DirectorDirector of PhotographyMultimedia Artist

Ilana
Alazzeh

Films that use music, performance, and documentary craft to center people the camera usually overlooks. I learned to direct behind the lens, interviewing workers on camera for national labor campaigns, and now direct and shoot independent shorts and music videos that have won festival awards in the United States and Europe.

Watch the director's reel Get in touch
1.2Morganic views in one month
7festival awards as director
$51K+raised for children through one film
13+international festival selections
Reel 01

Directed

2025

I Am Not Afraid (Drum Remix)

Music video  /  Director

With Jennah Mokhtarzada, Crystal Silmi, and Niko Michalopoulos. Edited by Edith Belmont. 1st AD Omar Pitras Waqar.

Made largely through donated labor by DC-area artists and activists, centering women artists, with a female singer and a female dancer at its heart. The film grew into a full program: a live concert that raised over $20,000 in one evening and, in all, over $51,000 for children in Gaza through UNRWA. It drew 1.2 million organic views within one month of release.

  • Audience AwardBest Music Video, Awareness Film Festival, Santa Monica
  • Audience AwardBest Music Video, Golden Reel International Film Festival
  • Best Song / SoundtrackGolden Reel International Film Festival
  • Award WinnerSicilian Film Awards
  • Award WinnerAthens International Monthly Film Festival
  • Award WinnerValkyrie International Film Festival

Also: Finalist, Coliseum International Film Festival (COLIFFE) and Golden Rod International Film Festival. Nominee, Best Video and Best Song, Los Angeles International Short Film Festival. Quarterfinalist, Nordic Palestinian Film Festival. Passed the first round of jury evaluation, Cannes Film Awards. Official Selection, New York Film & Cinematography Awards, Los Angeles Movie & Music Awards, and Palestine House London Film & Arts Festival.

Watch the CineLot interview at the Awareness Film Festival

2026

Melody for What Is Lost

Short film  /  Director

Starring Abel Barakat, Zachary Mahroum, and Niko Michalopoulos.

  • Award WinnerEutopia Arthouse Festival, Belfast
  • Official SelectionSo Limitless and Free International Film Festival
2025

Dastgir is Disappearing

Short film  /  Director of Photography, Art Department

Cinematography and art department work on an independent short.

Reel 02

Camera for campaigns

SEIU  /  2012 to 2015

Worker stories, on the record

Wrote, directed, and shot on-camera interviews with workers for national campaigns including Justice for Janitors and OUR Walmart across thirteen states, and coached first-time spokespeople for live television.

Art Directors Guild, IATSE Local 800  /  2017 to 2020

The people behind the picture

As the Guild's first Communications Director, directed and shot member videos and photography on studio lots across Hollywood film and television productions. The Guild's site earned a Webby top-5 global selection.

Reel 03

Studio practice

Painting & calligraphy

Oil on canvas, ink across scripts

An oil painter since the age of ten and a calligrapher across multiple script traditions, working between languages the way the films work between music and image.

  • Gallery 800
  • Hive Gallery
  • Burning Man
Performance & speaking

On stage and on panels

Performances on public stages in Washington, and panels on how art can hold space for grief and build empathy across difference.

  • Kennedy Center Millennium Stage
  • Catharsis on the Mall
  • Awareness Film Festival
Oil on canvas
Watercolor
Watercolor and oil pastel
Ink, marker, and paint pen
Digital gesture drawing
Ink and marker, diptych
Digital painting
Marker on paper
Ink on paper
Watercolor
Marker on paper
Ink and marker, framed
Calligraphy, ink and marker
Digital gesture drawing
Ink and marker
Digital drawing
Pen and ink studies
Final reel

Let's make
something.

LinkedInIlana Alazzeh
Instagram@ilanasart
IMDbIlana Alazzeh
InterviewCineLot at Awareness
ReelWatch on YouTube