Amman Abbasi

Amman Abbasi is a Pakistani American writer, director, editor and composer based in Little Rock, Arkansas. He came to wider attention in 2016 when Filmmaker magazine named him one of its annual “25 New Faces of Independent Film”, and his debut feature, Dayveon (2017), premiered at the Sundance and Berlin film festivals. Early life and background Abbasi grew up in Paragould and Jonesboro before his family moved to Little Rock when he was nine; he attended Hall High School and completed his senior year at Little Rock Central High School. He has cited the Dardenne brothers and Martin Scorsese as principal influences on his filmmaking. In 2011 he travelled to Haiti for The New York Times to cover the aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake; the resulting short documentary received an Alfred I. duPont–Columbia Award. He served as editor on the Renaud Brothers’ series Last Chance High (2015), which was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for outstanding editing. He also worked as director’s assistant to David Gordon Green on Manglehorn (2014) and Our Brand Is Crisis (2015). Feature films Abbasi’s debut feature, Dayveon, tells the story of a 13-year-old African-American boy in rural Wrigh