DOHA: The Doha Film Institute (DFI), in partnership with Italy’s Giffoni Experience, will host the inaugural Doha Giffoni Youth Media Summit during the second edition of Ajyal Youth Film Festival.
The Summit to be held on December 2 and 3 will gather a delegation of 30 film industry professionals from around the world to exchange views about the state of cinema for youth, with a focus on how new media and social networks are affecting it.
With the theme ‘Film Festivals in the Age of New Media’, the Summit to be held at Katara will be curated by Giffoni’s Festival Director, Claudio Gubitosi, along with Wassime Moslih Achkar from Al Jazeera Media Network.
The goal is to build a year-long initiative revolving around two annual events. The first takes place in Doha each December, and includes a series of working sessions; the second in Giffoni in July, to evaluate the progress of work begun in Doha six months earlier.
A worldwide network of youth organisations and individuals will be established during the first edition with the intention to draft the constitution for an international authority aimed at managing and promoting cultural events for children and youth.
Delegates include programmers and directors of film festivals for children and youth, and representatives from national screen agencies with a vested interest in entertainment content for young people. Participants from Qatar and the Gulf region who specialise in working with young people will also participate.
Confirmed delegates include representatives from Arab Thought Foundation (Qatar), Bahrain Festival Days and Naqsh Short Film Festival (Bahrain), British Film Institute (UK), Cairo International Film Festival for Children (Egypt), Chinh India Kids Film Festival (India), Dubai International Film Festival and Children’s International Film Festival, Dubai, Innovation Films (Qatar), International Children Film Festival (Iran), Sharjah International Children’s Film Festival, Silatech (Qatar), Yabous Productions (Palestine) and the International Documentary Film Festival in Agadir (Morocco), among others. The Peninsula
