By Maria Hussain

Emirati student filmmakers have flourished in the industry, leaving an everlasting impression on the minds

of the audience by demonstrating innovative, fresh ideas and executing them in a notable manner. This year, the Gulf Film Festival witnessed an overflow of films in the category of students’ shorts, which consist of remarkable list of finalists.

With over 30 submissions, Emiratis take up majority number of entries along with spectacular films produced by filmmakers from Iraq, Qatar, Yemen, Bahrain, Oman and Saudi Arabia.

The films cover various striking genres dealing with strong subjects and improvised filmmaking skills, these movies aim to raise awareness over certain social issues, showcase live experiences through short documentaries, instill a touch of drama, as well as display the talents these young students possess.

The female filmmakers are tough competitors and have succeeded to embark through a wonderful journey through the medium of cinema shorts.

GFF Daily caught up with a few student filmmakers as they spoke about their films and shared their experiences. The winner will be announced on the closing night dated Monday, 16th April, 2012.

Day 04 - April 13, 2012

TOP

STO

RY Gulf Student Short features intrigues and provokes audiences

GFF DAILY

The finalist of Gulf Student Short competition. To watch the video, click here.To know about the movie timings, click here.

ORGANIZER: MEDIA PARTNER:

Photo Credits: Lizzele Rodrigues

Meet your finalist to the Gulf Student Short competition!

“Children portrays the desperate escape of a mother and her children from a scary, hungry beast, through animation demon-strates a huge social message that would be easily digested by the audience, and it urges to bring about a change in the society.” -Mohammad Fikree (Children)

“The message we’re trying to send out through this film is that nothing is everlasting or eternal; everything has to end one day or the other. The example of human life makes it easy to demon-strate how an existence is obliterated someday or the other.”

“The idea came to me when I noticed how my younger brother does something wrong and covers it up with more lies. I want-ed to spread a message through this movie, telling that people shouldn’t cover up their mistakes- it’s better to deal with them patiently and not hiding it and developing a layer of deceit.” -Tariq AlKazim (Death Circle)

“Everything inspires me, but as far as this movie is concerned, I wanted to show a struggle of a boy just to buy an ice cream with a small amount of money he saves.” - Khalid AlAbdulla’s (Ice Cream)

“There are very few filmmakers who would make films not of popular demand but push the boundaries for more serious cinema. The best thing about GFF is the variety of movies for we have independent movies rather than the popular blockbusters.”

- Jassim Al Romaihi and Md Rezwan Al Islam, A Falcon, A Revolution

“My movie talks about how young Emirati women are embed-ding fashion into tradition. The debate of fashion vs. modesty is put forward is an extremely light-hearted manner, thus it is enjoy-able.” -Abdulrahman Al Madani (The Gamboo3a Revolution)

“It is amazing to see young Emirati filmmakers taking up such competitions for this is a story of a girl who is saddened by grief on her wedding day, and how she embarks on a new start.” -Fatema Abdullah Al Nayeh ( Life Spray)

“It has been a wonderful experience. I had the opportunity not only showcase my movie but interact with film-makers from vari-ous regions.” - Suzannah Mirghani (Hamour)

- Aisha Abdullah (Beginning. End)

Gulf Film Festival pays tribute to late Kuwaiti cinema writerBy Nazia Fatma

Gulf Film Festival this year honored the late journalist, Najah Karam, (who

passed away on January 2012) and her work of 20 years to the Arab film industry by making a compilation of her works which will be in Arabic.

Named ‘Cinema: A Reflection’- the book offers insights into the evolution and history of Arabic cinema, particularly films from the Gulf region. Late Najah Karam was valued because of her for her critical evaluation of the region’s film industry and its people and promoted the industry as well.

The book also includes the passionate

works that she did in Dubai International Film festival, as well as Gulf Film Festival in the past along with a collection of her interviews with various Arab film celebrities who she interviewed while covering DIFF and GFF. Also it has collection of challenges faced by the Gulf industry and her view point on the western cinema.

Festival Director Masoud Amralla Al Ali said, “Passionate about cinema, Najah Karam was one of the pioneers of film journalism in the Gulf region, reporting on cinema for over 20 years and working with the Kuwait Cinema Club. She also worked on short films, and worked tirelessly to promote the region’s film industry, actively

taking part in our festivals. The book is our humble tribute in honor of her contribution to Gulf cinema.”

While her children, Dalal and Musaed Abdulmajeed Ali Al-Sarra said, “We thank our mom for opening before us the world of cinema, through perspectives that we could never have gained otherwise. We thank the management of GFF for publishing the book, which indeed is a reflection of her love and passion for cinema.”

The book also aims to extend its gratitude to all the journalists who have been actively involved in promoting the region’s film industry.

ONE-ON-ONE

WHAT’S NEXT?

Publication by the Media and Communcations Department, Manipal University Dubai Executive Editors: Joseph John, Sabir Haque Managing Editor: Megna Kalvani Technical In-Charge: Sambhram Pattanayak

Production Designers: Khadija Shabbir, Arathi Devadas Proofreader: Nazia Fatma

April 11, 2012

12pm – 13.15: Workshop - Short Films: between Filmmakers and

Distributors(Filmmakers’ Lounge)

13.45 – 15.22: Film for Children (Grand Cinemas)

14.30 - 15.45 :Official Gulf Student Short

competition #4(Grand Cinemas)

16.15 - 17.46 : Official Gulf Student Short

competition #5(Grand Cinemas)

19:00 - 20.24 : Official selection -

LIGHTS #1(Grand Cinemas)

20.30 - 22.07 : SEA SHADOW

by Nawaf Al-Janahi 21

21.30 - 23.09 : Official International short competition #2

(Grand Cinemas)

23.55: Gulf Nights -

‘Jordan: A Case Study’(Filmmakers’ Lounge)

For the film screening schedule, click here

By Mary Joy

A musical documentary directed by Francesco Cabras and Alberto Molinari, The

Akram Tree is a story of a British- Bangladeshi choreographer Akram Khan, who is born and brought up in the South of United Kingdom.

Shot in Abu Dhabi, the movie is based on true events of Akram Khan. The movie shows his struggles through his professional and personal life. It is his passion for dancing that gives him a vision to create a team which involves seven musical artists from different parts of the world.

During the documentary, he talks about how he got involved with each artist and how they each played an important role in his life.

By Heena Makhijani

Living in a bubble of absolute filmogra-phy, Gerard Courant is a avant-garde

French director who has managed to cre-ate a niche in cinema. His films are not documentaries, they are personal, they connect and most importantly they speak for themselves.

Courant’s deep relationship with his cam-era is apparent by how he shot each per-son who wanted to speak or interview him. He is fascinated by everyone and anyone.

Screening, Cinématon at the fifth edition of Gulf Film Festival, Gerard Courant’s 167-hour long experimental film consists of a series of over 2,512 silent vignettes (ciné-matons), each 3 minutes and 25 seconds long, of various celebrities, artists, journal-

ists and friends of the director, each using this allotted time in his own way. Until 2011 this film was the longest released film ever with the simplest storyline.

The standalone feature of this movie is its silence. “Silent films are like a mental strip-tease, a lot of vulnerable emotions with-out sound. With words one wears a mask, but as soon as this mask is stripped off, the emotions are very evident,” said Courant.

Courant began this journey to celebrate filmmakers and capture their personalities on camera for he believes its quietness makes the movie special.

The theatre screenings of Courant’s works in Cinématon 2351 to 2503 will be at 11.30 AM on Sunday, April 15, at Grand Cinema 12 –and is screened for free to the public.

Courant is also presenting group portraits and couples, as part of his repertoire, at GFF 2012. Visitors to the festival can also watch his installations across the festival venue.

Cinématon’s first screening at GFF leaves the audiences in aweAkram Tree

REVIEW

Gerard Courant, Director of CinematonPhoto Courtesy : www.gulffilmfest.com

“Filmmaking made me stronger and made me find the real me” - Hamzah TarzanBy Heena Makhijani

What inspired you to make Carrom?What inspired me to make Carrom is the

culture of Hejaz. It is a concoction of many cultures. The idea was to make a movie that highlights the Hejazi culture way that symbolizes its neglect by the locals. This movie connects the human side of Abu Hanan (protagonist of the movie) to represent the fading culture of Hejaz. A father who waits for his daughter to play Carrom.

Is the story inspired from a personal experience?

Yes, it was inspired from my grandmother. She is the reason I made the movie. I turned her character into a guy which became my main cinematic challenged as for the audience it’s easy to sympathize with a woman than with a man.

How did you choose the actors in the film?My protagonist is working with me for the

second time. I am a director of picture; the picture is a holy thing for me. It is the most important thing for my work. Even a bad story line is hidden by great camera work. I think my actor is really photogenic, the

camera loves the guy. He is Saudi Arabian but he looks French. We grew together as actors and directors by working for Carrom.

Why did you change careers from engineering to filmmaking?

Because of the situation of Saudi Arabia and my family background. You see in my family all my uncles are engineers; even managers are looked down upon. So I enrolled in computer engineering and a year before my graduation I found out that I will never be creative in this field.

I loved filmmaking and I made a movie. I went to the university and said, ‘I can’t take it anymore; you can’t teach me anything anymore, I am a filmmaker’. This was the same time when I was suffering from personal turmoil. I was going through a bad break up; filmmaking made me stronger and made me find the real Hamzah Tarzan.

Hamzah Tarzan, Saudi filmmaker of ‘Carrom’

Photo Credits: Arathi Devadas