Music-video director Sanaa Hamri just debuted her first feature film, Something New, and recently made the cover of The Morocco Times. It's a big deal, not only because Hamri is a success, but because she's female. "They don't put women on the cover of things in Morocco," Hamri says from her L.A. home. "There is not much future for a woman there, other than getting married. Growing up I knew I wanted to do something really big. It was against all odds."
The only child of a
Moroccan Muslim painter father and a Jewish-American schoolteacher mother, Hamri
grew up in Tangiers. At 17, she won a scholarship to Sarah Lawrence in
Bronxville, New York, where she studied theater. When Hamri's attempts to get
parts in off-Broadway productions were unsuccessful, to make money, she taught
herself to edit videos on an Avid machine. Soon she was working with directors
Hype Williams, Brett Ratner and Paul Hunter. She then began directing her own,
working with the likes of Prince, Mariah Carey and Lenny Kravitz. After three
years, the 30-year-old was itching to do features -- Something New stars Sanaa
Lathan and Simon Baker and is a mixed-race love story. Now there are more
feature offers rolling in, but Hamri isn't abandoning music videos. She just
directed "Black Sweat" for Prince. "I will do videos with artists that I love.
I'm doing it all."
Peter Davis
Saana wears a camisole by Miss Sixty, jewelry by Zanne. * Styling by Suzanne Hollingshead. * Hair by Caprice/Beauty & Photo using products by Joico. * Makeup by Autumn/www.dionperonneau.com.
RSS