Shahed Khaito
Shahed Khaito is a filmmaker 22 years old, she came to Canada as a refugee in 2019. Shahed’s passion with camera and video editing started in 2013 while she was living under siege with her family in Zabadani, Syria. During that time, she began documenting the ways that people reacted to the war in the shelter using a camera phone. She shared the materials on Facebook. Then she started editing using simple mobile applications.
Shahed fled from Syria to Lebanon in 2014 with her family. In Lebanon, she studied interior design at Rafiq Al Hariri technical school, and completed a 6-month photography/film-making course at Dar Al Mussawir. In 2015 she produced and directed “With the Flow,” a film about child marriage exploring topics of power and privilege in female Eastern society. For three years she volunteered as the Media Officer for the Gharsah Center, a school in Lebanon that supports refugees, producing and directing promotional videos documenting the center’s work. Shahed produced and directed reports for Women Now, Seenaryo, and the Justice Network for Syrian Women. In 2018 Shahed completed a 2-month course run by Dawlati on digital security and media education. She also attended Action for Hope Film School, learning video editing, script writing, and directing, and worked to document the lives of Syrian women in the refugee camps in Lebanon. She wrote and directed another short film “Live Broadcast,” created in partnership with Action for Hope. It has been shown at various festivals in Lebanon and Canada, most recently the ReFrame Film Festival in Peterborough.
Since coming to Peterborough in 2019 Shahed has volunteered at the New Canadians Centre’s After School Club; at the Finer Things Show and Sale summer craft show; with the Art Gallery of Peterborough’s “Stop Motion Animation” summer camp; and with the New Canadians Centre for their Canada Day event. Shahed graduated from Thomas A Stewart Secondary School. She has been chosen to get the YWCA long term education award and Scott Kid Memorial scholarship in 2020.
Shahed is working as a production assistant with Tamarack Productions in their upcoming documentary The Cost of Freedom - Refugees Journalists in Canada. She is a videographer and a member of Common Threads Collective. Shahed is attending video design and production program at George Brown College further develop her ability to communicate her ideas about the world through the lens of being a female refugee.
