DOHA: Industry experts and emerging filmmakers have lauded Doha Film Institute’s (DFI) Qumra for setting a new model to promote emerging film talent by offering “a real platform for networking.”
“The most important aspect of film events is to gain access to people,” observed Rashid Abdelhamid, the Palestinian producer of Dégradé, a Qumra Work in Progress project, one of 29 that are mentored by industry experts at Qumra. “The networking opportunities here are great.” He said that one of the first funding for the film with an all-women cast, directed by Tarzan and Arab Abunasser, came from the Doha Film Institute.
The DFI had extended similar funding support to Lisbon-born director Joao Salaviza for his feature-length debut, Mountain. The film’s producer, Francois D’Artemare, also highlighted the value that Qumra brings in making “new connections and identifying ways for newer collaborations.”
Anocha Suwichakornpong, writer-director of By the Time it Gets Dark, said the support from the Institute for her film, on which she had been working for nearly three years, “came as a big surprise.” She has been meeting a number of industry professionals, including potential sales agents at Qumra. “The nature of the film – set in the 1970s about a less-known real incident with a fictional narrative of interwoven stories of several characters – was very hard and all thanks to the DFI for the support.”
Remi Bonhomme, Programme Manager, from the Cannes Critics Week, said the selection of films at Qumra Projects is very good, and that he arrived in Doha, despite the hectic schedule of screenings at Cannes, “to meet the filmmakers and answer questions.” He said that ten years ago, films from the Arab world were funded by non-Arabs, which would mean the “the stories are said from a European point of view for a European audience.”
Today, with support from entities such as the DFI, Arab filmmakers can tell stories from their point of view, said Bonhomme, adding that at Cannes there is no distinction made in the selection of films – whether it is from the Arab world or by first-time filmmakers.
The Peninsula
