PORTFOLIO

I come from a family of image makers.

My grandfather, Helmy Rafla, was a pioneer during the golden era of Egyptian cinema from the 1940’s till his death in 1977, making over 60 films as producer and director. His son, my father, Mounir Helmy Rafla, followed in his footsteps, eventually earning a nomination at Cannes in 1967. My maternal uncle, Maurice Ammar, left behind France’s nouvelle vague and established himself as an avant-garde experimental filmmaker in New York City during the 1970s, alongside XXX.

Having inherited a sensibility for the art of filmmaking from my family, I pursued studies in Creative Writing and Film Production earning a BA from Concordia University (Quebec) and an MFA from York University (Ontario). Once I completed my studies, I dedicated myself to Quebec filmmaking for the following 15 years as a Development and Financial Executive and Script Consultant for the private and public sectors of the film industry. I have participated and chaired juries responsible for the financing of feature film projects at Telefilm Canada and SODEC in all areas of film production financing for almost two decades, and more recently, I held a position as a member of the CNCT (Canadian National Cinema and Television) Board of Advisors responsible for film policy and guideline revisions at SODEC. I am currently a PhD Candidate at Concordia University in Communication Studies and a full time faculty member of the Department of Cinema-Communications at Dawson College where I have been teaching since 2000. I live and work on the traditional Mohawk territory of Tiohtià:ke,Territoire Kanien’kehá:ka in Montreal (Quebec) Canada.

CONTACT: myriam@myriamrafla.com