The theme of the documentary series is Perspectives and Retrospectives and includes a series of award winning regional and international documentaries.
Thursday, 9th May 2013 at 7.00 pm - Opening night, films from the Gulf
Works of early Bahraini documentary filmmaker Khalifa Shaheen
Between two banks by Nujoom Alghanem
The falcon and stage of hope by Khalid Siddiq
The opening night will include a panel discussion on History of Cinema in the Gulf and Documentary Film Production in the Region, with Khalifa Shaheen, Khalid Siddiq and Khalid Al-Budour, moderated by Nezar Andari.
Friday, 10th May 2013
7.00 pm - The Omar Amiralay tribute The Chickens (42 mins) A Plate of Sardines (17 mins)
9.00 pm - I am Breathing by Emma Davie and Morag McKinnon (72 mins)
I am Breathing will be followed by Q&A with Professor Noé Mendelle from the Scottish Documentary Institute, moderated by Ozge Calafato. The discussion will focus on Neil Platt's battle with the Motor Neurone Disease and Noe's observations on the effects of his deteriorating condition on his family, the challenges the filmmaker faced when shooting the film and the global awareness campaign they started around it.
Saturday, 11th May 2013
7.00pm - Divorce Irania Style by Kim Longinotto and Zibar Mir-Hosseini (80 mins)
9.00 pm - Retrospective on early Palestinian documentaries
Scenes from under occupation in Gaza by Moustafa Abu Ali (13 min)
They don’t exist by Moustafa Abu Ali (24 min)
Palestine in the eye by Moustafa Abu Ali (25 min)
Children nevertheless by Khadijeh Habashneh (23 min)
Retrospective on Early Palestinian programme is followed by Q&A with Khadijeh Habashneh, moderated by Prof. Alia Yunis. The discussion will explore the historical, artistic and political significance of the early works by revolutionary Palestinian filmmakers. Khadija Habashneh, late Moustafa Abu Ali's wife, will elaborate on the starting points for these filmmakers, their challenges and their achievements
Sunday, 12th May 2013
7.00 pm - In the Shadow of a Man by Hanan Abdulla (65 min)
9.00 pm - Town of Runners by Jerry Rothwell (86 min)
Monday, 13th May 2013
7.00 pm - How Much Does Your Building Weigh, Mr Foster? by Carlos Carcas (78 min)
Official release of the trailer of Champ of the Camp by Mahmoud Kaabour
Champ of the Camp is a feature-length documentary on the contestants of an X Factor-like singing competition that takes place in the UAE’s labor camps. The film follows talented and charismatic laborer-crooners from the Asian subcontinent as they hone their vocal skills at labor accommodations and on work sites, and entertain dreams of stardom over the course of the competition.
Champ of the Camp - Photo by Siddarth Siva
Searching for Sugar Man by Malik Bendjelloul (86 min)
Event details Dates: 09-14th May, 7pm and 9pm Venue: Vox Cinemas, Marina Mall in Abu Dhabi
Watch this charming home movie from 1957 that was filmed in Abu Dhabi. It's about the Hillyards family, "Abu Dhabi's first western expatriate family" and offers you a small glimpse of what life was like in Abu Dhabi at the time.
I just stumbled upon this great story in The National about a fashion shoot that took place in Abu Dhabi in 1974.
French photographer Jack Burlot was in Abu Dhabi in 1974 to document the oil boom for French photo agency Gamma. During his stay, he met a woman who was staying at his hotel with a group from fashion label Cacharel.
He had the idea of taking her out on an impromptu fashion shoot in the local surroundings. "At this time it was a little bit difficult to do this sort of thing," he says.
Difficult, but not impossible. Burlot's temporary press card from the Ministry of Information, dated November 28-December 8, 1974, reads "kindly extend all facilities to the Bearer."
They managed to shoot among fishermen at the port and smiling onlookers at Qasr Al Hosn, the fortified palace that at the time was being used for government offices and was to be renovated two years later.
"People were surprised but really nice with us," Burlot says. "I asked them to be in the photographs. It was very strange for them ... but they played the game." (via The National)
To launch Fairy Tale Weeks, the Goethe-Institut will be screening The Adventures of Prince Ahmed by Lotte Reiniger, a German animated silent film from 1926 which will be accompanied with live music by KlangEssenz. The original film music has been rearranged for the ensemble so that the five musicians invite you to experience a unique combination of classic cinema and live music.
Lotte Reiniger created the first full-length feature animated film in the history of the cinema. The film is based on stories of "Thousand and One Nights" and tells the story of the young prince Ahmed who has to overcome various difficulties before he can marry his princess. Prince Ahmed meets evil sorcerers and amazing magic horses, powerful witches and beautiful princesses, jinni’s and demons on his adventurous search for love and freedom.
The technical and aesthetic aspects of this film genre had already been developed to cinematic perfection in the 1920s. Her style is similar to traditional Chinese shadow plays in combination with the technical filming techniques. It took three years to finish the movie, "as for such a movie 24 pictures have to be recorded for every second" (Lotte Reiniger, 1972).
In 1989 restoration work on The Adventures of Prince Ahmed was completed by the German Film Museum in Frankfurt with the support of the London film producer Louis Hagen of Primrose Productions, whose father had founded the Comenius-Film company in the 20s and had financed the three-year film project. For the 16 mm print, the lost German titles inserted in the film were reconstructed in contemporary script, and a new color version was made according to the instructions received from Lotte Reiniger.
This looks like it's going to be quite special. So block your calendar and go to this.
Event details:
Dubai Date: Monday, 19th November at 8.00pm Venue: The Fridge, Al Serkal Avenue, Al Quoz, Dubai (location map) Phone: +971 4 3477793 Entrance fee: 50 AED
Abu Dhabi Date: Tuesday, 20 November at 8.00pm Venue: Abu Dhabi Theatre on Breakwater Island, Abu Dhabi Contact: info@abudhabi.goethe.org Free admission
The screenings this year have moved back to the Emirates Palace Hotel, after last year's stint at the Fairmont Bab Al Bahr which I think people found difficult to go back and forth for screenings. Majority of the screenings though will continue to take place at VOX Cinemas in the Marina Mall, which is close to the Emirates Palace Hotel. Sadly, no screenings happening at my favourite Abu Dhabi Theatre.
I went through all the schedule and I must say the film I'm most excited to see is an oldie, the wonderful Singing in the Rain. I've always wanted to see it on the big screen and this is my chance. The other films I'm very excited about are: Ai Wei Wei Never Sorry, A Hijacking, In Search of Sand and Oil, No, Room 237 and Stories We Tell.
Here's my list of top 20 picks in alphabetical order and see you at the festival, front row and centre.
Ai Wei Wei Never Sorry
Winner of a Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, this is a lively, riveting portrait of China’s most famous international artist – and one of the government’s most outspoken critics. Schedule and ticket information.
Approved for Adoption (Couleur de peau: Miel)
Graphic novelist Jung is one of 200,000 adopted Koreans spread across the world. This mix of animated documentary and live footage, hailed as a Korean Persepolis, follows his journey to his birthplace to discover his roots.
Zehra and Olgun, two young souls caught between the past and an uncertain future, are waiting for a chance to escape from their dull lives in this highly anticipated film by Turkish auteur Yeşim Ustaoğlu (Pandora's Box). Schedule and ticket information.
Beasts of the Southern Wild
In a forgotten but defiant bayou community cut off from the rest of the world by a sprawling levee, a six-year-old girl exists on the brink of orphanhood. Buoyed by her childish optimism and extraordinary imagination, she believes that the natural world is in balance with the universe until a fierce storm changes her reality. Desperate to repair the structure of her world in order to save her ailing father and sinking home, this tiny hero must learn to survive unstoppable catastrophes of epic proportions. Schedule and ticket information.
Eat Sleep Die (Äta sova dö)
Who packed your fresh plastic-sealed salad for lunch? Who are the people losing their factory jobs in dead end small towns? When the forceful young Swedish/Balkan "take-no-shit" factory worker Raša loses her job, she faces the system of unemployment. With no high school diploma, no work -- but her boots deeply stuck in the mud of the small town she grew up in -- she finds herself for the first time on collision course with society and it's contradictable values and expectations.
A culinary comedy from Christian Vincent, based on the story of former French president Francois Mitterand’s personal chef, who wins him over with her cooking even as she discovers the corridors of power are littered with traps. Schedule and ticket information.
A Hijacking (Kapringen)
Denmark’s Tobias Lindholm delivers a gripping psychological drama about negotiations between Somali pirates and the CEO of a shipping company, and the terrible toll taken on the ships’ crew. Schedule and ticket information.
In Search of Oil and Sand (Nafat wa Turab)
This documentary uncovers a fascinating historical footnote: in 1952, members of the Egyptian royal family shot a film extravaganza about a coup d’état – just weeks before they were swept from power by a real revolution.
This sophisticated drama from acclaimed French auteur François Ozon (Potiche, ADFF 2010) is about a teacher who is inspired by a student’s perceptive essays, until he realizes their blurring of reality and fiction may conceal dark intent.
A teenaged girl leads her siblings across postwar Germany after their Nazi parents are arrested by Allies in this sensual and intelligent coming-of-age sophomore film from Australia’s Cate Shortland (Somersault).
Top prize winner at Cannes’ Director’s Fortnight, Pablo Larraín’s third film about Pinochet-era Chile stars Gael García Bernal as the visionary adman whose bold marketing campaign helped bring the regime to an end. Schedule and ticket information.
Nomad of the Art and The Gates
This a double bill screening, Nomad of The Art is a short film, an homage to artist Jeanne-Claude and her work with Christo assembles rare footage, and featuring some of their fabulous major works including Wrapped Coast, The Umbrellas, Wrapped Reichstag and The Gates. It will be followed by The Gates which follows Christo and Jeanne-Claude 26 years (and US $21 million) journey on an art installation in New York’s Central Park which was up for one month in 2005. This documentary provides exceptional insight into their work. Schedule and ticket information.
Polluting Paradise (Der Müll im Garten Eden / Cennetteki Çöplük)
Celebrated director Fatih Akın (Head-On) raises a stink with a highly personal documentary about the open-air garbage dump blighting his Turkish grandparents’ village in the lush hills above the Black Sea.
Experimental filmmaker Rodney Ascher investigates the enduring power of Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 classic The Shining in this documentary exploring five compelling theories about the film’s meaning.
I couldn't find a trailer for this. Instead, I found this short clip that's about the music of Room 237.
Kubrick's film was scored in large part with pre existing classical recordings, but the score for Room 237 has taken as its inspiration the elegant but quirky film music that accompanied low budget horror movies in the 1970s. Composers Jonathan Snipes and William Hutson utilize a combination of vintage and contemporary analogue synthesizers, as well as acoustic instruments to create an atmosphere that is at once both haunting and funky.
This Oscar-winning documentary chronicles the plight of Pakistani women who suffer disfiguring acid attacks by their husbands and families, and Dr. Mohammad Jawad, the selfless plastic surgeon who works to help them. Schedule and ticket information.
Singing in the Rain
Commemorating the late Gene Kelly's 100th anniversary, this new digital restoration celebrates one of the most beloved movie musicals of all time. Kelly plays a dancer-turned-matinee idol caught in the bumpy transition to sound.
Oscar nominee Sarah Polley (director of last year’s acclaimed Take This Waltz) is both filmmaker and detective in this inspired, genre-twisting documentary exploring the secrets of a family of storytellers. Schedule and ticket information.
The World Before Her
Moving between two extremes - the intimate verite drama of the Miss India pageant's rigorous beauty "bootcamp" and the intense regime of a militant Hindu fundamentalist camp for young girls. The World Before Her delivers a provocative portrait of India and its current cultural conflicts during a key transitional era in the country's modern history. Schedule and ticket information.
A World Not Ours
Three generations of exiled Palestinians call Ain el-Hilweh refugee camp in southern Lebanon home. This intimate documentary considers what community, belonging and hope mean to the permanently displaced.
A pulse-pounding political thriller, Greek expatriate director Costa-Gavras’s Zwas one of the cinematic sensations of the late sixties, and remains among the most vital dispatches from that hallowed era of filmmaking. This Academy Award winner—loosely based on the 1963 assassination of Greek left-wing activist Gregoris Lambrakis—stars Yves Montand as a prominent politician and doctor whose public murder amid a violent demonstration is covered up by military and government officials; Jean-Louis Trintignant is the tenacious magistrate who’s determined not to let them get away with it. Featuring kinetic, rhythmic editing, Raoul Coutard’s expressive vérité photography, and Mikis Theodorakis’s unforgettable, propulsive score, Z is a technically audacious and emotionally gripping masterpiece. (via Criterion)
The Abu Dhabi based film club Aflam will be screening the Jordanian film, A 7 Hour Difference on Wednesday, 29th Augustat VOX Cinemas in the Marina Mall in Abu Dhabi. The screenings are free, but you need to register in advance to attend. Visit this link to complete the registration form.
Dalia has returned home to Amman from the United States to partake in the festivities leading up to her sister’s wedding.
As the celebrations get underway she is in for a huge surprise, when her American boyfriend of three years Jason shows up unannounced with a marriage proposal. Elated on the one hand, she is also equally anxious, as her family is unaware of Jason’s presence in her life.
Dalia is then forced to evaluate her life and make decisions that will change it one way or the other. Struggling between her love for Jason and her love for her family, whom will she choose?
Event details Date: Wednesday, 29th August. Doors open at 7.00pm, screening starts at 8.00pm Venue: Vox Cinema at Marina Mall in Abu Dhabi Free entry but advance registration is necessary. Complete the registration form here.
It's a very good film and I strongly recommend you watch it if you can. I saw it a few years ago at the Dubai International Film Festival. It's a great road movie, and watching the relationship between the father and son develop during their journey is very moving. Warning, carry some extra tissues with you.
A few weeks before his college entrance exams, Reda, a young man who lives in the south of France, finds himself forced to drive his father to Mecca.
From the start, the journey looks to be difficult. Reda and his father have nothing in common. Talk is reduced to the strict minimum. Reda wants to experience this trip in his own way. His father demands respect for himself and the meaning of this pilgrimage.
As they drive through different countries and meet various people, Reda and his father observe each other warily. How can they create a relationship when communication is impossible? From the south of France, through Italy, Serbia, Turkey, Syria, Jordan to Saudi Arabia, their road is 3,000 miles long.
Event details Date: Wednesday, 25th July. Doors open at 9.00pm, screening starts at 10.00pm Venue: Vox Cinema at Marina Mall in Abu Dhabi Free entry but advance registration is necessary. Complete the registration form here.
Still from Salam Ghourba (Farewell Exile) This summer, NYU Abu Dhabi and Abu Dhabi Film Festival will be hosting Summer Screenings at the NYUAD Downtown Campus in Abu Dhabi focusing on films from Morocco, India and Iran. The film series kicks off tomorrow, Wednesday 11th July with two films from Morocco.
Salam Ghourba (Farewell Exile) Director: Lamia Alami | Morocco | 2011 | 15 mins | Arabic w/ English subtitles Winner of Best Film from the Arab World in Short Film Competition at ADFF 2011
In an underprivileged Moroccan neighborhood, Fatima is waiting to join her husband who migrated to France. Will the husband's letter potentially secure a brighter future for her and her son, 10 or will she have to make a crucial sacrifice?
Les Hommes Libres (Free Men) Director: Ismaël Ferroukhi | France, Morocco | 2011 | 99 mins | French, Arabic w/ English subtitles Winner of Best Director from the Arab World in Narrative Competition at ADFF 2011
Younes, a young Algerian immigrant in Nazi-occupied Paris, is arrested by the French police and forced to infiltrate the Grand Mosque of Paris. Collaborationist French authorities suspect the mosque's founder of issuing forged documents to Jews and members of the Resistance. Within the cloistered world of the mosque garden, Younes befriends the mesmerizing singer Salim Halali, who is Jewish. As persecution increases, Younes takes up the fight for freedom and joins the ranks of the Resistance.
Event details Date: Wednesday, 11th July 2012, 7.00pm-9.00pm Venue: NYUAD Downtown Campus, Abu Dhabi (location map) Free entry, but you need to register here in advance
Aflam is a monthly film club based in Abu Dhabi. The club's aim is to highlight and celebrate the best of independent Arabic films and filmmakers, showing independent films to the Abu Dhabi community and creating a film network for like minded people to meet and share ideas.
They've hosted monthly screenings over the past few months (unfortunately, I've not had a chance to go) and this month they will be screening Son of Babylon on Wednesday, 27th June at VOX Cinemas in the Marina Mall in Abu Dhabi. The screenings are free, but you need to register in advance to attend. Visit this link to complete the registration form.
Northern Iraq, 2003. Two weeks after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Ahmed, a 12-year-old boy begrudgingly follows in the shadow of his grandmother.
On hearing news that prisoners of war have been found alive in the South, she is determined to discover the fate of her missing son, Ahmed’s father, who never returned from the Gulf war.
From the mountains of Kurdistan to the sands of Babylon, they hitch rides from strangers and cross paths with fellow pilgrims, on all too similar journeys. Struggling to understand his grandmother’s search, Ahmed follows in the forgotten footsteps of a father he never knew.
This journey will lead the boy to come of age.
Event details Date: Wednesday, 27th June. Doors open at 7.00pm, screening starts at 8.00pm Venue: Vox Cinema at Marina Mall in Abu Dhabi Free entry but advance registration is necessary. Complete the registration form here.
The fifth edition of the Gulf Film Festival is back this month with an eclectic line up of short and full feature films from the Gulf as well as international participants. The festival is on from 10th-16th April in Festival City in Dubai and for the first time, the festival will also screen films in Abu Dhabi at the Abu Dhabi Theatre.
The Gulf Film Festival has something for everyone, here's my list of top 20 picks, but you can see the full line up, along with the schedule on gulffilmfest.com.
Tora Bora (Kuwait), 102 mins Director: Walid Al Awadi
Abu Tarek and Umm Tarek set off on a brave journey to search for their youngest son Ahmed, who after being brainwashed by extremists, decides to leave Kuwait for Afghanistan.
Amal (UAE), 88 mins Director: Nujoom Al Ghanem
Amal arrives in the UAE full of hope and dreams. After her first year in the country, she finds herself struggling to achieve and implement the bare minimum of her plans. She slowly finds herself coming to terms with the realisation that despite her rich artistic background in her home country, she is restricted to the margins of the cultural landscape in the Emirates.
Silence: All Roads Lead to Music (Italy, UAE, Iraq), 80 mins Director: Haider Rashid
From a small seaside town in Sicily, a musician who has left the stage 15 years ago travels across the Mediterranean island to put together 'The Silence Project', an unusual combination of ethnic and classical musicians who meet and play for the first time during an Arab Film Festival. Coming from four different backgrounds, these eclectic artists travel from their separate worlds, uniting into a sound that blends Sicilian, Arabic, Aboriginal and jazz styles into the realm of the purest border-free music.
Halabja - The Lost Children (Germany, Iraq, Syria), 72 mins Director: Akram Hidou
Ali visits the cemetery of Halabja, Kurdistan, Iraq and remains silent in front of a tombstone with his name scratched name upon it. Twenty-one years after Saddam Hussein's poison gas attack in 1988, Ali returns to Halabja looking for his lost family. Meanwhile, five families have their hopes pinned on him to be their missing child.
Glitter Dust: Finding Art in Dubai (UAE), 60 mins Director: Katy Chang
In the documentary feature 'Glitter Dust: Finding Art in Dubai', three artists come to terms with the truth and the artificial. Delightful hand-drawn animations interplay with live footage as art and life are intertwined in this funny, yet poignant journey of the artists as they're followed on their quest for culture.
Bahiya and Mahmoud (Jordan), 14 mins Director: Zaid Abu Hamdan
Bahiya and Mahmoud are an aging couple, who have fallen into a predictable routine of bickering and making one another miserable…Until one morning, Mahmoud wakes up and finds Bahiya has left.
Wonderland - A True Story (Kuwait), 38 mins Director: Dana Al Mojil
An adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' that is set in Kuwait. The film highlights the similarities between the social and political situation in modern-day Kuwait and Alice's Wonderland.
Huna London / This is London (Bahrian, UAE), 17 mins Director: Muhammad BuAli
A couple's objective of sending a photograph of themselves to their son in London should be an easy enough task. However, when the wife refuses to go to the studio, the photographer must devise new ways to capture her in a perfect shot.
Snap Shot: A Trekking Man (Saudi Arabia), 17 mins Director: Tareq Yosef
Jalal Bin Thaneya starts his pilgrimage to Mecca from Abu Dhabi - by foot. The director Tareq Yosef walks with him for a day to learn more about the man and his journey.
En Let Brise / A Light Breeze (Denmark), 26 mins Director: Rania M Tawfik
En Let Brise / A Light Breeze is an experimental multi-camera graduation documentary from The National Film School Of Denmark. Sahar derives great joy through dance. How easy is it to experience happiness?
The Gamboo3a Revolution (UAE), 17 mins Director: Andulrahman Saleh Al Madani
When the traditional sheila and abaya were reinvented to launch a trend of ‘Gamboo3a’, (the bee-hive hair or ‘camel hump’), society was divided over it. 'The Gamboo3a Revolution' explores this debate, of fashion v/s modesty.
Cats (UAE), 15 mins Director: Marwan Al Hammadi
‘Cats’ shines the spotlight on the lives of wild cats adopted by families in the UAE. Through four characters, we are introduced to the care and concerns of owners as they rear these magnificent species.
Znikniecie / Vanishing (Poland), 20 mins Director: Battosz Kruhlik
35-year-old Iwona looks after the house in her husband's absence. She tries to imoprove her relationship with her son Michal. One day, Michal doesn't return home and none of his friends knows where he is.
La Vitesse du passé / The Speed of the Past (France), 17 mins Director: Dominique Rocher
Margot and Joseph are moving in to their new country house. Suddenly time stops, as Joseph falls off the roof and gets stuck in space time. Joseph's suspension in space-time forces his wife Margot to wait all her life.
Timeglass / Hourglass (Norway), 16mins Director: Pedro Collante
Anna and Anton live in a small Norwegian town and are about to enter adolescence. They deal with boredom in different ways. Anton is eager to explore the world, while Anna spends most of her time with Bamse, her big fluffy dog. One day Bamse finds a mysterious wooden box on the beach...
Artificial Melodrama (Singapore), 18 mins Director: Giovanni Fantoni Modena
A European actress wants to leave Singapore soon after she arrives. The promise of a new world of opportunities has faded away, and she is only left facing the hyper-modernity of the new Asian cities, until a taxi driver shows her the hidden beauty of Singapore.
Hranice / Border (Czech Republic), 16 mins Director: Martin Philipp Raiman
Czechoslovakia 1972. A young couple decides to leave everything behind. Friends, families, loved ones. Taking a train to Yugoslavia they quickly discover that they need more than will to escape. The regime works without mercy and occupies the couples’ minds - to the end.
The Akram Tree (UAE), 81 mins Director: Francesco Cabras, Alberto Molinari
The Akram Tree' is a journey through the personal and professional world of the celebrated British choreographer and dancer Akram Khan. Khan works with artits from around the world to compose a beautiful narrative and interpretation of dance that draws from his Bangladeshi heritage.
Sea Shadow (UAE), 97 mins Director: Nawaf Al Janahi
Set in a small seaside village in the UAE, 'Sea Shadow' follows teenagers Mansour and Kaltham as they struggle with tradition and convention in their journey towards adulthood. Bound by family and deeply-rooted values, the pair must find the courage to forge their own paths.
Carrom (Saudi Arabia), 12 mins Director: Hamzah Tarzan
Abo Hanan, a 55-year-old man, diligently sets up his game of carrom every day. After a long wait, Mohammed comes along to play with him.
Friday, May 10, 2013 at 4:32PM 
Champ of the Camp - Photo by Siddarth Siva
