About us
We film what refuses to be forgotten
Planet One is an independent documentary house based in Punchbowl, NSW, Australia. We follow real lives across seasons — not for a headline, but for a film that stays.
We build films around people, not press cycles. That means months of research before a camera opens, small crews that can sit in a kitchen without changing the air, and an edit that protects silence as much as speech.
From development and research to shooting, edit, sound design and delivery, the work stays under one roof. One conversation. One horizon. No assembly line between the person on screen and the person who cuts the film.
We shoot in Arabic first, with English subtitles built into the cut — not added as an afterthought. Festivals, broadcasters and streaming platforms across the region and beyond have carried our work; the standard does not change with the screen.
On location
A crew small enough to disappear into the room — and stay until the story is ready.
Planet One started as a two-person kit and a stubborn belief: the region’s most urgent stories were being told too fast, or not at all. We grew by staying in rooms longer than the news cycle allowed — with shepherds, night workers, potters, fishermen, astronomers and children who refuse to stop. The company is still small on purpose. Size would change the films.
What we stand on
Three rules we do not negotiate when a camera is in the room.
Truth first
No staged reality, no hired extras, no lines written for someone else’s mouth. If a well is dry, we film the dry well. The audience is trusted with what actually happened — including the hours where nothing dramatic occurs.
Cinematic craft
Documentary subject, feature-film language: light, rhythm, sound and frame treated with the same care as a fiction picture. Patience is a tool. So is a locked-off shot that lasts long enough for a face to change.
Local roots
Stories from our region, told by people from it — in the language they think in. We do not parachute in for a week and leave with a thesis. Access is earned by returning, translating ourselves, and letting the film belong to the place that made it.
What we do
End-to-end production, or a single craft if that is what the story needs.
Documentary production
Features, shorts and series: research, access, shooting and a finished cut ready for festivals or broadcast.
Branded films
Commissioned work that still looks like cinema — for institutions that want truth, not a brochure.
Aerial & drone
Landscape, coast and desert from above, flown by a DOP who also shoots on the ground.
Post production
Picture edit, colour, titles and delivery masters — the same hands that were in the field.
Sound design & score
Location sound, atmospheres and a score that leaves room for wind, wells and traffic.
Fixing & field logistics
Permits, drivers, translators and the unglamorous work that lets a small crew stay out for a season.
The crew
A small unit. Everyone on set also sits in the edit.
Hamza Al-Daboor
Founder / Director
Started the house. Directs long-form work and stays with a story until the cut is honest.
Yara Mansour
Director
Leads character-driven films. Builds trust off-camera so the frame can stay still.
Lina Sabbagh
Cinematographer
Lights rooms as they are. Prefers available light and a lens that does not announce itself.
Karim Nassar
Editor
Cuts for breath, not plot points. Protects the hours where nothing happens on purpose.
Mira Haddad
Sound Designer
Builds the film you hear when the picture goes quiet — wells, wind, traffic, rooms.
Rami Sultan
Aerial / DOP
Flies landscape and desert, then comes down and operates on the ground the same day.