Cherien Dabis, New York City

Sunday Night Dinner

Kitchen Windows is a side-project of the Sunday Night Dinner podcast. In this time of Covid-19 and social isolation, it’s a chance to have a brief look into the kitchens of writers, musicians, chefs, artists and health-care superstars. What can they see out their window? What are they cooking for comfort? Who are they with? How do they spend their days? Cherien Dabis is a celebrated filmmaker, writer, actor and director. She has written and directed two feature films – AMREEKA, and MAY IN THE SUMMER. AMREEKA world-premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, opened New Director’s/New Films at the MoMA and won the coveted International Federation of Film Critics Award (FIPRESCI) in the Director’s Fortnight at Cannes. It went on to win a dozen more international awards including the Humanitas Prize and Adrienne Shelly Excellence in Filmmaking Award and was nominated for a Best Picture Gotham Award, 3 Independent Spirit Awards, including Best Picture, Best First Screenplay and Best Actress and was named one of the Top Ten Independent Films of the Year by the National Board of Review. Dabis was also named one of Variety’s “Ten Directors to Watch” in 2009. AMREEKA was released theatrically worldwide and became the most-screened Arab-directed film in U.S.-cinema history, peaking at 40 screens across most major American cities. Dabis returned to Sundance with her second feature film MAY IN THE SUMMER, which opened the 2013 Sundance Film Festival’s U.S. Dramatic Competition section and had its international premiere at the Venice Film Festival. In it, she makes her onscreen debut alongside Bill Pullman, Alia Shawkat and Hiam Abbass. With the screenplay, Dabis won a Sundance / Time Warner Storytelling Grant, several Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art Grants as well as the prestigious NHK International Filmmaker Award at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. She was one of the writers and producers of the TV series the L-WORD, and she’s directed two episodes in the third season of the Netflix series OZARK, and a number of episodes of the Hulu show, RAMY. You can find her here: http://cheriendabis.me/