Abdulaziz Al Khater (right), CEO of Doha Film Institute (DFI), with Everette Dennis, Dean and CEO of Northwestern University in Qatar (NU-Q).
Doha: Northwestern University in Qatar (NU-Q) and Doha Film Institute (DFI) announced yesterday that they will partner to help bring local film and media work front and center at the fourth edition of Doha Tribeca Film Festival (DTFF).
The two organisations agreed to a collaboration last week that allows for a variety of activities to support local media producers, advance media literacy, and promote Qatar’s emerging film and media industry, crowned by a co-hosted opening night for the ‘Made in Qatar’ series on November 18.
DTFF recently announced that this year’s edition of DTFF will showcase the largest number of ‘Made in Qatar’ films yet, including 15 world premieres.
“We are enthusiastic about the growing number of films featuring in ‘Made in Qatar’, and we hope that shining a joint spotlight on this talent and encouraging young people in Qatar to get involved in media will inspire a generation that will go on to lead a prosperous creative industry in Qatar,” NU-Q dean and CEO Everette Dennis said.
At DTFF Family Days on November 23 and 24, NU-Q will give young people and their parents the opportunity to try presenting news from the festival in a simulated television studio on Katara’s Corniche.
“Media and creative industries are one of the fastest growing sectors globally, and in the Middle East alone is growing at an annual rate of five percent. DFI is committed to supporting the growth of these industries in line with Qatar’s national vision of developing a strong knowledge backed country,” Abdulaziz Al Khater, CEO of DFI, said.
NU-Q is also celebrating the selection of its students’ works for screening in ‘Made in Qatar’ series, which will open with a red carpet screening of “Lyrics Revolt.” The film, produced by NU-Q alumni Ashlene Ramadan, Rana Khaled, Melanie Fridgant, and Shannon Farhoud, portrays how Arab hip-hop gave voice to youth-led movements for change across the region.
DTFF has selected three other films that began as student work at NU-Q, which include Amna Saleh Al Khalaf’s Brains of Empowerment, an experimental film about the empowerment of women in the Middle East, Ghazil – The Story of Rashed and Jawaher, a family drama by Sarah Al Derham, and a film by Sara Al Saadi, Latifa Abdulla Al Darwish, and Maaria Assami, titled Bader. The short documentary follows a young Qatari boy who uses poetry to help him overcome distractions and other challenges in a local Doha school.
NU-Q faculty will share their expertise in a series of DTFF panels. “Emerging Cinema of Change” will be led by Joe Khalil, an Associate Professor in NU-Q’s Communication programme, and will examine the role of films and filmmakers during times of social change.
Regionally known Arab filmmakers and artists from different generations and backgrounds will join the panel to address this issue in light of events in the Arab World over the past two years.
Other NU-Q faculty leading discussions at the festival include Tim Wilkerson, award-winning filmmaker and Assistant Professor at NU-Q, on films about Algerian independence; Professor in Residence Khaled Hroub and Assistant Professor of Journalism Justin Martin, on the portrayal of Arabs in western media (following the November 22 screening of “Valentino’s Ghost”); and Scott Curtis, Associate Professor of Communication and film historian, on the hit Iranian film “No Entry for Men.”
The Peninsula
