2011 WINNER - RORY PECK AWARD FOR FEATURES 

ABDALLAH OMEISH (American-Libyan)
Libya: Through the Fire
Shot in Libya, February-April, 2011
3rd Eye Filmworks for Aljazeera English

Scroll down to view Abdallah's winning film.

Libyan-born film-maker Abdallah Omeish travelled to Benghazi in February 2011. The city had declared itself liberated but was still suffering from snipers and bombardments from Gadaffi's regime.

Abdallah filmed chaotic scenes and terrible injuries in local hospitals, the outrage of local people under attack by the Gadaffi regime, and the fear on the faces of captured mercenaries.  But the centre-piece of the film is the story of Mohammed Nabbous - the first person to broadcast from within Libya and report on events in English and Arabic. Abdallah follows Mohammed’s story from his first attempts to set up an independent satellite TV station to his eventual death when he is shot and killed while out filming.

The judges described the film as moving and powerful and felt the central character of Nabbous embodied the story of the Arab Spring. One said: "His story carried you through events which were on a very wide scale.  Through his story you could empathise with them on a very human level."

BIOGRAPHY
Abdalla Omeish is an award winning documentary filmmaker who received critical acclaim for his first film "Occupation 101". He began his career as a cameraman for Russell Simmons’s One World Show working behind the scenes with some of Hip Hop's most influential rappers such as Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre. Later he worked with a relief agency which took him to Kosovo, Chechnya, and Ethiopia. He also filmed a documentary for MSNBC about the first pilgrimage to Mecca after 9-11. He is currently in post production for his latest documentary "The War Around Us" about the Gaza War and is developing his first feature film narrative about the battles in Misurata, Libya.

Click below to view Abdallah's winning film: