Viola Shafik
Viola Shafik is an Egyptian-German film theorist, curator, and filmmaker. Early life and career. Shafik was born in Schönaich, Baden-Württemberg, Germany to an Egyptian father and a German mother. She studied Oriental studies and German studies at the Academy of Fine Arts and in 1994, received her PhD. Her dissertation, "Arab Cinema: History and Cultural Identity" was later published in English in 1998. She lived in New York in 1996 as a result of a grant from the Rockefeller Humanities Foundation. Shafik has taught at the American University in Cairo and Zürich University. She has also  been a consultant for training initiatives La Biennale di Venezia, the al-Rawi Screenwriters Lab, and the Dubai Film Connection. She also has curated film festivals. Shafik has been a translator for German television. She currently is the Head of Studies of the MENA (Middle Eastern and North African) Programme Documentary Campus, an initiative that is focused on directing and producing documentary films in Middle Eastern and North African countries.