Biography
Born in Beirut to parents of Dutch and Lebanese-Armenian heritage, raised in Athens, later pursuing her academic studies in the UK, Christine Garabedian is an award-winning documentary filmmaker. Her film 'Goodbye Aleppo', which tells the dramatic story of the last days of the siege of East Aleppo at the height of Syria's civil war, won the International Emmy for Best Documentary (2018), the Grierson Award for Best Current Affairs Documentary (2017), a Rory Peck Sony Impact Award (2017), and a Monte-Carlo Television Festival Special Red Cross Award (2016). The Grierson Awards Jury Chair Andy Whittaker said: "Compelling. The filmmaker uses the excellent raw footage shot by the citizen journalists to create a lucid well constructed narrative, with intimate moments that are powerfully authentic, leading to a conclusion which is hard to not find deeply moving." The Rory Peck Judges said: "The most intimate, gripping and moving work we could see of these last days in Aleppo...It is like a love story, a love diary, to their city. A superb, a tremendous film."
She is based in London, where she worked freelance, and at the BBC for many years as a Producer-Director, making documentary films across the Middle East and the Arab World. She has directed observational, historical, and investigative films and is known for her commitment to accuracy, rigour, and truthfulness in filmmaking, and for her skills as a visual storyteller. She is also an experienced camera operator, often working alone to record picture and sound in situations of heightened political and military tensions and conflict, including Yemen. She was awarded an International Press Council and Next Century Foundation New Ground Award in 2017, 'to acknowledge excellence in the conviction that outstanding work makes a significant contribution to peace, in recognition of her contribution to media coverage of the Middle East, and for encouraging an understanding in and on Yemen, Syria, and the Arab Uprising'. In 2018 she went to Gaza to make a film (Gaza Dreams) for the BBC about the emotional impact of the siege on the the people of Gaza. She is multilingual: fluent in French, Italian, Arabic, Spanish, Greek, and Dutch. She also has a base in Italy where she is now making a docufilm about a house that has the powers to heal a broken heart.
