Fatima Jebli Ouazzani  

Filmmaker Fatima Jebli Ouazzani was born in Morocco in 1959 but moved with her family to Holland in 1970. At the age of 18 she left home, fleeing the oppressive ideals of her father and escaping the likelihood of the same kind of oppressive marriage that her mother and grandmother had entered into a young age. Ouazzani briefly studied psychology before attending the Dutch Film School in Amsterdam, where she received a degree in directing and scriptwriting in 1992. IN MY FATHER’S HOUSE (1997) is Ouazzani’s first film; an expansion of her previous dramatic and documentary shorts and a deeply personal reflection on her own family history and her coming of age within the constraints of Moroccan society. The film debuted at the 1998 San Francisco Film Festival. Ouazzani currently lives in Amsterdam and is a freelance journalist for Dutch radio and television. (10/09)