{{short description|Iraqi Canadian filmmaker|bot=PearBOT 5}} '''Joe Balass''' (born in Baghdad, Iraq) is an Iraqi Canadian filmmaker. He is gay.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.dailyxtra.com/joe-balasss-short-film-baghdad-twist-14861 |title = Joe Balass's short film Baghdad Twist| date=27 August 2008 }}</ref>
Of Jewish heritage,<ref name=IraqiJew>{{cite web|url=http://www.sfjff.org/public_html/sfjff18/press/pr-middleeast.html |title=Joe Balass Canadian Iraqi Jew |accessdate=2007-08-18 |publisher=sfjff.org |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928142606/http://www.sfjff.org/public_html/sfjff18/press/pr-middleeast.html |archivedate=2007-09-28 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Balass is most known for ''Nana, George and Me'', which is an autobiographical video by a young, gay Iraqi Jewish filmmaker who takes a charmingly unconventional look at three Iraqi Jewish lives; that of the filmmaker, his 92-year-old Nana and his 73-year-old friend, George. It was screened at the Castro Theatre.<ref>{{cite web | url =http://www.sfjff.org/film/biography?id=4058&last=Balass&first=Joe&role=Director | title =Joe Balass Canadian Iraqi Jew | accessdate =2007-08-18 | publisher =sfjff.org | url-status =dead | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20101129184319/http://sfjff.org/film/biography?id=4058&last=Balass&first=Joe&role=Director | archive-date =2010-11-29 }}</ref>
Balass escaped from Iraq with his family at age four, and eventually settled in Canada. He has previously worked as a freelance editor, photographer and producer. He has directed a number of short films and videos including; ''Tattoo Needle Pricks'', ''On a Very Violet Night in the Apartements Daphne'', ''Nana, George & me'', which won a Télé-Québec Award at the Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois (RVCQ) in Montreal, and ''The Devil in the Holy Water''.
His 2008 film ''Baghdad Twist'' is a National Film Board of Canada documentary about the disappearance of Iraq's Jewish community though his own family's history. The filmmaker's mother recounts their family's experiences, and the film is illustrated with Balass family home movies and photos and rare archival footage from Iraq.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Loreto|first=Frank|title=Baghdad Twist|journal=Canadian Materials|date=January 22, 2010|volume=XVI|issue=19|url=http://umanitoba.ca/cm//vol16/no19/baghdadtwist.html|accessdate=27 August 2012|publisher=Manitoba Library Association|format=Review|issn=1201-9364|archive-date=23 December 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151223154530/http://umanitoba.ca/cm//vol16/no19/baghdadtwist.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
In 2012, he directed his second feature doc, "JOY! Portrait of a Nun" featuring Sister Missionary Position Delight, one of the founders of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.
In 2013, he directed the documentary ''La longueur de l'alphabet avec Naïm Kattan'' about the Canadian writer of Iraqi Jewish origin Naïm Kattan.
In 2014, he was honoured with a retrospective at the Cinémathèque québécoise.{{fact|date=February 2025}}
==Filmography== *1998 - ''Nana, George and Me'' *2002 - ''The Devil in the Holy Water'' *2006 - ''Derniers mots/Parting Words'' *2007 - ''Baghdad Twist'' *2012 - ''JOY! Portrait of a Nun'' *2013 - ''La longueur de l'alphabet avec Naïm Kattan'' *2025 - ''Calorie'' (producer)
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{IMDb name|id=0049473|name=Joe Balass}} * [http://www.blork.org/nana/ Official Site of "Nana, George and Me"] * Watch [http://www.nfb.ca/film/baghdad_twist ''Baghdad Twist''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170721125420/http://www.nfb.ca/film/baghdad_twist/ |date=2017-07-21 }} at the National Film Board of Canada
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Balass, Joe}} Category:Living people Category:Iraqi documentary film directors Category:Iraqi emigrants to Canada Category:Iraqi Jews Category:Canadian gay writers Category:Canadian LGBTQ film directors Category:Iraqi gay men Category:People from Baghdad Category:Canadian documentary film directors Category:Gay Jews Category:Canadian gay artists Category:Gay screenwriters Category:Canadian LGBTQ screenwriters Category:Canadian people of Iraqi-Jewish descent Category:Canadian documentary film producers Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Jewish Canadian screenwriters Category:20th-century Canadian screenwriters Category:21st-century Canadian screenwriters Category:Canadian male screenwriters Category:21st-century Canadian LGBTQ people Category:20th-century Canadian LGBTQ people