Animation · Museum partnership

He Who Doesn’t Know the Falcon Roasts It

From a folktale told in Qatar, to a museum exhibition, to my own animated series.

The challenge: A Qatari folktale about compassion and forgiveness, ready for a new audience.
Audience: Museum visitors, families and young viewers on YouTube.
My role: Collector and editor of the story. Writer and producer of the animated film. Chair of the Cultural Awareness Team.
Tools: Story adaptation
Storyboards
Character Guide
AI image and video
Lip sync
ffmpeg
Sound design

01Watch

He Who Doesn’t Know the Falcon Roasts It · Episode 1 openingTitle, story crawl and sunrise. 2D animation with a Pixar-inspired look. 68 seconds.

02The story

“He Who Doesn’t Know the Falcon Roasts It” is a Qatari folktale I collected and edited.

It concludes Lila Abu-Lughod’s opening chapter in On the Move: Reframing Nomadic Pastoralism (Doha: Qatar Museums; [Milan]: Skira, 2022). The book thanks me and my Qatar University faculty editors. The National Museum of Qatar featured the story in its On the Move exhibition (Fall 2022 – Winter 2023).

03From story to screen

I am writing and producing an animated series of the story. Episode 1 is in production.

Look: 2D animation, Pixar-inspired. Clean shapes, expressive faces and cinematic light.
Setting: an authentic Qatari desert and culture.
Rules: a written style guide, cast guide, cultural-accuracy rules and a QA checklist for every scene.
Sound: story subtitles, voice and lip sync, and an original music theme.