Three Short Tales of Forgiveness

Omar Shoukri is active as a film director, music producer and educator. Born and raised in Germany he worked at national Television networks since 1994. He eventually left to work internationally at CNN, BBC Academy, MBC and National Geographic Abu Dhabi. He completed his MFA in interdisciplinary creative arts at Plymouth University and as a film-maker his short film ‘the water in ourselves’ was has been exhibited at the NYU Institute, Imagine Science Film Festival and in Barcelona, New York and Berlin. As a music performer he received international commissions including the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, Liverpool Arts Festival, Uferstudios Berlin, Abu Dhabi Classic Radio and MTV Arabia. His teaching portfolio includes government entities across the Middle East and 6 years at New York University Abu Dhabi before returning to Berlin where he currently pursues his PhD in Expressive Arts Therapy.

Francesca Bizzarri is an actress who attended drama school in Bologna. Her acting is based on the Jacques Lecoq's method and she refined her work on body consciousness in theater workshops in Italy, France and United Kingdom. She has a long-standing collaboration with Teatro delle Briciole and Cà Luogo d'Arte in Parma, and has facilitated workshops on corporal theater, masks and the clown. While mainly focused on theatre, her acting career involved television and cinema as well. She co-wrote and co-directed two short movies: Le pari de Tony Biker and Ze Ultimate Racer, awarded in France. Francesca speaks French, Italian (mother tongue) and English. She currently lives in the United Arab Emirates and teaches theatre at New York University Abu Dhabi as an artist in residence.

Jim Savio is a carpenter by trade, a writer and a teacher. After twenty-five years of designing, building and renovating homes he began teaching at Parsons School of Design and the City College of New York. His collection of short fiction The Fairy Flag and Other Stories was published in 2001, and his essays and short stories have appeared in literary journals and periodicals. For the past seven years Jim has taught in the Writing Program at New York University, Abu Dhabi. In 2014 he began working in film. He co-wrote and co-directed a hybrid memoir/documentary, Home Sick, with his wife Joanne Savio, and wrote and directed a short narrative film, Tabiib, which won several awards. Three Short Tales of Forgiveness, a collaboration, is his latest, completed film project. He is currently working on a novel and a collection of essays, Magic Bus. He lives in Woodstock, New York.