Private Project

Building our New Normal

“Just as umbrellas move fluidly with the wind, Puerto Rico is a place that flows and majestically embraces every challenge it faces”
Paseo de Sombrillas; Old San Juan, Puerto Rico

Following the lives of different Puerto Ricans, 'Building our New Normal' sheds the light on coping mechanisms and adaptations through various forms of art in the aftermath of Hurricane María.

  • Nairy AbdElShafy
    Director
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Short
  • Runtime:
    14 minutes 24 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    July 15, 2021
  • Country of Origin:
    Egypt
  • Country of Filming:
    Puerto Rico
  • Language:
    English, Spanish
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Nairy AbdElShafy

Nairy AbdElShafy is an Egyptian educator, oral historian and aspiring filmmaker. Her passion lies in documenting personal narratives and experiences, playing with various forms of written and visual productions. She has worked with various migrant communities, adults and children. She holds a B.Sc. in Political Science, an M.A. in Oral History and is currently studying documentary filmmaking.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

I first became interested in Puerto Rico when I made a Puerto Rican friend back when I was living in Costa Rica in 2009. I’m originally from Egypt. My friend and I have stayed in touch over the years, and, due to his political interests, he was very enthusiastic about the revolution phase in Egypt and always asked for updates and information. In 2017, he asked me to do a virtual presentation on my work in Egypt to an international relations class he was teaching about the Middle East. Before I could deliver the presentation, Hurricane María hit -a category 5 hurricane- on September 20th, 2017. What I watched and heard on the news was a fraction of the reality experienced by Puerto Ricans at the time. My understanding was that -after a while- all had settled back to normal. However, in my irregular correspondence with my friend and our attempts to reschedule the presentation, I came to understand that for a long while after -even until this day- normal isn’t the case.

Curious about life in the aftermath of the hurricane, in 2019, I conducted my oral history research for my Masters degree in Puerto Rico.
What I found was a humbling energy for openness and sharing, and an inner strength for rebuilding a stable life again. My narrators expressed the idea of creating a “new” normal, as the “normal” they recognized and were familiar with can probably never be reached again.

My biggest surprise was how much I could relate to what they shared with me and reflect on it from my experience after the revolution of 2011 in Egypt. Similar to my experience in the aftermath of the revolution, Puerto Ricans also lived through a curfew, being forced to spend hours at home without electricity or internet access. I was fascinated by how individuals experiencing loss at a systemic and country- wide level, might resort to similar coping mechanisms and efforts to build a new, normal day to day life while struggling to find their own inner strength to stay motivated and carry on.