dress up
On the eve of her sister’s wedding, Karina brings her “best friend” home to meet the family.
In the face of familial expectations her anxieties begin to unravel.
2022 | USA | Narrative | 12 minutes | Digital/DCP | English
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY KARINA DANDASHI
PRODUCED BY AYA HAMDAN
As an artist, I use writing, directing, and acting as a personal outlet to digest and project my own experiences as an Arab-American Muslim woman. DRESS UP blurs the lines between fiction and reality. It stars me and my real life sister and weaves my family home videos into the narrative. The act of performance, of dressing up or hiding under a facade, is a family dynamic I believe many can relate to. My sister represents the love and acceptance one finds in their family and community.
- Karina Dandashi
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Online Premiere on Short of the Week
2022 Aspen ShortsFest - World Premiere
2022 Indy Shorts International Film Festival
2022 NewFest - New York LGBTQ+ Film Festival - NewFest x NYWIFT Emerging Filmmaker Award
2022 NewFest Shorts Award Encore
2022 Toronto Inside Out Film Festival
2022 Outfest Fusion
2022 National Film Festival for Talented Youth (NFFTY)
2022 Arab Film & Media Institute Arab Women in the Arts Showcase
2022 FOFIF Summer Filmmaker Screening at MoMA
2022 Arab Film Festival @ Arab American National Museum
2022 AFMI Arab Film Festival
2022 The TIDE Film Festival
2022 OutMuseum’s Queering SWANA - Visions from Women and Non-Binary Artists
PARTNERS
TEAM
Karina Dandashi
Writer / Director
Karina Dandashi is a Syrian-American Muslim writer, director, and actor born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA. Her films explore nuances in identity through the intersection of family, religion, and culture in Southwest Asian and North African (SWANA) and Muslim communities in America.
Karina is a 2020 Creative Culture Fellow at The Jacob Burns Film Center and a 2021 Sundance Ignite Fellow. She was featured in Marie Claire’s inaugural Creators Issue as one of the “Top 21 Creators to Watch”. She is currently writing her first feature film.
Aya Hamdan
Producer
Aya Hamdan is a Palestinian-American film producer based in Brooklyn, NY. She leverages her business background and commitment to diversity in the media to support underrepresented artists.
She co-produced DUNYA'S DAY, which won the short film Jury Award for International Fiction at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.
Samar Habib
Executive Producer
Samar Habib is a writer, researcher and scholar of international standing. She is widely known for numerous books, articles and encyclopedia entries, as well as public lectures on gender and sexuality in the Arab world. In 2016, Dr. Habib revisited and updated her research on queer Arab cinema which was first published in Female Homosexuality in the Middle East in 2007. In 2019 she moderated the panel Arab Queer Cinema at Columbia University.
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Starring
Karina Dandashi
Nadia Dandashi
With
Léoh Hailu-Ghermay
Anton Obeid
Zayn Alexander
Jessica Louise Mester -
written and directed by Karina Dandashi
produced by Aya Hamdan
executive producer: Samar Habib
co-producer: Munir Atalla
consulting producers: Sean Weiner and Arno Mokrosdirectors of photography: Ward Kamel and Idil Eryurekli
production designer: Chris Bowman
editors: Sean Weiner and Karina Dandashi
sound design and mix: Will Mayo
score: Hannah Lipton
song: “Enta Habibi” by Psycho Queen
color: Alexia Salingarosassistant director: Sam Stuart
assistant camera: Allie Lacono
gaffer: Matt Lacono
production sound recordist: Kathryn Ly-Bishop
production assistant: Arthur Bassas
still photography: Munir Atalla
post-production assistant: Sam Ferguson
titles and credits: Susan Kineke
poster design by Mariam Sairafi -
Sean Weiner
Arno Mokros
Karen Sloe Goodman
Justin Drobinski
Mike Towndrow
Mariales Diaz
Drew Rodriguez
Katelyn Rebelo
Cameron Morton
Hannah Whisenant
Ash Goh Hua
Lauren Minnerath
Caryn Coleman
Ekwa Msangi
Shatara Michelle Ford
The Dandashi Family
Maria Conroy
John Conroy Jr.
Rawan Ezzo
Bassam Kassab
Maged Salib
Bassam Qasem
Nadeem Ghali
RJ Ramey
Ayman Almasamreh
Loulwa Al Saad
Pamela Forbes
Laura Farha
Heba Nimr
Paul Asfour
Mary Salome
Wael Mousa
Mazen Haddad
Hannah Pearl Utt
Antonio Salume
Muneera Zaidi
Rafi Namroud - Old City Cafe
Malcolm E. Thomas