Noura Kevorkian

Noura Kevorkian is a Canadian documentary filmmaker best known for her 2022 film Batata, which was the recipient of a 2023 Peabody Award and was submitted for consideration to the 2024 Oscars in the Documentary Feature Category. Noura Kevorkian was born in Aleppo, Syria and raised in Lebanon until her emigration to Canada in her teens. Kevorkian's upbringing has resulted in her being multi-lingual (Armenian, Arabic, English) and multi-cultural. Kevorkian's father, Barkev Kevorkian, was the son of refugees, born in the Karantina refugee camp outside Beirut, Lebanon. Born to parents who were survivors of the Armenian genocide (1915-1923), Barkev took an interest in engineering and science books. He became a machine maker with his own foundry in the Bekaa Valley and supplied machine parts to various factories in Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990). Kevorkian lived through the Lebanese Civil War and several critics have acknowledged this has informed her sense of identity, cultural pride, humanitarianism, and documentary filmmaking. Kevorkian graduated from the University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com.) in economics and finance, with minor studies in Middle East history and cinema studies. Kevorkian trained at the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) and the Summer Institute of Film and Television (SIFT). Kevorkian produces many of her films under her company Saaren Films. Kevorkian's first short film, Veils Uncovered (2002), premiered at the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Veils Uncovered interviews women from Damascus, Syria, about their relationship to sexuality and staying appealing to their husbands beneath their veils. She is credited with composing and singing two of the a cappella Arabic songs included in the film. Following the short film, Kevorkian contributed a journal entry to a book entitled The Secret Life of Syrian Lingerie by Malu Halasa, including experiences she had during her time in Syria when making the film. The Kunsthal Museum in Rotterdam, Netherlands, has exhibited both Kevorkian's written content and her short film. Dreams of Education (2003) is a short documentary about the aspirations of high school students. As the writer and director of the film, Kevorkian explores young people and their anxieties about the cost of higher education.