Bachar Khattar, a professional cinematographer since 2009, director and producer since 2017. He was born in Lebanon in 1988 and grew up in Beirut where he studied Audiovisual arts at Saint Joseph University.
His first short film won the Best Cinematography Award in Lebanon at the Notre Dame University, and he immediately moved into filming commercials, TV shows, and web series for popular artists in the region, as well as short and feature documentaries. His love for traveling and discovering new cultures drove him to work in 25 countries all over the world.
In 2009 he worked as a Director of Photography on “Beirut, I love you”, a web-series that made a great impact in Lebanon and was aired on LBC TV station.
In 2012 he filmed two award winning web-series “Mamnou3!” and “Fasateen”.
In 2014, Bachar worked as Director of Photography on “Yemeniettes”, his first feature documentary. The project won several awards, including Best Documentary Award at the High Falls Film Festival in Rochester, NY.
An avid outdoorsman, Bachar’s love for the Lebanese countryside led him to meet Patrick Vaughan in 2017.
Patrick, an American ultra-runner coming to run the Lebanese Mountain Trail, became the main character of Bachar’s first short documentary “Confessions of a Runner” in 2019. The film won several awards in festivals around the world among which Best Film in Mountain Sports in Banff, Best Mountain Film in VIMFF and Best Doc Short in Davis International Film Festival.
Thanks to this experience Bachar has immersed in ultra-running documentaries and developed a passion for trail runs.
In 2021 Bachar directed “Moment of bliss”, a feature documentary commissioned by Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung- Lebanon focused on three main issues happening in Lebanon: homophobia, economic crisis and gender discriminatory nationality law preventing women from giving Lebanese nationality to their children.
The same year Bachar directed, produced, and filmed his new feature documentary on the mountains of Lebanon, following the physical and mental challenge of a Lebanese ultra-runner. The film is currently being applied to film festivals.
In 2021 Bachar was invited to be a Jury member in BANFF outdoor film festival.
Bachar is currently based in Lebanon, but he often travels to Canada to visit his son, and to Italy to visit his partner. He is fluent in English, French and Arabic.