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Cherien Dabis

Palestinian American filmmaker, writer, director, and actor

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Why Cherien is here

Dabis has built a career around nuanced Palestinian and Arab American stories, challenging decades of flattening and hostile screen representation.

Their story

Cherien Dabis is a Palestinian American filmmaker, writer, director, and actor raised in a Palestinian Jordanian immigrant family in the United States. Her 2006 short Make a Wish, filmed in Palestine, launched a body of work that includes Amreeka and All That's Left of You. Across film and television, she centers family, migration, memory, and authentic Arab and Palestinian life.

Milestones

The moments that shaped Cherien’s path.

  1. 2006

    Made the short film Make a Wish entirely in Palestine.

  2. 2009

    Released her first feature, Amreeka.

  3. 2011

    Received the Sundance/NHK International Filmmaker Award.

  4. 2025

    Premiered All That's Left of You at the Sundance Film Festival.

Legacy

What they built, changed and left behind.

  1. Created complex Palestinian and Arab American characters in independent cinema and television.

  2. Used family stories to examine displacement, belonging, and inherited memory.

  3. Advanced authentic representation as a writer, director, producer, and performer.

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