Collective Voices Can Create Change: Filmmaker Shaima Al Tamimi On The Power Of Sharing Yemeni Stories
“A big part of my attempt to spotlight Yemeni stories is selfish,” says Shaima Al Tamimi. “It came from my starting point that lacked connection and knowledge about our personal histories and not knowing how we ended up here. I felt the need to delve into why this had to be our destiny. But now, it’s as much about sharing those stories and histories as it is about finding out for myself.”
For so many Yemenis, ours is an intricate lace of generational diaspora. And, of course, there are those Yemenis who have had to endure the brutal humanitarian disaster resulting from the years-long civil war that continues to pull the country apart.
Shaima Al Tamimi is a visual storyteller, photographer and filmmaker whose Yemini heritage spread to the East African diaspora. Her ancestry is Yemeni from Hadramout on both sides; the diffuse tradition of movement embedded into her DNA. Her mother’s family spent three generations in Kenya after leaving Yemen. Her father, born in Yemen, emigrated three times: to Tanzania and Kenya, before settling in the UAE.
Altamimi spent her formative years in Abu Dhabi. The syncretic host city was ideal, with exposure to international friends and influences. She didn’t feel out of place coming from a household that blended three languages. “At home, we spoke Arabic, Swahili and English, so we code-switched wherever we needed to and that was fun. It felt like I was unlocking superpowers. As an adult, I appreciate it even more because it’s given me access to a culture and way of thinking that has opened a lot of doors for me.”
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As a child, Al Tamimi didn’t appreciate the culinary specialities from the region, but these days, she says, “Food is a serious part of my work. I started taking a deeper interest in it when I realised how it is also interconnected with politics, history and memory. Also, food’s ability to engage the senses through touch, taste, textures and smell was always fascinating to me.” Her works A Nation’s Bread and A Morsel Of Life (Logmet Al ‘Aish), displayed in the exhibition Art Mill Museum 2030 in Qatar, focused on the relationship of flour and water from a migrational lens.
Though many associate Yemen with its rich tradition of coffee, Yemenis will tell you that our real cultural gold is honey. “[It’s] highly prized by Yemenis yet not really known or celebrated internationally,” says Al Tamimi. Her uncles, who still lived in Hadramout, would send the family gallons of it via bus to Abu Dhabi. “Picking up honey from the bus station became this fun activity, and passengers came with multiple gallons of honey, dried fish, tea and spice mixes.”
Growing up, Altamimi felt a wrenching feeling to understand her heritage and how her family arrived at this place. She continued to wonder why there was such a circuitous route that caused her family to seem ever-moving, and why – like so many Yemenis – they didn’t have a long-established lineage in Yemen. She felt as though the two passports she possessed – Yemeni and Kenyan – limited her own movement and opportunities in life. The further she researched into her family histories, the more the bitterness of her youth, that was shrouded in the unknowing, revealed a compassion for her family’s journeys. With a storyteller’s heart, the existential probing was expressed first through documentary photography, and then through film.
In 2020, Al Tamimi was awarded a Photography and Social Justice Fellowship from the Magnum Foundation, where she created As If We Never Came: a mixed media documentary photography collection on her family’s ancestral movement, and assimilation. She went on to develop this project into the short film Don’t Get Too Comfortable (2021), which debuted at the Venice International Film Festival, where it was nominated for Best Short. The film also won Bronze at the Carthage Film Festival in Tunisia and was screened at over 35 film festivals.
Al Tamimi is now based in Doha, Qatar. Her stories have resonated with many – not just those with Yemeni ancestry. She says: “I’m not trying to be the spokesperson for telling all these stories… I’m sharing things from my perspective and where I currently stand.” She recognises that, though she is sharing her own lived experience, it is just one of millions of Yemeni stories: “I encourage more people to do the same so we can collectively be heard and celebrated.” Al Tamimi and her filmmaking partner, Mayar Hamdan – a producer on her short film – are now working on The Myth Of Mahmoud, a documentary about Hamdan’s Palestinian family history.
“Of course, I recognise my privilege, and always speak from my personal experience while also aiming to shed light on the situation on the ground in Yemen. There’s a lot of guilt that comes with that and it’s something I continue to learn how to deal with,” says Al Tamimi, acknowledging that the family’s movement she decried as a child protected them from the civil war that has destroyed the futures of so many.
When asked for her thoughts on the current situation in her ancestral homeland, Al Tamimi responded much in the same way this Gazan boy did: “I don’t know what else to feel, except to try to be hopeful and continue to call for everyone to share their stories and do their part in order to become this collective voice.” She worries about Yemeni stories falling into a cacophonous hum alongside each other, “into that echo chamber trap”. It is in the broad sharing and projecting and exchanging of these stories with other communities that we can enhance the understanding of our own.
“We have a saying in Arabic that goes, ‘One hand alone cannot clap,’” says Al Tamimi. “My work alone will not change anything unless our communities also do the same. It is the power of our collective voices that can travel far and wide to create change and action.”
Noa Avishag Schnall (@noavi) is a Yemeni-Polish visual storyteller based between Paris and Abu Dhabi. Her work focuses on stories from under-represented communities – their justice, resistance, and cultural celebration – and can be found in publications including The New York Times, GQ Middle East and GEO France
