Yerham

360° Creative Direction, Film, Brand, & Cultural Project

Yerham is a hybrid narrative–documentary film and cultural project exploring collective grief, developed and executed through a full creative ecosystem spanning film, brand identity, merchandise, editorial, music, and community-driven fundraising.

My Role
Creator · Creative Director · Writer · Producer · Editor · Co-Director

Sole producer overseeing creative vision, funding strategy, production, post-production, and audience rollout
Led a multi-channel creative launch including film, editorial, merch, music, and digital distribution
Balanced deeply personal storytelling with scalable creative systems and brand consistency

The Challenge

After the loss of my brother to suicide, I returned home to Kansas City to film within the real-time grief of my family. The challenge was twofold:

Creative: How to portray mourning without spectacle, flattening, or explanation
Operational: How to fund, produce, and release an emotionally intimate film independently while protecting the integrity of the story

Yerham demanded a creative approach rooted in trust, restraint, and human-centered design — both on screen and across every supporting artifact.

Creative Vision

North Star:
Humanize grief through specificity — letting identity live in details rather than exposition.

Blurred documentary and narrative forms
Used real family members, real spaces, real rituals
Designed every supporting element (poster, merch, zine, trailer, music) to feel quiet, grounded, and intimate

💰 Funding & Community Strategy

Creative-led fundraising rooted in transparency and storytelling

ArtsKC Teri Rogers Film Grant: $10,000
GoFundMe: $20,000+ raised through social media and direct outreach
Built trust with audiences by sharing process, intention, and vulnerability

🎬 Film & Storytelling

Co-directed and wrote the film
Edited picture, dialogue, and sound design
Collaborated with colorist on final look & tone as well as composer on original score
Oversaw final delivery and festival-ready assets

Close-up of a person's face with dark hair, a nose ring, and closed eyes, lying down in a dimly lit environment. Overlaid text and a donation progress chart are also visible.

🧠 Brand & Cultural Extensions

Yerham was designed as a world, not just a film.

Yerham Mixtape / Playlist
Curated songs featured in the film + music that shaped the emotional tone during production
Yerham Zine
Designed and produced editorial companion expanding the themes of grief, memory, and ritual
Yerham Merch Collection
Concepted and designed:
- T-shirt
- Crewneck sweatshirt
- Hoodie
- Tote bag
- Corduroy hat
- Coffee mug
  → Merchandise functioned as both fundraising and storytelling artifacts
Official Film Poster
Collaborated with a graphic designer; led creative direction and final approval

Promotional graphic for a mixtape titled "Yerham Mixtape" featuring a cassette tape, tracklist with song titles and artists, and a QR code for quick access. The design includes a crumpled paper background, bold text, and instructions for mobile access.

Collection of black, gray, and red clothing and accessories with watermelon patch and 'yerham' branding, including t-shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies, tote bags, caps, and a tumbler.

A woman with closed eyes and a nose ring, wearing a beanie, lying down with her hand on her head, on a poster for the film "Yerham" by Khitam Jabr. The poster has dark tones and red text.

📣 Launch & Distribution Design

Edited Official Yerham Trailer with feedback from co-director and DP
Designed Instagram & TikTok launch grids for Balla Bateekh Production Co.
Built and designed email campaign for subscriber rollout
Created a cohesive visual language across platforms

Collage of nine video thumbnails: First shows a documentary synopsis about family mourning after a brother's suicide; Second shows a woman speaking at a protest with the text 'GRIEF SPEAKS ITS OWN LANGUAGE'; Third features a person in a car speaking, with a comment about Egyptian music; Fourth displays a woman with closed eyes during a moment of grief; Fifth has a woman smiling outdoors with tattoos, holding a paper, discussing Meryl Streep; Sixth shows a woman talking with a watermelon slice sticker; Seventh presents a film note about Yerham's tribute, with a black background and text; Eighth depicts two women talking, with subtitles about a conversation on Yerham's making; Ninth shows a person with glasses in a classroom or art studio, with a caption about color grading.

Six images related to activism and film, including trailers for the film "Yerham," two women sitting outdoors discussing, a colorful design with text about community and artistry, a stylized watermelon illustration, and a poster for the film "Balla Bateekh," which is about cinema against dehumanization.

🎙 Directors’ Statement (Longform)

Produced a 25-minute filmed conversation between myself and my co-director
Explored:
- Ethics of filming grief
- Trust behind the camera
- Blending documentary and narrative
Served as both press asset and audience education tool

Creative Leadership & Values

I created Yerham as both a personal act of mourning and a tribute to my family’s resilience and traditions. Returning home after the loss of my brother, I wanted to capture the texture of grief not as an abstraction, but as something deeply embodied, in the trembling of a prayer & the silence between words. As a Palestinian filmmaker, my work is grounded in reclaiming and humanizing stories often reduced to statistics or headlines. With Yerham, I wasn’t interested in spectacle or explanation; I wanted to invite audiences into the intimacy of loss as it is truly lived, its heaviness, its tenderness, and its unexpected moments of connection. My hope is that the film resonates universally, reminding us that while grief is deeply personal, it also binds us together. In honoring my own family’s journey, I aim to reflect a truth that transcends borders: that mourning is also a form of love.

x khitam

Credits

Directors: Khitam Jabr & Julia Barnett

Cinematographer: Chris Durr

Editor & Sound Design: Khitam Jabr

Composer: April Centrone

Featuring: The Jabr Family