Leila Abu-saada

Leila Abu-saada⠀is a Libyan-American documentary filmmaker and journalist. She graduated with an MA in International Journalism from City University London and has produced episodic documentary series and films for PBS, HBO, Netflix, and National Geographic. She began her career as a news producer at Al Jazeera English in Qatar where she was a part of the award-winning newsroom team covering the Arab Spring. 
Always searching for underground subcultures, and habitually focused on telling female-led narratives, her dual backgrounds in news and documentary creates a style of work that harmonizes journalism and verite; particularly on sensitive access topics that require investigative rigor. 
She is currently directing her first documentary short with support from IFP and is a CIFF North Star fellow.  
She has lived and worked in Lebanon, Kenya, London and Qatar. A native of Tucson, Arizona her identity extends to the Southwest and North Africa and she is usually roaming between Tucson, New York, and the MENA region.