Supported
films
Lift Like a Girl
A coming of age story about the 14-year-old Egyptian girl Zebiba, who’s determined to become a professional and world champion weightlifter. She believes her coach; Captain Ramadan, can help her achieve this unconventional dream, as he did before for his own daughter Nahla Ramadan, the former world champion weightlifter, Olympian and one of the most famous Egyptian athletes of all times. Having Nahla as her idol and having a coach that takes no for an answer, Zebiba trains daily in the streets of the bustling city of Alexandria. For 4 years, Zebiba remains as determined through victories and even defeats.
Feature Documentary, Egypt/Germany
Status: In Post Production
How We Helped:
IMPACT GOALS
- Inspire children in the Arab world to pursue their unconventional dreams.
- Empower women and youth in sports and raise the visibility of female role models.
- Tackle the gender bias problem in all languages and specifically in sports.
- Educate and raise awareness about critical topics in sports such as doping, coach-trainee relationship and the effect of it on character building and development.
Director:
Impact Producer:
About The Director
Mayye Zayed is an Egyptian filmmaker and a co-founder of Rufy’s Films. After studying Telecommunication Engineering, she pursued her dream of becoming a filmmaker. Among multiple other honors, she is a Fulbright scholar who studied cinema and media studies in Wellesley College and Innovations in Documentary in MIT in 2011/2012 in the USA. She co-directed and co-produced the collaborative feature THE MICE ROOM (Dubai FF 2013, Sao Paulo FF 2014) with 5 other filmmakers. She also directed the award-winning short A STROLL DOWN SUNFLOWER LANE (Berlinale 2016, AFI Fest 2016, Best Experimental in Sharjah Film Platform 2019). LIFT LIKE A GIRL is her first feature documentary.
About The Impact Director
Omar El Banna was born in Alexandria, Egypt, but he lived in both UAE and USA for a few years as well. He graduated from the Arab Academy for Science and Technology (AAST) with bachelor degree in Accounting and Financial Management. He also Studied Business Administration in Al Ghurair University (AGU) in Dubai. LIFT LIKE A GIRL is the film project he works on. Since he is a former Soccer player and musician, he is very interested in working on projects combining both sports and arts, which can create social awareness and impact.
Please note that the information presented from our programs is taken directly from the official publication from each edition. While this information is limited, it is the information given to us by the main project contact at the time, based on the space restrictions of our publications, and is meant only as a historical record of the film or project at the time of its involvement with Beirut DC