Documenting Oman: Identity & Future
Donation protected
I first went to Oman in winter of 2013-14 and found a place unlike any I'd ever been. Now, as a photographer and dual masters candidate in Journalism and Middle Eastern and North African Studies, I am asking for your help in making a documentary on the sultanate as they face their first transition of power in 40 years. This will be my final project to earn my degrees.
(For photos from the 2013-14 trip, click here.)
It feels a little weird to ask for your blind faith and monetary vote of confidence, so let me just say I have been planning this project in stages since 2014. I have written more grants and scholarships than I can recount, presented it at conferences and competitions, and fostered relationships with experts and sources.
This documentary will help reveal the shape of Oman's future, but it will also help form my own as a documentarian and journalist. With that, I hope I've instilled some faith in you, and humbly ask for your help.
Oman has been ruled by Sultan Qaboos since 1970, and his tenure has shaped the institutions and identity that mark Oman today. But he is entering his eighth decade, and has no named heir or definite plan for succession. The country treasures its long heritage, but has also made great technological and economic leaps in the last forty years. What shape will Oman post-Qaboos take? Will the carefully preserved cultural icons persist, or be swallowed into "progress" and globalization?
(See an early trailer made right after the first trip here!)
Contradictions abound in Oman, and the way forward will affect not just Omanis, but the entire world, including allies like the U.S., and neighbors including Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Iran.
If you're curious, as I am, or think this project is important, as I do, I hope you'll join me in making it happen.
Either way, thanks for reading, and keep an eye out for the finished doc!
(For photos from the 2013-14 trip, click here.)
It feels a little weird to ask for your blind faith and monetary vote of confidence, so let me just say I have been planning this project in stages since 2014. I have written more grants and scholarships than I can recount, presented it at conferences and competitions, and fostered relationships with experts and sources.
This documentary will help reveal the shape of Oman's future, but it will also help form my own as a documentarian and journalist. With that, I hope I've instilled some faith in you, and humbly ask for your help.
Oman has been ruled by Sultan Qaboos since 1970, and his tenure has shaped the institutions and identity that mark Oman today. But he is entering his eighth decade, and has no named heir or definite plan for succession. The country treasures its long heritage, but has also made great technological and economic leaps in the last forty years. What shape will Oman post-Qaboos take? Will the carefully preserved cultural icons persist, or be swallowed into "progress" and globalization?
(See an early trailer made right after the first trip here!)
Contradictions abound in Oman, and the way forward will affect not just Omanis, but the entire world, including allies like the U.S., and neighbors including Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Iran.
If you're curious, as I am, or think this project is important, as I do, I hope you'll join me in making it happen.
Either way, thanks for reading, and keep an eye out for the finished doc!
Organizer
Hannah Gaber
Organizer
Tucson, AZ