About me
Salma Abusamra
Sudanese photographer, filmmaker and visual storyteller, living in Berlin. Working across photography and film, I explore identity, migration, memory and belonging, with a particular focus on the experiences of women navigating displacement and social transformation.
For over a decade I have worked with cultural institutions, human rights organisations and grassroots initiatives, using visual storytelling as a tool for documentation, reflection and social engagement. My work often centres on voices and experiences that remain underrepresented, creating intimate spaces where personal narratives intersect with broader political and cultural realities.
How I work
I direct, shoot and photograph, often on the same production. I work close to the people in my films, and over long stretches of time. That is what lets someone speak at their own pace instead of to a shooting schedule.
Studies
I am currently studying documentary film directing at filmArche in Berlin, Europe's largest self-organised film school. The course takes a documentary all the way from research and the first meeting with protagonists to treatment, funding and directing.
Memberships
- Sudanese Filmmaking Association
- Sudanese Human Rights Monitor
Exhibitions
My photographs and films have been exhibited and screened in Sudan and internationally, including at the Al-Mogran Photography Exhibition and the Goethe-Institut Exhibition at the National Museum in Khartoum.
In 2026 I showed Recoiling Memory of Home, a joint exhibition with Eythar Gubara, at Künstlerhaus Sootbörn in Hamburg.
Available for
- Documentary direction
- Cinematography
- Documentary photography
- NGO & institutional films