Image 1 of 1
Image 1 of 1
Image 1 of 1
Image 1 of 1
AGES: 11-14
PRICE: $400 / $325 / $250 sliding scale
DATES: Monday, July 6 through Friday, July 10
TIME: Drop-off 8:30-9am ; Pick-up 3-3:30pm
FOOD: Campers must bring a lunch, water bottle, and two snacks
POLICIES:Click here to see our full camp policies
ABOUT: In this hands-on camp, students will create their own storyboards from start to finish that is old school and drawn by hand! Taking inspiration from Joseph Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey, campers will invent bold characters, face exciting challenges, and build complete story arcs.
Over the week, they will explore visual storytelling, character design, and camera angles, creating short scenes that could be animated in the future. By Friday, each student will have a colorful 8–12 panel storyboard telling a story entirely of their own creation.
This camp sparks imagination, hones drawing skills, and teaches the art of narrative storytelling - perfect for young artists, storytellers, and future filmmakers or animators!
INSTRUCTOR BIO: Sahar al-Sawaf (she/her) is an Iraqi-American filmmaker, visual artist, and photographer based in Oregon. As an Iraqi woman, her work explores the entanglements of war, memory, displacement, and identity—delving into her Arab heritage, Muslim faith, and the immigrant experience in America through a deeply personal lens. Born in Saudi Arabia and raised in Lebanon and Iraq, she fled to California just before the Gulf War. Her multidisciplinary practice spans documentary filmmaking, storytelling, and photography—mediums she uses to amplify voices often left out of dominant narratives, particularly those of Middle Eastern women navigating the aftermath of conflict. Sahar has traveled extensively throughout the Middle East with her camera and sketchbook in hand, chronicling the lives of refugees who have fled. Her animated short films Uncle Ma’an, Um Abdullah, and Shadow of Paradise have screened at DOC NYC, the Chicago International Film Festival, Animafest Zagreb, Aesthetica Short Film Festival, Tricky Women/Tricky Realities (Austria), and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She was a 2018 Creative Culture Fellow at the Jacob Burns Film Center and received a 2021 NYSCA/NYFA Fellowship in Video/Film. She recently deepened her analog practice through an intensive in copperplate photogravure printmaking. Sahar is currently working on a documentary film and photography project exploring halal food and the diaspora, while also developing an animated feature about an abandoned girl navigating a post-apocalyptic world. Her work will be featured in the 2026 Artists’ Biennial group exhibition at Oregon Contemporary.
AGES: 11-14
PRICE: $400 / $325 / $250 sliding scale
DATES: Monday, July 6 through Friday, July 10
TIME: Drop-off 8:30-9am ; Pick-up 3-3:30pm
FOOD: Campers must bring a lunch, water bottle, and two snacks
POLICIES:Click here to see our full camp policies
ABOUT: In this hands-on camp, students will create their own storyboards from start to finish that is old school and drawn by hand! Taking inspiration from Joseph Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey, campers will invent bold characters, face exciting challenges, and build complete story arcs.
Over the week, they will explore visual storytelling, character design, and camera angles, creating short scenes that could be animated in the future. By Friday, each student will have a colorful 8–12 panel storyboard telling a story entirely of their own creation.
This camp sparks imagination, hones drawing skills, and teaches the art of narrative storytelling - perfect for young artists, storytellers, and future filmmakers or animators!
INSTRUCTOR BIO: Sahar al-Sawaf (she/her) is an Iraqi-American filmmaker, visual artist, and photographer based in Oregon. As an Iraqi woman, her work explores the entanglements of war, memory, displacement, and identity—delving into her Arab heritage, Muslim faith, and the immigrant experience in America through a deeply personal lens. Born in Saudi Arabia and raised in Lebanon and Iraq, she fled to California just before the Gulf War. Her multidisciplinary practice spans documentary filmmaking, storytelling, and photography—mediums she uses to amplify voices often left out of dominant narratives, particularly those of Middle Eastern women navigating the aftermath of conflict. Sahar has traveled extensively throughout the Middle East with her camera and sketchbook in hand, chronicling the lives of refugees who have fled. Her animated short films Uncle Ma’an, Um Abdullah, and Shadow of Paradise have screened at DOC NYC, the Chicago International Film Festival, Animafest Zagreb, Aesthetica Short Film Festival, Tricky Women/Tricky Realities (Austria), and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She was a 2018 Creative Culture Fellow at the Jacob Burns Film Center and received a 2021 NYSCA/NYFA Fellowship in Video/Film. She recently deepened her analog practice through an intensive in copperplate photogravure printmaking. Sahar is currently working on a documentary film and photography project exploring halal food and the diaspora, while also developing an animated feature about an abandoned girl navigating a post-apocalyptic world. Her work will be featured in the 2026 Artists’ Biennial group exhibition at Oregon Contemporary.