Aljazeera Media Network Director General Sheikh Ahmad bin Jassim Al Thani (left) presenting the posthumous honorary award to relatives of the slain Aljazeera reporter Mohamed Al Massalama during the opening of the 9th Aljazeera International Documentary Film Festival at the Sheraton Doha yesterday. Salim Matramkot
BY RAYNALD C RIVERA
DOHA: The spotlight is on Chinese documentary films at this year’s Aljazeera International Documentary Film Festival, which opened here yesterday.
More than 30 films from China are part of the festival, and one of them was screened as the opening film late last evening. Appointment, a 15-minute documentary, is a love story involving a deaf and talented boy and a kind and beautiful girl who meet again after being separated since childhood.
The festival, which is in its ninth year, has 205 films in competition, up from 168 last year. The entries include 23 long films, 82 medium films, 53 short films, 36 new-horizon films and 11 promising films.
The festival has received a total of 1,392 entries from 90 countries.
The festival is hosting a number of Arab guests who will showcase the literature, art and culture of the region. They include Noor Al Sherief, Egyptian actor and musician Iman Elbahr Darweesh and Iraqi poet Abdulrazzaq Abdulwahid.
A seminar on ‘Cinema and Human Rights’ will take place at 6.30pm tonight. A seminar on ‘Italian cinema and Palestinian cause’ will also be held. The four-day festival also features an exhibition of TV channels, media and advertisement companies from different parts of the world.
Inaugurating the event, Sheikh Ahmad bin Jassim Al Thani, Director-General of Aljazeera Media Network, highlighted the festival’s role in opening new horizons for human creativity through a platform that “goes into the heart of the people”.
Slain Aljazeera reporter Mohammed Al Massalma was honoured at the opening of the festival at the Sheraton Doha.
The 33-year-old Syrian reporter, who used the pseudonym Mohamed Al Horani, was shot by a sniper three times while covering fighting in the southern province of Deraa in Syria three months ago. He was an activist in the revolt against President Bashar Al Assad before joining the network.
Sheikh Ahmad presented a posthumous honorary award to Al Massalma’s family. The Peninsula
