The filmmaker behind “Qatar Stars” – a documentary about girlhood in Qatar – will speak at the next Brown Bag Lunch.
Danielle Beverly, who crafts observational documentaries and teaches at Northwestern University, will give a research presentation that will be complemented by clips of the 2023 award-winning film at the Brown Bag talk on Wednesday, April 2, from noon to 1 p.m., in Williams Center Room S204.
The talk focuses on “Qatar Stars,” detailing how Ms. Beverly researched the project and filmed it as a one-person crew over a four-year period. She was the film’s director and producer and also carried out camera and sound functions. Beverly will also share ethical and logistical challenges encountered in the documentary process.
Beverly, an assistant professor in M.F.A. Documentary Media program in Northwestern’s School of Communication, will also host a “Qatar Stars” screening at the Darwin R. Barker Historical Museum in Fredonia on Tuesday, April 1, at 6 p.m. A question-and-answer session will be included in the event.
“A moving portrait of a unique community told with care and authenticity” is how Kristy Guevara-Flanagan of the Documentary Department of Film and Television at the University of California, Los Angeles, describes “Qatar Stars.”
Beverly will also serve on a “Qatar Stars” panel presentation/Diversity, Equity and Inclusion discussion with Interim Co-Director of Athletics Angela Pucciarelli Rice on Thursday, April 3, from noon to 1 p.m., in the Reed Library Garden Area.
The Brown Bag Talk, film screening and panel discussion are free and open to the public.
Beverly will also conduct two student workshops: Self Distribution and Audience Engagement, and One Person Crew Documentary.
“Qatar Stars,” the first feature documentary about girls in the small country on the west coast of the Persian Gulf, presents a textured story of girlhood in all its joys and growing pains, through intimate access to a multinational all-girls rhythmic gymnastics school led by a former Russian gymnast.
Beverly followed their coming-of-age stories in a place where freedoms that are taken for granted in the United States are not the same in Qatar.
To learn more about “Qatar Stars” and see the film’s trailer, visit here.
“The Multifaceted Impacts of Population Changes” is the theme of the 2024-2025 Brown Bag series.
Support for these events is being provided by the Carnahan Jackson Fund for the Humanities through the Fredonia College Foundation, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Reed Library and Max Walters of the Darwin R. Barker Historical Museum.
