Jihan El Tahri is an Egyptian/French national who is an award winning director, producer, writer and visual artist. She served as the Director of Berlin Based Documentary institution DOX BOX between 2019 to 2023. In 2017 El Tahri was invited to join the Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Oscars) and has served on various selection committees including Locarno Film Festival, Jeune Creation Francophone, Le Fond Franco-Tunisien and others.
She has served on numerous juries most recently as president of the Documentaray Jury at FESPACO 2021. As a film mentor and Script Doctor, she has worked with Focus Features (US), Berlinale Talent Campus (Germany), Documentary Campus (Germany), Ouaga Film Lab (Burkina Faso), Qumra (Doha) Sud Ecriture (Tunisia) and other film training labs. Her work as a visual artist has been exhibited in various International biennials including Berlin Biennale in 2022, Dak’Art, Bamako. She has also exhibited at the MoMa in the US, in France (Centre Pompidou) Berlin (HKW, IFA Gallery), Norway (National Museum), India (Clark House) Mexico (San Ildefonso) and Poland (MoMa) alongside acclaimed artists John Akomfrah, the Otolith Group and Kader Attia.
El Tahri started her career as a foreign correspondent covering Middle East Politics. In 1990 she began directing and producing documentaries for the BBC, PBS, Arte and other international broadcasters. Her award winning documentaries – include Nasser which premiered in the official selection at Toronto International Festival, Behind the Rainbow, Cuba, an African Odyssey and the Emmy nominated House of Saud – have all had both Cinema and Museum releases in multiple countries.
Her writings include Les Sept Vies de Yasser Arafat (Grasset) and Israel and the Arabs, The 50 Years War (Penguin). El-Tahri is also engaged in various associations and institutions working with African Cinema. She served as treasurer of the Guild of African Filmmakers in the Diaspora, an advisor on Focus Feature’s Africa First Program and as regional secretary of the Federation of Pan African Cinema (FEPACI).
