The Filmmaker
From filmmaker Mahmoud al Massad:
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As a European-based film director from Zarqa, Jordan, I wanted to find out why extremism seems to breed so easily in my hometown. So, I returned to Zarqa after eight years to research a film that would examine cultural conflicts between Islam and the West and to find options other than those presented by the media, which tends to present [only] two sides to a story—and then forces us to choose one.
My goal was to take the audience into the heart of a region that they hear about in the news every day, but in which daily realities and human stories remain mostly unknown and unheard. I hope RECYCLE will raise many questions, make people wonder beyond the snapshots we see in the news.
Abu Ammar, the film’s main character, exemplifies the situation in Zarqa as well as many other problem areas in the Middle East—how the tough environment, the harsh economy, the complexities of religion, economy and politics can ferment to create potentially explosive situations. I discovered that people do not always have unambiguous convictions that lead to action. Every individual participates in conflict between internal beliefs and external forces. They question, they reflect and they recycle.
His three favorite films:
There Will Be Blood
Darwin’s Nightmare
Kit Kat (an Egyptian film by Daoud Abdel Sayed)
His advice for aspiring filmmakers:
Find a story you love and do it in the way you believe in. It’s a long-term struggle in which you can’t give up.
His most inspirational food for making independent film:
The freedom of choice—in terms of choosing your subject and determining the way in which you want to tell your story.
Filmmaker Bio
Mahmoud al Massad
Director and Cinematographer
Mahmoud al Massad was born in 1969 in Zarqa, Jordan. When he was 18 years old, he moved to Europe where he worked in the film industry in Romania, Italy and Germany, making 12 short films. Al Massad divides his time between Jordan and the Netherlands.
Since 2002, al Massad has returned to Jordan to work on his film projects, including Shatter Hassan, Jackie & the 40 Yellow Cabs, Certificate, Ritual, Human Landscape, White Wall and Sufi, among others. Al Massad is currently working on a new project, This is My Picture When I was Dead, supported by the Sundance Documentary Institute.
