Omar Robert Hamilton

Omar Robert Hamilton is an independent filmmaker and the producer of the annual Palestine Festival of Literature. He is in pre-production on his third short film, Though I Know the River is Dry - a crowdsourced short film, shooting in Palestine in August 2011.

Raised in England and Egypt, Omar went to school in London, and on to Oxford and the London Film Academy.

His first short, When I Stretch Forth Mine Hand, an experimental film made in collaboration with Suheir Hammad’s poetry screened at fifteen international festivals. His second, Maydoum, recently premiered in competition at the 2010 Dubai International Film Festival, and stars Khalid Abdalla (United 93, The Kite Runner). His documentary films have been shown on al Jazeera, 972.mag and Tahrir TV among others, while his photographs have appeared in the Guardian, BBC News, the Economist, al Shorouq, the Daily Beast and many more publications.

He recently started a blog, Cinerevolution Now, on the post-revolutionary cinema industry in Egypt, which is being part-published in Arabic by al Shorouq.

He makes his own shorts and music videos and works in various areas of production. His biggest project so far, Maydoum, is a fiction short shot over six months in Cairo and London, starring Khalid Abdalla (The Kite Runner, Green Zone) and co-written with best-selling novelist Ahdaf Soueif (The Map of Love).

He is a founding member and Creative Producer of the Palestine Festival of Literature, producing and directing a long-term documentation project charting the festival’s life and effect in Palestine.