Selected Work — YAW STUDIO

VIDEO JOURNALISM · BUSINESS INSIDER · 2024

Four Gazans Show How War Devastated Their Coastline

Four coastal businesses, and the lives built around them, before and after the war.

Business Insider revisited a hotel, a fish farm, a restaurant and a beach club on Gaza’s coast through the accounts of people connected to them. Yasser Abu Wazna filmed on the ground and guided local contributors as they recorded what had happened to their businesses and livelihoods. His field work on the film received the 2025 Rory Peck News Features Award. The Business Insider team received a 2026 duPont–Columbia Silver Baton for the project.

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Documentary film · TRT World · 2021

Left Hook

Gaza’s first all-girls boxing team trains for the chance to compete.

Coach Osama Ayoub and a group of teenage girls build a boxing team in Gaza. *Left Hook* follows their training and pursuit of a first competition, with the support of their families and against expectations that boxing belongs to men.

Directed and field produced by Yasser Abu Wazna for TRT World, the documentary follows the athletes as financial hardship, power cuts and the blockade shape the conditions in which they train. Their discipline and ambition remain at the center of the film.

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DOCUMENTARY · NOVA LECTIO · 2024

Inside Gaza: A Journey into Hell on Earth

A documentary following Gaza residents through displacement, shortages and the struggle to sustain everyday life.

Published by Nova Lectio in Italian, the film moves between people facing displacement, rising food prices, limited access to water and electricity, and work amid damaged neighbourhoods. Their experiences give the wider crisis a human scale.

Yasser Abu Wazna contributed the footage from Gaza as video journalist and field producer. The film’s published credits name Jacopo Turco for text and research and Simone Guida for editing and voice.

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INDEPENDENT DOCUMENTARY · 2023

Paralestine

A multigenerational portrait of Palestinians with disabilities pursuing fuller participation in life in Gaza.

Directed and produced by Yasser Abu Wazna, Paralestine follows people whose lives were changed by injuries sustained during successive conflicts in Gaza. Through sport, work and everyday relationships, the film considers their ambitions alongside the barriers they face. It has reached festival audiences and university classrooms, including the disABILITY Film Festival in Leuven and teaching at Loyola University Maryland. Screeners and educational use can be discussed by enquiry.

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DOCUMENTARY FILM · TRT WORLD · 2024

Displaced Smiles

Abdelfattah once owned a small circus in Gaza. After he and his family were forced from home, he continued performing for children living in displacement camps.

Directed and field produced by Yasser Abu Wazna for TRT World, this documentary follows Abdelfattah’s performances alongside the uncertainty facing his family and the approaching birth of his first child. His work gives the film a personal way to explore displacement, childhood and the effort to make space for play during war.

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VIDEO JOURNALISM · BUSINESS INSIDER · 2025

How Food in Gaza Got So Expensive — and So Deadly

A ground-level account of food prices, access to cash and the people navigating both.

This Business Insider report traces the price of food and the difficulty of obtaining money in Gaza during the war. Yasser Abu Wazna contributed video journalism and field production from Gaza, bringing local scenes and voices into an investigation of how people obtain and pay for essentials. The story makes a complex economic system legible through the daily decisions it imposes.

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GREAT MARCH OF RETURN · AJ+ · 2018

Medic at the Wheel of Gaza’s Resistance

A medic continues his work as Gaza’s Great March of Return unfolds around him.

This AJ+ video profile follows a Palestinian medic who kept helping injured people after the ambulance he was in came under fire. Yasser Abu Wazna worked as video journalist and field producer on the story, one of his pieces connected to AJ+ coverage of the Great March of Return. The film centres the medic’s own account and the practical demands of emergency care at the demonstrations.

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SHORT DOCUMENTARY · DOHA DEBATES · 2021

Painting a Brighter Future in Palestine

Gaza artist Ismail Matar turns damaged walls into spaces for colour, memory and possibility.

Ismail Matar paints murals across Gaza City and works with children who use art to express their experiences. This Doha Debates short film follows his work after the May 2021 airstrikes damaged homes and street art. Yasser Abu Wazna contributed filmmaking and field production in Gaza. The film approaches recovery through the artist’s practice and the young people he teaches.

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VIDEO JOURNALISM · BUSINESS INSIDER · 2021

A Pottery Workshop Across Generations

The hands and knowledge behind a family pottery workshop in Gaza.

At a family-owned workshop, clay vessels take shape through a craft passed from one generation to the next. Business Insider’s film shows how the makers preserve that work amid economic pressure and recurring conflict. Yasser Abu Wazna contributed video journalism and field production, grounding the story in the people and processes behind the finished objects.

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VIDEO JOURNALISM · BUSINESS INSIDER · 2020

Why Fish Farms Grow in Gaza

Gaza’s fishers face restrictions and risks at sea. This Business Insider film looks at the growth of fish farms and the people working within that alternative economy. Yasser Abu Wazna contributed video journalism and field production, documenting the labour, equipment and local conditions that make the story more than a headline about supply.

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NEW YORK POST · VIDEO JOURNALISM · 2019

Body Painting Against Skin Stigma

A Gaza doctor uses his own body as a canvas to challenge perceptions of visible skin conditions.

Dr. Khalil Z. Khalidy paints representations of skin conditions on his own body, inviting viewers to look beyond appearance and question the stigma surrounding visible differences. Yasser Abu Wazna contributed video journalism and field production in Gaza for this video published by the New York Post.

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DOCUMENTARY · NOVA LECTIO · 2025

Inside a Gaza School: Lives and Hopes of Young Palestinians

How educators and artists help children keep learning and expressing themselves during war.

Nova Lectio’s film follows people creating space for children’s education and expression in Gaza during the war. Ibrahim uses art therapy, Ola works to sustain schooling, and Ismail uses music with young people. Their work brings the children’s experiences and hopes into focus. Yasser Abu Wazna contributed video journalism and field production in Gaza and is credited by Nova Lectio alongside Simone Guida.

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FESTIVALS & UNIVERSITIES

Screenings & Educational Use

Paralestine has reached festival audiences and university classrooms, opening discussions about disability, representation and life in Gaza.

Paralestine was selected for Italy’s Paladino d’Oro Sport Film Festival in 2023. In April 2026, it was presented at the disABILITY Film Festival in Leuven, Belgium, with a post-screening discussion featuring a recorded interview with director Yasser Abu Wazna.

Loyola University Maryland also included the film in a Spring 2026 course. Yasser joined students for a live discussion about making the documentary and working in Gaza.

Festival programmers, universities and cultural organisations can enquire about screenings or course use. A private screener, suitable subtitles and a live or recorded filmmaker conversation can be discussed according to the programme and practical conditions.

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