Amine Kouider, from Algeria, found a family among the students at Maharishi International University and learned to access the deepest place in his consciousness.

Filmmaker, songwriter, photographer travels world as MUM and TM ambassador
by Maharishi University of Management, Fairfield, Iowa, USA, Achievements
May 2013

When he was a child, Amine Kouider wanted to be a pilot, an ambassador, a businessman, and an artist. He is now able to combine all of his dreams as an independent filmmaker traveling around the world and as an ambassador for Maharishi University of Management (MUM) and the Transcendental Meditation technique.

Amine grew up in Algiers, Algeria, practicing the Transcendental Meditation technique. After studying engineering for one year in Algeria, he decided to study abroad. As soon as he saw the MUM website, he knew he wanted to study here.

Amine was inspired to become a filmmaker after listening to Professor Stuart Tanner talk about his career in documentary filmmaking. “I wanted to have adventure and go to places people haven’t been,” he said. In 2008, Amine won the best student film award from the Iowa Motion Picture Association for his film on contemporary Algerian artist Malek Salah.

Amine graduated from MUM in 2009 with a double major in business administration and media and communications. Then he worked full-time for the David Lynch Foundation making documentaries in schools, prisons, and homeless shelters where the Foundation introduced the TM program. In 2012, he became a teacher of the Transcendental Meditation technique and has been teaching the TM technique in Algeria.

Amine remembers fondly his time at MUM, where he found a family among the students. “I noticed that MUM gave us the notion of who we are,” he said. “I know who I am, and I have self-confidence. I know how to get to the deepest place in my consciousness, which I carried with me from MUM.”

Now based in Algeria, Amine has made short films on the Maharishi Vedic Pandits in India, the African refugee PTSD relief program, and several artists in the US and Algeria. He is also recording his first album, “Chbach,” and recently opened his first photo exhibit in Montreal featuring the Algerian desert. “What I want to do in the future, no matter where I am or what I am doing, is to be happy, and radiate that, and hopefully bring consciousness to people,” said Amine.

The new MA in Filmmaking degree program offered by the Media and Communications Department will begin this fall. Amine said, “It is great that MUM is offering an MA program in filmmaking because all the elements are there: the right teachers, the right environment, and the right equipment.”

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