Case Study on a music director - Sanaa Hamri

Sanaa Hamri, born in 1975 in Tangier, Morocco, is a Moroccan-American music video and film director. She is one of the most well-known female film and music video directors.

In 1992, at age 17, Sanaa emigrated from her native Morocco to study theatre at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York. Shortly after receiving her degree, she was trained under the leadership of the recognised music video cinematographer Malik Sayeed. Under Malik’s guidance, Sanaa was given the video-editing job for the reggae and hip-hop fusion group ‘Born Jamericans’ that started her subsequent career as an editor.

After two years she changed from being an editor to a director, building a portfolio of artists including Mariah Carey, Missy Elliot and Christina Aguilera. Her big break was a low-budget, Bronx rap video for ‘LaFace’ recording artists ‘1 Life 2 Live’ for their song Blind Love, catching the attention of Mariah Carey. This resulted in directing Mariah Carey's ‘Thank God I Found You’ remix as well as her video for ‘Don't Stop’. These projects were soon followed by videos for such artists as Destiny's Child, Kelly Rowland, Jay Z and even more present, Niki Minaj.

Along with directing music videos, Sanaa also directs television programmes and films including episodes of Desperate Housewives, Men in Trees and the well known film ‘Just Wright’ that came out in 2010.

Below is an example of one of her music videos that she has directed – Super Bass by Niki Minaj:

                   
Below are examples of films and television programs that she has directed: