Filmmaker Waheed Naddafi can trace back his origin story to a Dubai movie theater. Having snuck into the mature audience section, the ten-year-old Naddafi decided to watch Shawshank Redemption (1994), a film that became “very profound for me,” he professed. “Even though it was made for mature audiences, I understood it perfectly, and I understood cinematic story in ways that I never thought would be able to hit that hard.” That was the first time he ever considered film as a career—an ambition that would begin to guide his life.
How did he learn how to become a filmmaker?
In 2001, with his parents seeking a better future for their children, Naddafi immigrated with his mother and sister to Perth, Australia. There, in pursuit of his cinematic ambitions, he attended Murdoch University and the Western Australian Screen Academy (now the WA Screen and Media Academy) at Edith Cowan University. “The good thing about Australia is that, once you’re actually studying, you’re getting paid [to] study,” said Naddafi. It was at Murdoch that Naddafi undertook his first project, working as a sound designer and boom operator on a student film with actor Mahesh Jadu (Marco Polo, 2014; The Witcher, 2019–present). He also had a temporary position as a visiting teacher at Bus Stop Films, a not-for-profit organization that teaches filmmaking to disabled students.
After graduation, he joined the production of John V. Soto’s The Reckoning (2014) as an assistant director (AD), with his strongest memory being that “one of the lighting gears just burst into flames.” He also served as AD on Alex Proyas’s Gods of Egypt (2016), which he proudly recounted as his “big break.” Later, in 2017, he flew to China to work as AD for Monster Undersea 2 (2020)—his favorite project despite various safety concerns, ranging from stunt work mishaps to electrical hazards. “If I could do that again, I would do it in a heartbeat,” said Naddafi, laughing. “I don’t care [about] the amount of violations that we went through.”
Why did he leave the Australian film industry?
In 2019, Naddafi moved to Sydney, where he attended Sydney Film School and worked briefly in Moore Park at Fox Studios Australia (now Disney Studios Australia). It was then that he began feeling disillusioned by the Australian film industry. “The same people usually get the same jobs,” he said. This career stagnation, he explained, reflects the overarching mentality towards filmmakers in Australia: “The politicians… don’t consider it [filmmaking] as a real job.”
Australian films tend to rely on the government for funding (for example, Gods of Egypt received a tax credit for 46% of its $140 million budget). As a result, the government can influence “what kind of movies they want you to [make],” which stifled Naddafi. He also often dealt with a lack of cultural sensitivity: “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been just ethnically profiled. I’ve been told, ‘Oh, why don’t you make a movie about a guy who comes fresh out of the boat in Australia?’ I’ve heard that so many times, as if that’s the only thing I know how to do.”
That was what ultimately motivated his 2023 move to the United States, which he praised as the “land of freedom” where he could “actually do whatever movies [he wanted]” and “be taken seriously as a filmmaker.” “As much as skills and great story matters,” Naddafi said, “[what] I love about this country is that Hollywood knows a good story when it hears one. It doesn’t matter where it’s from, whose hand it’s from—Black, White, Asian. So this is why I came to the United States, because I love writing stories that have nothing to do with my culture, or the color of my skin, or whether I’m an immigrant or not. And I can make any stories that I want, that I feel hits home.”
How would he describe himself as a filmmaker?
When asked about his style as an auteur (or the “author” of a film), Naddafi said, “The only thing that matters to me when it comes to directing or telling stories is that I’m a performance director, a performance writer. It’s about the character at the end of the day, and the things that he goes through and how he reacts to [them].” As for his personal creative philosophy, he professed, “If you can’t say it in one line and nobody’s ever heard it before, then that’s not the type of movie I would like to make.” For example, his first feature film (currently in its casting stage) centers around a homeless man trying to secretly attend college without paying tuition.
The premise reflects his adventurous nature. “I actually quit two jobs just to be here [in America],” he said with a chuckle. “I could have just, you know, continued on for the rest of my life, doing what I was doing, making money and starting a family, but I only live once. That’s why I came here in the first place.”
Want to read more about sharing diverse stories? Check out Valeria Pájaro’s Why Documenting Stories Matters: David Saechao’s Lasting Impact.
Find out more about Balance Now’s mission here.
