Cameras on campus

cameras on campus

BY AYSWARYA MURTHY

last year at Ajyal Film Festival, several young students submitted some stunning entries for the Made in Qatar competition. We caught up with a few of the brilliant young filmmakers who spoke about their dreams, inspirations and plans.

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10% Yousef Al Madadi

Community College in Qatar About 10% : “A young man is obsessed with his mobile phone. Worried because his battery is running low, he gets into all kinds of trouble because of his beloved gadget - losing his job, crashing his car and even falling into a sewage pit! Is this the end of the love affair between man and machine? Told in hilarious flashbacks, 10% is a witty take on everyone’s dependence on mobiles that rings timely and true.”

Why we loved it: Starts out like a dark thriller before making an amusing u-turn. The lead actor is goofy and endearing and brings out the humour in everyday situations. The supporting cast is also quite amazing.

The jury at Made in Qatar chose 10% for the $5,000 prize money at the end of the two days' film showcase. The crowd went berserk when the winner was announced; it was a clear favourite. “This being our first competition, we just wanted to participate, show our films and learn from other filmmakers. We didn’t think we had any chance of winning until we saw how much the audience was laughing and enjoying the film,” he says. It was the best kind of feedback: smiles. “The film was light, mirroring our addictions to our phones and many of us could relate to the situations unfolding on the screen.”

Shot over three days and edited over two weeks, Yousef says it was challenging to work out how to switch between current events and flashbacks without confusing the viewers. “And because we couldn’t

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shoot inside a real sewer, we had to use various techniques and props to make it look like our main character was trapped in a real hole.”

A crop of professional actors (main lead Mohammed Al Sayari’s work was especially well received), a brilliant crew and the backing of the production company Hazawi pictures were critical to the film’s success, he says. “We were all working very hard to get into the festival.” And not only did they get in, but they blew everyone away.

Yousef is working as a film editor at the Doha Film Institute while simultaneously trying to complete his education, a bachelor’s degree from CCQ and film studies in the UK. He says his time is spread thin between studying, working and filmmaking, but he loves the challenge primarily because he wants to “represent Qatar in the filmmaking industry and create films that reflect our culture and our way of life”. In fact, he is currently starting work on a feature film about life in Qatar. He won’t tell us too much about it other than promising it’s going to be an “international comedy”.

amreeka laa hind al ansari Northwestern University alumni/ Harvard University, US

About Amreeka Laa : “Yousif desperately wants to go to university in New York City, so when the school he has applied to accepts him, he starts getting ready for the big move to the USA. His father, however, is opposed to the idea of his son going to a land where he will not be respected. Will Yousif’s dream succeed where his father’s could not? A fascinating examination of the hopes and dreams of two generations.”

Why we loved it: The story is of two generations trying to bridge the gaps between them and support each other while still trying to fulfill their individual aspirations. This could have easily been reminiscent of a soap opera but the sarcastic tone of the film helps get the message across even better.

Hind wanted to do a semester abroad because she was desperately trying to avoid the filmmaking requirement here in Doha.

Ironically, her experiences following that inspired her to make the movie, Amreeka Laa. After she applied and was accepted to study in the United States, she had only one month in which to convince her reluctant mother. “Not only was I the eldest, I was also a girl and this

was making it very hard for me to leave for the US. I don’t know what’s the impression about the US among our parents (who don’t have the same kind of negative judgments about the UK) but both girls and guys struggle with this in equal measure,” she says. But not only did she end up going, she also shot some scenes for the movie there.

Hind didn’t intend for the movie to be a comedy, but is happy that it turned out that way. “I tend to be very sarcastic so when I write it I don’t usually think of it as funny. I was surprised (but pleased) at the laughs we got.” Originally a class project during her senior year, Amreeka Laa was shot on a student budget, with the school’s equipment and with help from Innovation Films,

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where Hind used to spend most of her time. “I had put it aside after my time at NU. I certainly didn’t think I would be taking it to festivals. But after Ajyal, DFI asked me if they could submit it for a festival in France. It is going to be screened there in January,” she smiles. She would go, but it conflicts with her classes back in Boston.

She started to realize her latent love for filmmaking after she started shooting documentaries. “I realized I liked to deliver stories this way. And after taking more classes on the Middle East, I knew it was time to talk about issues that go on in the country and region through film and create space for discourse.” Qatar doesn’t have a much of a reading culture, she says, but films could take their place, making people think, allowing them to go beyond the surface. This is why she feels Qatar should take filmmaking more seriously. “We youth have this opportunity to deliver a message through a medium that relatively outside government control and we should utilize it.” But Hind has learnt that you have

to smart about your narrative, nevertheless. “I was asked to remove a few lines from film because they might be considered offensive (even though they were quite realistic). There is always a sense of censorship, but I want to keep pushing the limits,” she says. But there is one aspect of directing films that she is yet to get used to: actually directing people. “I am very individualistic and dependent on myself so it was hard for me to command people to do things. As a director I had to tell every single person on the crew what to do. Eventually I had to adapt,” she says, shrugging.

As she prepares to fly back to the States, she is already planning her next projects. “I would definitely be shooting over the summer. Most probably it would be a documentary that focuses on Arab communities there, especially the Yemenis who make up a sizeable number. I would like to deliver their voices, the challenges they face, the backgrounds they come from and so on through the documentary. Plan B is a dark comedy thriller,” she says mysteriously.

hind's dream suzannah mirghani

Center for International and Regional Studies, Georgetown University About Hind’s Dream : “Hind, a young bedouin woman, spends weeks alone while her husband is away hunting. Their tent is her entire world, yet her dreams and thoughts carry her miles away, over the desert, under the sea, to the fast-changing urban landscape of Doha. Past and future, tradition and innovation, reality and dreams smoothly blend in the evocative monologue of a woman who might be living in a confined space, but whose sense and sensibility are larger than life.”

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Why we loved it: It is beautifully shot using every landscape available in Qatar: turquoise waters and endless desert to towering skyscrapers and even the Richard Serra sculptures up North. This combined with some goosebumps-inducing poetry immerses viewers in the surreal.

Suzannah writes: “The making of this film was totally unconventional and followed no rules whatsoever. When I started, I did not have a set script and the whole process was thoroughly experimental from beginning to end. All I knew was that I wanted to explore some metaphysical ideas related to life in the Gulf and to the desert and desert-dwellers. With newly formed Gulf cities as my background, I thought it would be interesting to explore the fluid concepts of time and the unconscious, and how such shifts can have a lasting – and perhaps jarring – effect on our ways of thinking. Since the skylines of many Gulf cities sprang up within the span of just a few years, I began imagining what it would be like – and this is very possible still – for a Bedouin girl or boy, who has never seen a city, to one day stumble out of the edge of the desert and look upon the rising steel structures of a metropolis. What kind of a shock would this bring?

Would they think it was just another mirage?

“Qatar offers so many visually-stunning film locations for free and it was really only necessary to take a camera out and shoot all that was on offer. The natural beauty of the desert is free to film as are the man-made skyscrapers, both finished and unfinished, and the public artworks scattered all around the country, including the surreal Richard Serra East-West/West-East structures, Maman by Louise Bourgeois, Damien Hirst’s The Miraculous Journey, etc.

“I gradually collected snippets of stories that I have heard about the desert, about fire-loving jinn, about mirages, and about the

Bedouin, and began writing a free flowing poetic narrative. The most challenging part of making the film was also the most interesting. I made this film with the help of several students from Georgetown University in Qatar who contributed freely to the making of the film with no strict instructions. The two principal actors Asli Altinisik and Athanasios Sardellis acted according to 'mood' rather than following any set script. Haya Al Romaihi translated the original English poem I wrote into her own Arabic poem, and was free to create the Arabic poem in any way she wished. In the end, the Arabic poem was narrated in Arabic in the voiceover and the English poem appears in the English subtitles.

Razan Al Humaidi recorded the Arabic voiceover privately and then sent me the files to include in the editing process. In the end this worked beautifully; before recording her voiceover, she was able to watch the silent footage of the film in her own time without any overbearing instructions from me. She gauged the melancholic mood of the film and then delivered her narrative tone accordingly.

“Hind’s Dream premiered at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival and received some very thoughtful reviews. It won an award for artistic vision and poetic screenwriting at Ajyal and we are absolutely thrilled about this award! It really shows that the film industry in Qatar is open to and is encouraging filmmakers to think differently and beyond the usual. When I made Hind’s Dream, I really did not expect such a surreal piece to resonate with so many people, but I have been so pleased and galvanized by the response.

“I am currently working on pre-production of several other short films; just a few minutes of small ideas here and there. One thing I learned from making Hind’s Dream is that it is not necessary to get bogged down by rules and processes, but to work freely and at ease on the things you love to do. “

At Ajyal Film Festival. Hind's Dream team from right to left: Athanasios Sardellis, Arwa Elsanosi, Badr Rahima, Suzannah Mirghani

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lumière aisha abduljawad Northwestern University

About Lumière : “Shot in evocative black and white and underscored by classical music, Lumière is an abstract symphony of images that plays on the stark contrast between light and shadow, open and closed space, and urban and natural landscapes.”

Why we loved it: Lumière meanders along to an unknown destination, taking you along with it. It doesn’t tell you where it’s going and you don’t care because the ride is a visual treat.

Another class project that found its way into Ajyal, Lumière might look like the evolution of a photography project. But it isn’t, Aisha assures us. “It’s an experimental film at its core, and true to one of the fundamental aspects of experimental filmmaking, it does whatever it takes to deliver a very personal message.” Which is why she feels the lack of narrative could come across as conspicuous to some. “In the end though, I would encourage viewers to watch Lumière with an open mind, as the message is very much open to interpretation. There are no right or wrong

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understandings of my film.”

Shot across Qatar and France during the course of a month, Lumière was a challenge to edit. “Difficult still was finding/ composing the soundtrack to exactly fit the story I wanted to tell in the film,” she says. While the cinematographic aspect was an inspirational process, Aisha found herself fussing over the smallest details during post-production.

But it paid off. “The best feedback I’ve heard about the film was from a woman who pulled me aside and told me that it pushed her imagination and made her think hard about what she was seeing.

That’s something always lovely to hear, because it’s exactly what I aimed to do – not just to give people something beautiful to watch, but something to be actively engaging their minds in,” she says.

qarar ali al ansari bangor university, uk

About Qarar : “Like a George Romero movie or an instalment of The Walking Dead set in post-apocalyptic Qatar, Qarar tells the suspenseful tale of a young married couple trying to survive an epidemic that has turned the population into zombies. While he battles the monsters, she hides a secret... Sparse use of CGI and a keen eye for atmosphere make this a great addition to the zombie myth.”

Why we loved it: Zombies in Doha. What’s there not to love? You might think you have seen it all when it comes to zombies but this crisp tale of horror will surprise you.

Ali achieved fame with I, an adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe’s The Tell Tale Heart. With Qarar he delves deeper into the horror/thriller genre, only this time with zombies. “Qarar took us six months to adapt and construct for it be ready to shoot. This of course included script preparation and developments for characters, set design and wardrobe.

Principal photography started shortly after and took five days to film and complete. Post Production, color and sound took a total of three months. The CG element was intense and most of our time was dedicated to the CG work,” Ali says. And it was worth every minute they spent on it. Viewers won’t forget in a hurry the shot of the hero looking on the familiar Doha skyline, only this one has been decimated after the onset of a zombie epidemic.

“Besides the CG work, it was a challenge to get our actors and team on board something so out of the box and convince them of the

benefits of tackling this specific genre,” he says. When asked if he thought the audience was too jaded now with the zombie genre going mainstream, Ali says Qarar wasn’t about setting a benchmark in zombie fiction. “Qatar is in the process of moving forward on all fronts in many sectors. This genre was a challenge for us in all aspects and our primary goal was to challenge ourselves as young filmmakers through CG, special effects, visual effects, etc. We wanted to prove that we are able to deliver what is popular and mainstream at a certain quality to prove that Qatar harbors the potential.” And the response has been overwhelming. “The best feedback of course was not only the supporting words of family and loved ones but also the recognition accorded to me and the team from the State through DFI and other bodies of media who lauded the step we took with this film.” In the coming months, Ali will be focusing on completing his film degree. But he is also currently writing two short films that target two different genres that he hasn’t done before.

“God willing these will come to fruition soon for all to see.”

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