit: Cinematographer

For decades, African American comedian and filmmaker Robin Cloud had heard tales about the “Nebraska cousins,” a branch of her family that moved away from the East Coast to pass for white in the rural Midwest. In this six-part series, Cloud attempts to find and understand the motives of the relatives who left everything and everyone else behind, and documents how their progeny grapple with the revelation that they aren’t who they thought they were.

Directed by Robin Cloud

Broadcast: Topic Media

https://www.topic.com/passing

Credits: Field Producer, Additional Cinematography

Follow the Monongahela River southeast from Pittsburgh to Braddock, Pennsylvania, a steel town whose residents forged America—and paid for it with their lives. The city and its surrounding area have one of the highest cancer rates in the country, and a history of health outcomes split along color lines. Braddock (population: less than 2,000) is also home to people who are determined to stick around and improve their lives and the lives of their neighbors. In this powerful new documentary series, we meet an activist, a filmmaker, a farmer, and a politician fighting to bring their town back from the brink.

4 part series directed by Ro Haber for Topic

Credit: Cinematography

Broadly visits the first adult fat camp that focuses on celebrating bodies instead of changing or shaming them. Women from around the country gathered at Fat Camp in Henderson, North Carolina for a weekend of outdoor activities like swimming, campfires, and pool parties in a judgement-free space. For many of them, the experience among other fat women was a transformative step in their journeys towards self-love.

Broadcast: Vice

Credits: Director, Cinematographer

We asked the pioneering muslim model to show these girls how to vogue.

Broadcast: Allure