Rising Stars: Meet Murad Amayreh

Today we’d like to introduce you to Murad Amayreh.

Hi Murad, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I was born and raised in Los Angeles to an immigrant family from Jordan. Initially, we lived in a low-income area of town, near the San Fernando Valley. Despite the financial struggles we endured, the neighborhood’s cultural diversity and openness helped to shape my worldview from an early age. Moving to the vanilla suburbs was not an easy transition for me. I struggled to fit in socially and was ostracized for a number of years. I had been writing stories since I was six years old to entertain my family and friends. But this isolation forced an opportunity on me to explore my creativity at a much deeper level. I would create my own characters, stories and even worlds that I could escape into. As a teenager, I gained an interest in theatre and the performing arts, both through the high school program as well as through the local mosques youth group that I attended. I participated in numerous plays and even wrote and directed a few.

At that time, storytelling was something I saw as a creative outlet to express my thoughts, feelings, or opinions on various issues and just something to have some fun with. I never envisioned it as a career path. I initially attended Mt. San Antonio College as a political science major. I was very much plugged into politics and society and was quite aware of the atrocities and injustices happening around the world. Perhaps a bit too plugged in, to where it became an obsession of mine to fight the perceived injustices that I seemed to find everywhere I looked. I had lofty, albeit unrealistic, dreams of changing the world through civic engagement. I nearly completely gave up on writing and storytelling, seeing it as a waste of time with so many injustices happening around the world. Through the encouragement of friends and family, I decided to turn join my abilities and passions together. I changed my major to TV/Film production and transferred to CSULA where, with the encouragement of my professors, I began putting together short films and documentaries sharing the stories that I hoped would shed light on the atrocities and injustices I knew of. One such documentary film entitled “Last Refuge” addressing the discriminatory targeting of Muslim-Americans in the years following 9-11, won best documentary at the Golden Eagle Film Festival in 2005.

Shortly after graduating in 2006, I began working as a producer and director for a non-profit social organization called MAS Media Foundation. There, I created online content with the objective of raising awareness on and creating discussions around various social issues. I produced and/or directed a number of short videos that garnered millions of views and contributed to the societal discourse on the subjects. The organization eventually ran low on funds and closed its doors. I was once again forced into a situation that provided me with an opportunity to explore my own creative avenues. In January of 2010, I went solo. Ive gone on to complete over 300 productions and counting in various genres (documentary, comedy, horror, drama) within different capacities as a writer, producer, director and editor. Some of which have received wide online recognition and garnering millions of views. Other projects were broadcast internationally on various networks and others gained recognition through film festivals. One such project was a documentary titled “The Tortured: Stories of Survival”.

Released in 2014, the film follows the stories of people who endured torture from the dungeons of Syria to the infamous “Hanoi Hilton” In Vietnam and lived to tell the horrific tales. These first-hand accounts of brutality and survival lead the viewers to question the extent of human sadism and the limits of human fortitude. The film was recognized by Human Rights Watch, the ACLU and was featured on KPFK radio. Along with my close friend Mustafa Eshanzada, I also created a series of horror films that enjoyed quite a bit of success in the horror festival circuits. Our first film, “The Widower” was selected by celebrity judge Rob Zombie as a finalist in the Universal Studios Horror Fest. And another of our films, “Jinn,” won the scariest film award at the in Sacramento Horror Film Festival. As much as I enjoyed producing and directing, around 2016, I decided to turn back to my roots as a pure storyteller and focus on writing. I’ve written numerous screenplays for film, TV series and web series both for the US market as well as for the Middle East. I am also currently working on attaining an MFA in screenwriting from UCR. In my writing, I’ve also been happily married for 18 years and am the proud father of three children who share in my passion for creativity.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
As an independent filmmaker, I’ve faced many of the same challenges others face. Primarily funding. You can have a great idea, but how do you achieve your vision with no resources? I don’t just mean getting a particular film or project funded. Long ago, I decided to go all-in as a content creator. I have nothing but respect for those artists who create in between the grind of a 9 to 5. We all have to find ways to support ourselves and our families. But I chose a different path. I gained a pretty solid client base through years of networking and hired out my services. As much as I tried to balance between working towards realizing my own visions and being a hired gun, I’d spend the bulk of my career on the latter. I’ve produced, directed and edited hundreds of promotional ads, highlight reels, music videos, web series, documentary films, branded content and TV commercials for products, services and even other artists. I am grateful that I have been able to make a living doing what I love to help others achieve their vision. But it has been too rare of an occasion to be able to work towards achieving my own. It wasn’t until recently that I have been able to reverse that. I do still take on work-for-hire projects from time to time. But these days most of my time is spent working on my on projects that I have been able to secure funding for. But I’ll never forget the days, weeks, months and years that I spent building houses for others while still dreaming of the day when I could build my own. Not only did they give me opportunities to hone my craft, but they give me to appreciate for what I am now able to spend my time building.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am a storyteller. I play whatever role within my capabilities to tell the story that needs to be told. In the past, that has been primarily in the role of producer and director. Earlier in my career, it was as an editor, which is a much-underrated part of the storytelling process. But these days, I focus much of my time on the actual story as a writer. and the most crucial part of any story to me are the characters. I create characters and give them personalities, loves, hates, flaws, quirks, wants and fears. I live with my characters and allow them to grow and develop and in doing so, the stories seem to tell themselves. It would be wrong of me to have someone do something outside of their own character in order to force a plot. I create the characters, put them in a situation and allow them to do as they will. In that way, I am less a dictator of the page than a facilitator. My characters are never upstanding citizens of impeccable moral character. Nor are they sinister people looking to harm others for the sake of being evil. They are flawed people, struggling to do their best towards a goal that they believe to be right. They are grey. They are human. They are us.

I also believe that every story should move people to a degree. Whether that means to give them something to ponder over and discuss with their friends or a time to unwind from a difficult day and laugh. I consistently try to push boundaries by introducing new concepts and ideas to provoke dialogue, discussion and even debate. I believe that compelling stories are the best way to engage with others towards understanding. What better way to gain perspective than to share thoughts, ideas, cultures, interests, and knowledge with those who don’t share the same as us. I want to share stories that show a completely different perspective from what the viewers are accustomed to. Stories that perhaps make them uncomfortable but force them to question the way they view the world. I am not necessarily interested in convincing people that one perspective or ideology is correct or incorrect. It is sufficient for me to just allow people to get a small glimpse into a story that, while different from their own in many ways, is still one that they can recognize and respect. What a beautiful world it would be if we all could, even for a brief moment, see the world as someone else sees it. Ultimately, my goal is to write screenplays for TV and film that include these types of compelling and relatable characters. Something that could move any viewer, whether a young Muslim who wants to see herself in the story as something other than the villain or an old white man who is able to recognize a bit of himself in a character of a different color and religion. There are a number of projects that I have worked on over the years and am still working on now that I am quite proud of.

I am the co-creator and writer of a Saudi Arabian apocalyptic series called “Yajuj”. It’s an action/thriller film with themes and concepts that stem from the legends, traditions, culture and beliefs of the Middle East while maintaining an international appeal. The story addresses unique subject matter rarely explored through the art of film, particularly in the Arab world. An airborne infection that turns its victims into violent zombies, known as Yajuj, spreads throughout the Middle East triggering a series of catastrophic events. Power struggles erupt as some survivors seek to overcome the global cataclysm while others prepare for judgment day. I am the creator and writer of a coming of age series entitled “Dog Days”. It takes place in the early 1990’s, where a culturally confused twelve years old Arab-American boy struggles to survive his dysfunctional family while attempting to gain a sense of identity in a predominantly white, upper-middle-class suburb. I am the writer of a comedy film called “Deported”, about a group of immigrants who accidentally kidnap their immigration agent in an attempt to stay in the US.

We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?
I think I’ve learned two valuable lessons which are not entirely independent of one another. First, I learned that limitations are often self-imposed. I spent the first few months of the “lockdown” pitying myself for being unable to create content. Until I realized that the time and energy spent wallowing could be spent… creating. I just had to be more creative in my creation process. I ended up writing more during this pandemic than I had written over the previous five years. And not just screenplays. I wrote short stories, letters to family and loves ones, memoirs, articles on issues that mattered to me, and even poetry. I also found a way to tell stories with those who matter to me the most. This is where the second lesson comes in. My family is my greatest inspiration. I have twin ten-year-old boys who, like so many other children, could not stand being stuck at home all day. But they did not sulk, as I did. They began creating. They came up with new games to play and stories to tell one another. They learned basic computer coding and began developing their own games. They wrote and designed children’s books for their little sister and came up with brand new games to play with her and each other. I was moved and inspired by them. And I eagerly joined in the fun.

We made it a regular habit to make up a new story every night before bedtime. We developed a system where each of us had two minutes to tell a part of a story before handing it off to the next person to continue the story. We made films together that were somehow simultaneously the worst and best films I have ever been a part of. We started a YouTube channel and began recording our sometimes ridiculously silly and sometimes deep and poignant conversations as a podcast. I also began interviewing my father on camera, who recently suffered from a stroke, in order to preserve his stories for generations to come. All-in-all I learned a very simple lesson that we already know but perhaps need to be reminded of sometimes. Difficult times can bring out the worst in us. For some, it could be in the form of rage, anger and resentment. For others, it could be depression and isolation. But being close to our loved ones during those times can also bring out the best in us as well. Family is everything. And as much as we think we may know, as much wisdom as we believe we have gained, we cannot control outcomes. We cannot fix everything. Sometimes we need children to remind us to just play and tell stories and everything will be just fine.

Contact Info:

• Email: muradaldin@gmail.com
• Website: www.muradaldin.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/muradaldin/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/muradaldin
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/muradaldin
• Youtube: youtube.com/muradaldin
• Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3278628/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1