Yaara Bou Melhem is a journalist and filmmaker whose work has received two international UN Media Peace Awards; two New York Film & Television Festival Awards; a Hong Kong Human Rights Press Award; and five Walkley Awards. In 2019, Yaara was named the Australian Freelance Journalist of the Year for her observational documentary “War on Truth” about Time Person of the Year, Maria Ressa and the Filipina editor’s global campaign against disinformation.
The Sydney, Australia born writer-producer-director makes her feature-length documentary debut with “Unseen Skies.” Other films made by Yaara’s production company, Illuminate Films, include “Creating a Nation” about an Aboriginal man building an independent Indigenous nation and “Saudi Design Queens,” about two young women in Saudi Arabia hosting a design event that pushes the boundaries of art and tradition.
Yara worked for seven years with Dateline, one of Australia’s most prestigious foreign affairs programs with public broadcaster SBS TV. A regular contributor of films to Al Jazeera English and ABC TV, her vast body of work has involved crawling through Syrian rebel-held tunnels, filming in lawless Libyan jails after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi, documenting disaster response efforts after devastating natural disasters, exploring taboo subjects like youth suicide in remote Aboriginal communities, filming women escaping honour killings in Jordan, following doctors giving free health care in Nepal, to profiling artists in south-central LA, and conservation efforts in New Zealand.
She holds a degree in Journalism and a Law degree.