Wissam Charaf

Wissam Charaf is a Lebanese/French director and journalist based in Paris. He is also a video editor and a director of photography After a 3-year experience in pirate radio in Beirut, in the midst of the Lebanese war, he turned to video editing in various lebanese television networks. In 1998, he moved to Paris, France, where he began to work with the French/German network ARTE, as a news cameraman, editor and journalist. He has since covered major conflict areas ranging from Lebanon to Darfour, Afghanistan, or North Korea. During that period, he also worked as an assistant director on music videos for artists such as Sinead O’Connor, Asian Dub Foundation and Noir Desir, as well as feature films and documentaries. In 2004, he directed his first short feature film, « Hizz Ya Wizz », a story about the boredom of a young man in a modern city. In 2006, while he was covering the Israeli agression on Lebanon, he filmed his second short film, « A hero never dies », about the endless waiting of a young artist during wartime. This was followed , in 2007, by « An army of ants », his 3rd short film, that followed a group of 3 young men in their quest for a Kalashnikov, in a menacng pre-war atmosphere. This film competed in the Locarno Film Festival, and obtained the Jury prize in the Lunel Film Festival in France. Today, he is the Beirut correspondant for ARTE and is preparing his first full-length feature film, « Fallen fron the sky ».