Samer Beyhum

Samer Beyhum is a multidisciplinary Lebanese-Canadian filmmaker, editor, post-production specialist, and co-founder of 99%Media Quebec. His work encompasses issues of social justice, the environment, and human rights in an attempt to raise awareness and document these issues for posterity and the hope of change. He holds a BA in Communication Arts with emphasis on Radio, TV, and Film from Excelsior College of New York through the Lebanese American University (LAU) of Beirut, Lebanon. Some of his works include multi-award winning short documentary "Une histoire syrienne", award winning feature documentary "La charte des distractions", academically acclaimed feature documentary "Derives", and "Maram" an award winning short documentary. Having worked as an senior editor in Beirut and Dubai before moving to Montreal in 2008, Samer created a body of work that touches on issues of social justice, environment, economic inequality, human rights, refugees, the plight of indigenous peoples, and poetic videos. He returned to Lebanon in 2016 to work as a TV/Film studio technician at the Lebanese American University of Beirut (LAU) where he trains future generations of young Lebanese filmmakers. Samer believes that filmmakers have to do their part in bringing these issues to the public through the crafting of powerful works that speak for themselves. His style focuses on giving the subjects of his films the central part of carrying the story forward rather than use direct narration. Because the fact is that funding for such kind of cinema is scarce, Samer has pioneered the art of creating powerful works with almost no budget, and relying on the will of the participants in his projects to be part of something bigger. For Samer, there are always stories that need to be told and ideas that need to be expressed. Samer continues to collaborate with 99Media.org and its members to create cinema that engages people and expresses the need to move beyond our current collective realities. Engaged cinema is a powerful and humanly expressive art that has to be supported and developed regardless of the difficulties, and this is what drives Samer to create films.