Muriel Aboulrouss: “After 20 years of being a cinematographer I discovered my life’s purpose”
Muriel Aboulrouss, author of Web Documentary Zyara, which has earned international acclaim and was featured at last year’s Dublin Web Fest, has spoken to us recently about her work, her influences and her beginnings in film-making.
“My name is Muriel Aboulrouss, I am lebanese filmmaker.” Muriel was just in her second year of audiovisual studies when she “fell in love with the light.”
She then decided to become a cinematographer, “which was a beautiful challenge as there was no women doing that before me…” Then, little over 20 years ago, they told her “its not a women’s job” but she was able to prove she could do it. “I was able to do what I love and to be recognized for it.”
After her two-decade career so far, Muriel is as determined as ever. “I discovered my life’s purpose and why I am so taken by the light and the image. I found my own way to be a painter of life and people through the light, through the lens”, she recalls, refering to Zyara the doc web series. “I am free and floating above the ground during the Zyara process… I don’t think, I just feel.”
Which are your biggest influences?
“Bruce Lee through the Be water theory. The sun, because I never get bored observing it and learning from it. It is my one and only teacher. The war and Beirut were and still are a magical chaos that revealed to me many secrets of life and love.”
What would you like to accomplish with your work?
“My purpose is to learn unconditional love, to express it through my work, to be the divine soul that I am and that we are all born to be but most of us get lost along the way. My camera grounds me and through it life is soooo beautiful.”
Muriel’s purpose clearly lets her passion about film-making shine as well as her high level of sensibility. “My purpose is to be free doing what I love and loving what I do. My ultimate purpose it to collaborate to the awakening of oneness … We are One!”
How has your participation in festivals such as Dub Web Fest help you or motivated you?
“Love motivates and liberates… in Dub Web Fest we felt loved!”
Regarding current projects, she explains that “Zyara is an arabic word that means visit in English. Zyara is a documentary web series created by Denise Jabbour (creative producer) and myself (director/cinematographer).” Now that Zyara Season One is officially over after 12 episodes, she explains that the team is “seeking ways to keep going and create a season in every country in the world. Life is a Zyara -visit- and we intend to visit the world and creating poetry out of it.”
For Muriel, “Zyara is our way of loving the world and we intend to keep loving it for as long as we can.”
Watch Zyara’s first episode below:
Dub Web Fest is the First Webseries Festival in Ireland. Established by French Filmmaker and Web Series Creator, Mikael Thiery and Videography Ireland Director, Erol Mustafov, The Dublin Web Fest (DubWebFest) unites digital media and tech worlds. We showcase screenings, host Youtube panels and welcome TV and Film production professionals to Dublin’s Filmbase over the course of three days.
Coming in November and receiving submissions until September 15.
Click here for more info.
