The theme of the workshop would be “veil” (hijab).
Doha: Qatar Cinema and Film Distribution Company has planned a hands-on, intensive four-month filmmaking workshop for the Qatari youth.
The company will conduct this filmmaking workshop in collaboration with Girls Creativity Centre and US Embassy in Qatar. “The plan will take final shape soon as consultations with the US embassy are still underway. The embassy supported a similar filmmaking workshop around two years ago,” said AbdulRahman Najdi, General Manager, Qatar Cinema and Film Distribution Company.
He said the theme of filmmaking workshop would be “veil” (hijab). “At the end of 3-4 months long intensive workshop, participants will produce short feature films on veil,” he said, adding that the subject had been selected to repel West’s misunderstandings on the subject.
Only Qatari nationals will be enrolled for the workshop. “We will select 10 students; 5 each from boys and girls. The age-limit is 17-25 years. They will get training of all disciplines of filmmaking including story writing, script writing, acting, camera, direction, digital editing,” AbdulRahman Najdi added.
He said that professionals having command on various departments of filmmaking would conduct the workshop. “In our last workshop whose theme was ‘women voice’, we had also hired services of professional filmmakers,” he said.
To evaluate skill of participants, he said, they would be assigned to produce 10-minute feature films individually on “veil” for which they would also conduct field research to assess public opinion on the issue. “Each participant will have to produce the film in two-week time,” he said.
AbdulRahman Najdi has been a filmmaker and has directed many films. “Being a filmmaker, I want to promote the art of filmmaking,” he noted. To a question, he said that the response from the youth was very good. “In last workshop we received a large number of applications and I am hoping a bigger response this time,” he said.
He said that Arab film industry was losing charm. “Once Egypt used to lead the industry but now it has lost its lustre, therefore it is important to revive Arab film industry by creating a new generation of filmmakers,” he said, adding that the Emirati (UAE) and Bahrani film industry was picking some pace and had produced few good movies.
He said that most of Qataris who were interested in filmmaking had interest only in the direction. “In filmmaking all skills are needed from script-writing to editing therefore in the upcoming workshop we would train participants for all skills,” he added.
