Санаа Хамри: Марокканско-американский режиссер и ее путь в киноиндустрии

Moroccan American film, television and music video director

Sanaa Hamri (سناء حمري; born November 19, 1977) is a Moroccan American film, television, and music video director. Hamri made her directorial debut in 2006 with the romantic comedy Something New. Scholar Shelley Cobb has credited Hamri's work as "[offering] alternative representations of black women that productively engage with and even challenge usual stereotypes, even as they use and conform to mainstream cinematic conventions".

Hamri was born in Tangier, Morocco, to Moroccan Muslim Mohamed Hamri and Jewish Moroccan Blanche "Blanca" Hamri. Her father came from the town of Jajouka and was a painter and author. Hamri's mother was a teacher. Both of Hamri's parents were part of the creative community in Morocco, which was made up of ex pats such as Paul Bowles, William Burroughs, Brion Gysin, Timothy Leary, Ted Morgan and Tennessee Williams. In fact, Hamri's mother was the long time secretary to Joseph A. McPhillips III, the headmaster of the American School of Tangier, who was later in charge of Bowles' estate. Hamri attended the American School of Tangier, where her mother worked. The school was not gender balanced: at one point, Hamri was the only girl on the soccer team and eventually, the sole female student enrolled at her high school. In 1992, Hamri moved to the United States after receiving a scholarship to attend Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York. In college, she studied theatre arts and pursued acting. Hamri spent her junior year of college in Paris, and in 1996 graduated from Sarah Lawrence College.

After college, Hamri moved to New York City in order to pursue an acting career. During this time she worked as an editor of music videos at a post production studio. Sayeed, who also produced videos, was impressed by Hamri's work and showed it to Mariah Carey, who subsequently hired Hamri to direct a music video. Sayeed also gave Hamri her first editing job for a reggae/hip hop fusion group called Born Jamericans. Hamri then began to take on more work as she became better known.

Hamri's videos include but are not limited to Jadakiss's "U Make Me Wanna", Prince's "Musicology", Kelly Rowland's "Stole" and Mariah Carey's "Crybaby", "Bringin' On the Heartbreak" and "Don't Stop (Funkin' 4 Jamaica)" and Carey's unreleased video for "Last Night a DJ Saved My Life". She has directed videos for Nicki Minaj, Lenny Kravitz, Joss Stone, Sting, Common, Raven Symoné, Eric Benet, Amel Larrieux, Jay Z, A*Teens, and Christina Aguilera. She also directed the music video for Greyson Chance's "Waiting Outside The Lines". In 2011 Hamri shot a music video for Nicki Minaj's single "Super Bass." In the video Minaj is portrayed as a "Black Harajuku Barbie", an element which, according to Nina Cartier, states satirizes white beauty standards. The film was released on January 29, 2006, and produced by Stephanie Allain through her company, Homegrown Pictures, along with the mini major Gramercy. Cobb described the movie as a "feature film about a black woman, written, directed, and produced by a black woman" which she considered "rare". On being a non white woman working in Hollywood, Hamri states: "I don't feel this huge weight on me by any means," continuing that she is "not an international person" and she wants to be a part of movies "that people from all walks of life can enjoy, or get something out of."