Nay Tabbara
EBB & FLOW
Post-production financial grant.
About the project: Inspired by real events and the political instabilities of the early 2000s in Lebanon, Ebb & Flow explores how children fight to find their way despite the world crumbling around them.
The film follows 14 year old Loulwa who has been dreaming of having her first kiss with her school crush Sharif. In order to make that happen, she decides to lie to her parents about her after school activities, and plans for a date with him with the help of her best friend Jana. Just as she’s about to have her fantasy finally come true, a bomb erupts in Beirut, forcing her to immediately abandon her romantic endeavors, and find her way back home safely amongst the chaotic post explosion streets of Beirut; without uncovering her lie to her parents.
Ebb & Flow has received the support of the Doha Film Institute, the Sundance Uprise Grant, the Reel Change grant from New Music USA, in addition to the Future of Film is Female grant.
About the filmmaker: Nay Tabbara is a Lebanese filmmaker based in New York, and a recent MFA in Filmmaking graduate from NYU Tisch School of the Arts — where she also teaches Editing as an Adjunct Professor within the Graduate Film Department. Before moving to New York, Nay built her on-set experience working as an assistant director on numerous award winning pictures, most notably The Insult by Ziad Doueiri (2017 Academy Award nominee). Born and raised in Beirut, Nay's stories center around her upbringing, and are inspired by her experience as a Lebanese woman existing within a largely hybrid society. She is a 2021 Sundance Uprise and Doha Film Institute grantee for her upcoming project Ebb & Flow. Her most recent short film Frayed Roots premiered at the 2020 Raindance Film Festival and has toured the circuit in several other Academy-Awards qualifying film festivals.