Ruhi Hamid

Ruhi Hamid has made several award winning documentaries for the BBC, Channel 4 and Aljazeera International in the last 18 years. Ruhi has a talent for bringing the best out of people to produce intimate, enjoyable and insightful films. Her enthusiasm and good interpersonal skills motivate people to achieve their best. A graduate of the Royal College of Art and a prolific Graphic Designer, Ruhi started her producing and directing career with the groundbreaking BBC Community Programmes Unit making films for the BAFTA award winning series Video Diaries and Video Nation empowering ordinary people to tell their stories in their own words, this was way before the genre of 'reality' TV became the norm. Ruhi left the BBC to go freelance in May 2000. Her debut as a freelancer was the Channel 4 three-part series "Lahore Law" in which she gained unprecedented access to the Pakistani criminal courts. Ruhi spent 6 months filming and running a small team in Pakistan. The series was nominated for one of the broadcast industry's most respected documentary awards, the Griersons. Her empathy and gift for understanding the people has enabled her to gain access to peoples, cultures and institutions around the world including the Amazonian Indians, Shamans in the Siberian forests, refugees in Uganda, women’s lives in Afghanistan and large institutions like the British Foreign & Commonwealth office in Pakistan. Ruhi is versatile and can turn her skills to more populist programmes working with high profile personalities like rock stars, untried and professional presenters and celebrities like Michael Palin on a film about transport, explorer Benedict Allen, newscaster Samira Ahmed, the food writer and broadcaster Stefan Gates, businesswoman Saira Khan and more recently with Jonathan Dimbleby on Africa in 2010 and South America in 2011. Ruhi's interest lies primarily in telling intimate human stories of people caught up in complex political or social events in our world today. Ruhi’s approach is one of integrity and never resorts to sensationalizing her subjects. Thus she gains the trust and collaboration of those sensitive and suspicious of the media. Ruhi is not daunted by difficult challenges. Her projects have taken Ruhi to the Indian Subcontinent and various Muslim countries, she has knowledge and experience of filming in Africa, has made films in dangerous warzones like Afghanistan, Uganda and Laos and disaster zones in post tsunami Aceh and post Katrina New Orleans. Her documentaries are always character driven with strong narratives and Ruhi’s award nominated film on migrants was aired by the BBC’s flagship Current affairs strand ‘Panorama’. Recently completed filming in Colombia and Venezuela for a new 3 part series with Jonathan Dimbleby in South America. This year Ruhi has also made a stylish 8 mins film on Female referees in the Democratic Republic of Congo for a series on women and football for the American broadcaster ESPN. Ruhi’s most recent project was ‘Riots & revolutions’ a film about the Libyan revolution for BBC 3 with the young presenter Nel Hedayat. Now in development with a potential Storyville called ‘Indian Spacemen’ and a film for Ch4 on FGM. Ruhi is a skilled experienced DV director happy filming alone as well as working with crews and local teams. Training/Workshops/Lectures Ruhi Hamid is regularly invited to give talks, motivational lectures, attend film festivals, screenings of her films with Q&A sessions and to run workshops on Documentary filmmaking with journalists and students in Europe and developing countries. Film Reviews AT THE EPICENTRE July 2005 "She renders herself invisible and lets the stories unfold on their own. She took huge risks (and) connected political issues to the characters without turning the film into a polemic." Judge's Comment, Winner Rory Peck award for Features 2005 FRONTLINES - LAOS March 2004 "Terribly powerful. In a sense this is what journalists should do, tell the untold stories, go where no one else goes, and push these stories into the faces of governments and those who make decisions. Journalists should be detectives, witnesses, and committed to humanity - this fulfills it completely" Judge's Comment, Finalist Rory Peck International Impact award 2004 INSIDE A SHARI'AH COURT Oct 2007 "The female answer to Louis Theroux" The Times review "A convincing argument against making law the servant of faith" The Guardian "The western stereotype of Shari'ah Law is of a brutal, unforgiving kangaroo system. Here, the filmmaker Ruhi Hamid takes a more informed view" The Independent "The reporter Ruhi Hamid travels to northern Nigeria to see a Shari'ah court in operation. This is an immensely informative- and occasionally very funny - programme." The Times "British Muslim filmmaker Ruhi Hamid presents this absorbing documentary" The Observer Ruhi Hamid September 2011