Work
YURLU COUNTRY
Feature Documentary
COMING SOON
A vivid ode to Country and an intimate portrait of an Aboriginal elder’s final year as he strives to preserve his culture and heal his homeland, scarred by the largest contaminated site in the Southern Hemisphere.
THE WHITELEY ART SCANDAL
2 x 52” SERIES
Available Online: ABC
The Whiteley Art Scandal tells the riveting story of the greatest art fraud case in Australian history and takes a rare, behind the scenes look at the glamorous and high-stakes world of art dealing. Written, Directed & Co-Produced by Yaara Bou Melhem for IN Films.
UNSEEN SKIES
Feature Documentary
Available on:
Australia & NZ: DocPlay
USA & UK: Apple TV / iTunes
Yaara Bou Melhem’s debut feature Unseen Skies (2021) had its world premiere in competition at the San Francisco International Film Festival. It explores Trevor Paglen’s mind-bending art pieces that lift the lid on the inner workings of mass surveillance, computer vision and artificial intelligence. It also joins the celebrated US artist on one of his most audacious projects to date - the launching of a satellite into orbit to show that our skies are not the exclusive playground of the military-industrial complex. Or are they? Production partners include Oscar-winning Participant (American Factory, An Inconvenient Truth) and In Films (Firestarter: The Story of Bangarra).
Maria RESSA: WAR ON TRUTH
Documentary Short
Available online: Witness, Al Jazeera English
Filipino journalist and TIME Person of the Year Maria Ressa wages a global yet personal battle against disinformation and the forces manipulating social media giants that is undermining democracies worldwide.
The Oasis
Documentary Short
Available Online: Foreign Correspondent, ABC
A radical experiment in democracy and women’s rights is under way in the old badlands of Islamic State. But it could be crushed in an instant.
Creating a Nation
Documentary Short
Available Online: Witness, Al Jazeera English
One former journalist has renounced his Australian citizenship and is creating an independent indigenous nation.
Saudi Design Queens
Documentary Short
Available Online: Witness, Al Jazeera English
Two young Saudi women host a design event that is pushing boundaries of art and tradition.
About
Illuminate Films is a UN Media Peace and Walkley-winning production house established in 2017 by Yaara Bou Melhem. It makes social justice films that often explore the most pressing issues of our time.
Yaara Bou Melhem
Writer / Director / Producer
Yaara Bou Melhem is an award-winning filmmaker whose work has received two UN Media Peace Awards, two New York Film & Television Festival Awards and five Walkley Awards.
Yaara’s wrote, directed and produced feature-length documentary, UNSEEN SKIES (2021) which interrogates the inner workings of mass surveillance, computer vision and artificial intelligence. Production partners include Participant (USA) and In Films (AU). It was nominated for Best Documentary at the San Francisco International Film Festival and Sydney Film Festival and is now represented by Magnolia International after a successful film festival run.
Yaara has also directed and produced documentary shorts including WAR ON TRUTH (2019) about Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Maria Ressa and the Filipino editor’s global campaign against disinformation. She recently wrote, directed and co-produced THE WHITELEY ART SCANDAL (2023), a 2 x 1hr series about one of Australia’s biggest art crime fraud trials for the ABC.
Yaara turned to filmmaking after 15-years as a long-form broadcast journalist working for some of the most acclaimed international current affairs programs including SBS Dateline, ABC Foreign Correspondent and 101 East, Al Jazeera English. She holds degrees in Journalism and Law.