Washington, DC, USA
1 review$250 - $600 / Day
Alongside being a documentary photographer and filmmaker, Maen, professionally, is a human rights researcher and campaigner at Amnesty International. Maen considers himself a dedicated creative, always encouraged to learn and explore in the imaginative realms. He has been documenting the Palestinian skateboard scene for the last six years and engages in reciprocal nourishment with this community. Maen has experience as an awarded documentary filmmaker, having made Kickflips Over Occupation. Maen’s artistic pursuit chases him towards documentary photography, where narration and visual pieces fit perfectly to the puzzle making of a good story. Maen is currently a grantee of the Magnum Foundation working on a documentary photography project on the Palestinian skateboard scene.
October • 2021
Maen did a great job on this last minute half-day shoot. He was responsive to calls and emails and delivered great results as the iPhone camera operator during a shoot in front of the Supreme Court. He also filmed interviews on the phone with our correspondent.
Produced for Arab Foundation for Arts and Culture
“Landing” is a collaborative look at the purposeful escape that skateboarding provides to a handful of Palestinian skaters, myself included. This purposeful escape is a radical form of resistance to a headspace of violence, situated in the layers of Israeli domination in Palestine. Woven throughout are tales of my own family’s experience of displacement, diaspora, and partial return. When I moved back to Palestine in 2014, after living in the US for nineteen years, I brought my skateboard because I knew I would be a stranger. I needed the kid in me to remind myself that all is well while I tried to find home. Skating leads us into a parallel world, where we can participate in our surroundings. This participation is an interpretive dance with the built environment; a tool to assemble a community; and most importantly, a centering on the imagination. This project serves as a reminder for this pocket of freedom as we all try to find our landing. Throughout the project are also photos made by the core group of skaters, taken on disposable cameras. I simply asked them to photograph the world around them. Below is a small sample of the work: https://maenhammad.com/landing
Kickflips Over Occupation is a project set out to document the newly emerged skate scene in Palestine's West Bank and highlight how adolescents and youth are using skateboarding as a positive tool to overcome the ailments of the Israeli military occupation.
Produced for NowThis
Instagram live, as well as filming of interviews and b-roll footage for NowThis.
Out of the three hundred some-odd million Americans in this country, how many do you think have spoken to a Syrian refugee? Take a peek into Detroit and meet these men, women, and children. Find out for yourselves, who are America's Syrians?
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