Stories are a reflection of our collective human experience.

Growing up in Beirut, Lebanon just as the civil war was coming to an end placed me in a peculiar situation as a child, in which I was developing an identity in a country that had just lost its own.

During that crucial time in my life, there was only survival, and fear.

My family lived in an underground apartment that doubled as the neighborhood shelter during the war. Above us was my parents’ VHS store.

Starved for stories and adventure, for a life beyond fear and hiding, my four-year-old self would sneak out of the house when everyone was fast asleep, and I would slip into the VHS store, where I had access to a world led by courage.

Those illicit midnight screenings were so spellbinding that even the loudest blast booming from outside wasn't enough to deter me.

I didn't know it at the time, but FILM and TV changed my life forever.