Alia Yunis

May 22, 2024

You Can’t Google the Future

Five years ago, I gave the commencement talk at Brighton College in Al AIn in the UAE, and I talked about not being able to Google the future. Those students have or will graduate from university this year. And what a future none of us could have imagined: Their university years were framed by a Continue reading

Abu Dhabi, AI, Arts and Culture, Author, Books, COVID, Graduation, Heritage, Pandemic

Abu Dhabi, AI, artificial-intelligence, chatgpt, COVID, Gaza, Google, Graduation, Graduation Ceremony, Palestine, Pandemic, technology, The Night Counter
January 27, 2024

A Land and a Camera

The world is made of stories, and most journalists will discover in their career more stories than they can ever tell, even if they never leave where they were born. We are tragically seeing that today with the young journalists in Gaza. Unlike them, I have had the opportunity to travel much further in pursuit Continue reading

Arab Americans, Arabs, Arts and Culture, Author, Film, Food, Islam/Muslim, Middle East, Saudi Arabia

aramco-world, Aseer, bo-kaap, cape-town, cheese, dugongs, filmmaking, honduras, Jordan, journalism, madaba, majlis-painters, mosques, Tromsø, Writer, Writing
September 7, 2023

THE GOLDEN SUMMER

(More photos and info at The Golden Harvest website) I traveled more continents this summer than I have in a long time, and it was nice to have spent some of it with The Golden Harvest, which traveled even farther. It was probably the highlight of the film’s career to play to a full house Continue reading

Uncategorized

Documentary, filmmaker, screenings, The Golden Harvest, trees, Writer
February 5, 2022

Keeping a Full House

Full House was my first Hollywood experience…At the end of last semester, I found myself doing something I had never done before: sharing with my students my journey to Hollywood. I told them it began with this show called Full House, which ended before any of them were even born. But they oohed and aahed, Continue reading

Arts and Culture, Los Angeles, Teaching, TV, Uncategorized, Writing

Full House, Television, Writer
September 11, 2021

Early Morning Calls

How September 11 Made Me a Muslim Writer When I woke up on Sept 11, 2001 in my apartment in LA, it was still dark. I was a struggling screenwriter up with the sun. I was trying to be like Stephen King, who I’d heard somewhere woke up at 3 am to get his writing Continue reading

Arab Americans, Arts and Culture, Heritage, Islam/Muslim, Uncategorized, Writing

Arab Americans, Muslims, September 11, writers
August 14, 2021

Sex/ish in the City

I heard Sex/Life is coming back for a second season. I got to say some things. Continue reading

Arabs, Arts and Culture, Film, Jordan, Middle East, TV

Middle East, Sex and the City, Sex/Life
July 17, 2021

My Heart Groans Like a Mack Truck on a Steep Slope

My Heart Groans Like a Mack Truck on a Steep Slope Continue reading

Arabs, Arts and Culture, bedouins, Islam/Muslim, Middle East, poetry, Saudi Arabia

bedouins, Nabati poems, Najd, poetry
April 22, 2019

Earth Day & Best of the Fest Connection

The Golden Harvest will have an encore screening at the Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival as part of the Best of the Fest screenings–Super! Wednesday, April 24 at 4:50 pm at St. Anthony Main: https://prod3.agileticketing.net/websales/pages/info.aspx?evtinfo=436771~36893ed1-b0b9-423c-bbab-90f22d0aeafe&epguid=78d5df86-076b-41eb-9b27-8d9e012642d6& I lived in a house only once in my life. For three years. It was in Minnesota in Continue reading

Arab Americans, Arts and Culture, Film, Food, Greece, Heritage, Italy, Jordan, Middle East, Minnesota, Olive Oil, olive trees, Spain, The Golden Harvest, Uncategorized

Arab female filmmakers, artists, Authors, Film, Food, Greece, Italy, Olive oil, Women, Writing
April 4, 2019

GETTING HERITAGE IN WRITING: This Month’s Aramco World Cover Story

These are just some thoughts of mine after my third visit to Cape Town, this time to write this month’s cover story for Aramco World Magazine https://www.aramcoworld.com/en-US/Articles/March-2019/The-Handwritten-Heritage-of-South-Africa-s-Kitabs The first time I saw the Western Cape, I thought “This looks just like Los Angeles,” and then I thought, “This looks just like Lebanon.” I’m not just Continue reading

Arab Americans, Arts and Culture, Author, Heritage, Islam/Muslim, Publishing, Slavery, South Africa, Uncategorized, Western Cap, Writing

Authors, Heritage, Islam, museums, Quran, Slavery, South Africa, Travel, Western Cape, Women, Writing
March 18, 2019

Full House for The Golden Harvest Debut at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival

(March 14, 2019) The Golden Harvest (2019, 85 min) made its debut on March 4, 2019 at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival to a full house. The screening was followed by a lively Q & A that continued onto the pier along the fabulous arthouse area of the city where the majority of the festival Continue reading

Arab Americans, Film, Food, Greece, Italy, Middle East, Olive Oil, olive trees, Palestine, Spain, The Golden Harvest, Thessaloniki International Film Festival

Alia Yunis, Documentary, Film, film festival, Food, Greece, Italy, Mediterranean, Mediterranean Diet, Palestine, Spain, Thessaloniki Internatnional Film Festival, Travel

About Alia

Alia Yunis is a writer, journalist and filmmaker. She is currently producing and directing “The Golden Harvest,” a feature length documentary about how olive oil has shaped the Mediterranean culture, cuisine and history for 6,000 years, through war and peace. Her debut novel, The Night Counter (Random House) has been critically acclaimed by the Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly, and several other publications. It was also chosen as a top summer read by the Chicago Tribune and Boston Phoenix. The Boston Globe has called it “wonderfully imaginative…poignant, hilarious.” Alia was born in Chicago and grew up in the U.S., Greece, and the Middle East. She has worked as a filmmaker and journalist in several cities, especially Los Angeles. Her fiction has appeared in several anthologies, including The Robert Olen Butler Best Short Stories collection, and her non-fiction work includes articles for The Los Angeles Times, Saveur, SportsTravel Magazine, and Aramco World. She currently teaches film at Zayed University in Abu Dhabi.