Archive for the ‘Middle East Industry News’ Category
Fall is festival season in the Middle East
Posted by: admin in Middle East Industry News on August 31st, 2010
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118023444.html?categoryid=19&cs=1
Abu Dhabi event rolls first with October bow
The Middle East’s film festival season runs from October through December, and while none has announced its competition lineup, what is new is money, in the form of competitions and film development initiatives.In calendar terms, the first of the Middle East majors is the Abu Dhabi Film Festival (Oct. 14-23), debuting its name change. The fest launched in 2007 as the Middle East Intl. Film Festival — a moniker that reflected the organizers’ ambition.
The festival’s elaborate competition structure will be augmented in 2010 with the Afaq Jadida (New Horizons) Competition, dedicated to first and second feature-length narrative and documentary films.
Echoing the premises of the Rotterdam festival’s competition, New Horizons will focus on the work of the Arab world’s younger filmmakers. Afaq Jadida will see young helmers compete alongside their international counterparts. Up for grabs will be awards for new narrative film, new narrative film from the Arab world, new documentary and new documentary from the Arab world, each with a $100,000 cash prize.
The fest will also unveil two additional competitive sections, one devoted to short films, another focused on work by filmmakers from the UAE or Gulf Cooperation Council countries.
Abu Dhabi already had the most lucrative competition in the region, disbursing prize monies totalling $1 million. The prizes were disbursed across feature film, documentary and short film competitions (the last encompassing narrative, documentary and student films), with juries instructed to select a winning international film and a winning “Middle Eastern” (i.e., Arab, Turkish or Iranian) film.
In late April, festival director Peter Scarlet announced the launch of Sanad (Support), a new funding program meant to aid outstanding productions from the Arab region through grants totaling $500,000 each year. The grants will be allotted to feature-length narrative and documentary films for film development (maximum $20,000) and post-production (maximum $60,000).
Sanad can be seen as a strong supplement to Abu Dhabi’s $1 billion international and regional film-finance body, Imagenation.
The other heavy-hitting Gulf-based film platform is the Doha-Tribeca Film Festival (Oct. 26-30). The big news for DTFF’s second edition is the addition of a new Arab Film Competition, headed by Palestinian filmmaker Hany Abu-Assad. It will award prizes for best Arab film and best Arab filmmaker ($100,000 apiece). Also new for 2010 is an Arab short film award ($10,000). These competitions augment audience awards (for narrative film and documentary film, each worth $100,000) that DTFF launched in its first edition.
The relatively compact DTFF has added an extra day to its schedule, and the festival will see a venue change, from Doha’s Museum of Islamic Art to the city’s Qatara Cultural Village.
These changes reflect institutional shifts in Qatar’s cultural landscape. DTFF grew out of an agreement signed between Tribeca’s three founders (Robert DeNiro, Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff) and Sheikha al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, the Qatari emir’s daughter and head of the Qatar Museums Authority.
This year, Sheikha al-Mayassa launched the Doha Film Institute (DFI), which she administers. This umbrella organization has been created to oversee initiatives related to film education, production, financing as well as the DTFF.
Mayassa announced that DFI aims to invest in some 10 new films a year from filmmakers in Qatar and around the Arab world. Funds will also be available for international productions. Though the main aim of DFI is said to be educational, it effectively supplements the $200 million film fund established by the Qatari media group Al-Noor Holdings during the 2009 edition of DTFF.
The oldest in the Middle East region, the Cairo Intl. Film Festival will hold its 34th edition Nov. 30-Dec. 9. Nestled amid one of the region’s most-frequented tourist destinations and the Arab world’s best-developed film industry, CIFF has been rather left behind by the development of the turbo-charged film festivals in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha.
Lucrative competition purses in the Gulf film festivals has drawn cash-strapped Arab filmmakers to premiere their films there, denuding CIFF’s Arabic-language film completion of much of its weight. Cairo has also lagged behind industry initiatives in film development, co-production and film marketing. Significantly, CIFF’s big news for 2010 is the launch of the first edition of the Cairo Film Connection. A co-production platform held in partnership with Dubai Film Connections, Misr Intl. Films and the Egyptian Film Center, CFC aims to maximize networking to cultivate feature film production in the Arab world.
The Intl. Film Festival of Marrakech will hold its 10th edition Dec. 3-11, which may explain why organizers have yet to release any information about what to expect from this edition. The public can expect that, as with previous installments, IFFM 2010 will complement competition screenings with a non-competition program of new international features, an in-focus program and a non-competitive panorama section focusing on the cinema of one or several countries or with various sets of themes.
The proliferation of competitions earlier in the year may well be making it difficult for IFFM organizers to finalize its competition roster. Declaring itself dedicated to new talent, this competition usually places Moroccan features alongside international entries. Abu Dhabi’s New Horizons competition may tempt Moroccan filmmakers to debut their work there rather than at home.
The first of the high-octane film festivals to emerge in the Gulf, the Dubai Intl. Film Festival (which holds its 7th edition Dec. 12-19) didn’t rise from a petroleum economy, and its budget took a body blow with the financial meltdown.
Consequently, DIFF has focused its energies on lateral film development and distribution initiatives with other film organizations around the region, efforts that will be less visible during the fest than lucrative competition and film-development prizes would be.
The most recent of these saw Dubai Film Connection, DIFF’s successful co-production market, sign a partnership with the newly formed Cairo Film Connection. DFC offers Arab directors more than $120,000 in prize money and industry connections. The co-production market also matches the short-listed director/producer teams with specialists in film production, sales, distribution and funding. The new partnership with CFC seeks to replicate this successful model in Cairo.
In May, DIFF signed a strategic partnership with Beirut DC (a Lebanon-based organization that promotes independent filmmaking) that will provide a financial incubating fund of $10,000 to strengthen local documentary filmmaking skills. Earlier in the year, DIFF signed a partnership with Royal Film Commission — Jordan (RFC) to promote filmmaking links between the two organizations.
Along come Pollywood
Posted by: admin in Middle East Industry News on August 30th, 2010
http://tribune.com.pk/story/42791/along-come-pollywood/
The Pashto film industry or Pollywood, as it is now called, has witnessed many ups and downs since its formal inception in the early 1970s. In actual fact, the history of Pashto cinema predates the creation of Pakistan itself; Amir Hamza Khan Shinwari’s Laila Majnoon, the first ever Pashto film, was released in 1941 in Mumbai and Pashto-speaking areas. However, it was a whole 23 years after partition when Pakistan’s first Pashto film Yousaf Khan’s Shehr Bano was released. Based on a romantic folk story and starring Badar Munir and Yasmin Khan, the enormous success of this film paved the way for Pollywood proper.
Initially, well-established Pashto poets were keen to utilise this new medium with the basic aim of depicting Pashtun society in its true colours, as a way of highlighting its traditions and romantic aspirations. They largely steered clear of violence, obscenity, vulgarity and the type of firebrand dialogue which was to become the trademark of contemporary Pashto cinema. Cinebuffs still fondly remember the storylines, songs and purposeful screenplays produced during the golden era of Pashtun cinema, that is, the 70s.
The octogenarian Murad Baba is a popular Pashto lyricist and screenwriter, who has to his credit a vast catalogue including 2,000 songs and a hundred Pashto screenplays, including Naway Da Yuway Shpey, Juram Auo Saza and Bungaree Auo Hatkaray.
“Many senior writers like myself had joined the Pashto film industry in the early 70s to promote Pashtun art and culture on the big screen and at the time, it seemed as if we had achieved what we had set out to do,” he says. “Unfortunately, during the late 80s and early 90s some elements with vested interests plagued the industry’s artistic environment and began to present a distorted image of Pashtun society. We raised our voice against it on many forums but nobody listened to us, the result was a sharp decline in the industry and the image of Pashtuns at large.”
He is quick to add that Pashto movies were once so popular that not only would they run in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Quetta and Karachi but demand led to reels being smuggled to Kabul with some even making it to Europe and the Gulf.
“It used to take us on average a week to compose and write a song.Nowadays however, standards have been replaced by expediency and an entire film is now conjured up in no time at all and with very little effort. Is this sort of sloppy work going to inspire our younger generation to set goals for itself or exhibit moral integrity?” he asks.
Having hit what can only be described as cinematic rock bottom, the start of the new millennium has seen some efforts to revive films more suitable for a family audience. Pollywood heavyweight Asif Khan’s son Arbaz Khan made his debut with Meena Qurbanee Ghawaree (Love Demands Sacrifice) in 2003. The success of this film spawned some imitations and cineastes cautiously determined that Pashto cinema was showing signs of improvement. In terms of quantity alone, Pollywood frequently releases more films than Urdu and Punjabi cinema, quality notwithstanding.
However actor/director/producer Ajab Gul paints a much more dismal picture, he says, “I suffered huge financial losses from three of my productions last year because of bomb blasts and the growing militancy in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. There’s also the fact that cinemas themselves are being razed. I am releasing one new film, Jaal, this Eid, which will be shown in Khyber Pakhunkhwa, Karachi, Kabul and Dubai”.
Gul adds that producers take a great financial risk in any case because inflation has rendered costs sky high. “An average Pashto movie costs Rs 7 to 8 million. I want to change the way things work, but my own kitty does not allow me to do it. I need government and public support.” The MMA government, an alliance of nine religious parties in the erstwhile NWFP, imposed a ban on any manner of cultural activity during their tenure. They closed down Peshawar city’s lone cinema, Nishtar Hall, and banned film billboards and posters contributing to the film industry’s downward spiral.
Currently, there are ten cine-theatres in Peshawar, four in Nowshera, two each in Mardan and Bannu and one each in Swat and Kohat. A total of five new Pashto films will release this Eid, leading Ajab Gul to request the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to allot him a piece of land in Peshawar on which he might erect a Cineplex using his own resources. The government now appears to be promoting some vestige of culture, going by the remarks of Syed Aqil Shah, the Provincial Minister for Culture, Sports and Tourism, who said, “Cine-going is cheap entertainment and we don’t want the public being deprived of it. Any attempt at damaging cine-theatres comes under the Heritage Act. Some Cine-theatres have been razed recently, but our government marks the end of those days.”
A spokesperson from Shahid Film Productions fears a low audience turnout due to the devastating floods which have wreaked havoc in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. “The cinema business is already fighting an uphill battle due to militancy, the floods may have come as the final blow. The government should temporarily suspend taxes in order to buffer the cinema owner’s losses,” he suggests.
Muzaffar, a telefilm director from Peshawar reports that over a hundred DVDs of new Pashto movies and at least as many albums will permeate the market in the coming year, despite little official patronage or encouragement. While a cinematic resurrection seems unlikely in the current circumstances, many industry insiders are excited about the potential for expanding the customer-base for Pashto cinema in Afghanistan. As for Pakistan, Ajab Gul hasn’t lost all hope yet, “I believe there is great potential in Pashto cinema, and it can stand on its own feet once the government takes proper initiatives.”
Published in The Express Tribune, August 29th, 2010.
Pak film distributors want Govt to revoke ban on Indian movies
Posted by: admin in India Industry News, Middle East Industry News on August 29th, 2010
http://www.californiachronicle.com/articles/yb/149196873
Islamabad, Aug. 28 — Pakistani film distributors and some filmmakers are up in arms over the government’s decision to bar the screening of Indian movies during the upcoming Eid festival, saying such protectionist measures cannot foster the development of indigenous cinema. Culture Minister Aftab Shah Jillani recently announced that no Indian film will be screened across Pakistan during Eid to boost the flagging local industry.
The two annual Eid festivals are usually the most profitable periods of the year for film distributors and cinema hall owners as families throng theatres.
Nadeem Mandviwala, a senior official of the Pakistan Film Exhibitors Association, said such protectionist measures alone will not foster the development of the local film industry.
Besides, he pointed out, the move will affect cinema hall owners who invested Rs 40 crore over the past three years to build new multiplexes and refurbish existing theatres. - Agencies
Call for action to draw film projects to UAE
Posted by: admin in Canada Industry News, Middle East Industry News on August 26th, 2010
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100825/BUSINESS/708259806/1042/NATIONAL
Ben Flanagan
Film executives in Abu Dhabi are in talks with their Canadian counterparts over a joint plan to produce movies in the UAE, in a move that could prove a major boost for the country’s fledgling film industry.
David Shepheard, the director of the Abu Dhabi Film Commission (ADFC), said “preliminary discussions” regarding a co-production agreement with Canada had already taken place.
Such an agreement would aim to “stimulate productions between the two countries”, he said.
“Could Canada be the first country with which Abu Dhabi has a co-production agreement? I think so. We’ve been having discussions over the last year or so. We’re looking to see how [Canada] structures its various government support programmes,” said Mr Shepheard.
The discussions were with “a mixture of various government bodies, and the federal film organisation [in Canada]”, he said. “It’s part of our message that the UAE is very serious about building a film industry. The co-production agreements would only spark off projects that are relevant to both countries.”
The success of the agreement would hinge on plans to introduce incentives for film producers to shoot in the UAE.
Reciprocal arrangements could see UAE film-makers shoot on location in Canada. The forms of incentives are still under discussion.
Tax breaks, the most common form of incentive in other markets, do not apply because of the UAE’s minimal taxation policies.
However, industry executives point to discounted or free airline tickets and hotel accommodation, low charges on location shoots and a straightforward cash fund as possible incentives the government could offer.
Joint Emirati-Canadian film productions would earn “national status” in both countries. Canada has several such agreements internationally, but the plan, if it comes to fruition, would be a first for the UAE.
Financing films is often easier under co-production agreements, which allow producers to take advantage of tax benefits, resources and locations to shoot movies across different territories.
The 2001 film Amelie, for example, was set in France, but some of the filming was undertaken in Germany under a co-production agreement, according to data available on the Internet Movie Database.
Film-makers in the UAE said a deal with Canada could help the Emirati film industry grow.
Tim Smythe, the chief executive of the Dubai production house Filmworks, which brought big-budget Hollywood films such as The Kingdom and Syriana to shoot in the UAE, said co-production agreements, in particular, could help in financing independent Emirati films.
“Independent films often need to source financing from a number of countries. [Co-production] has become one of the most important factors in financing independent films,” he said.
“Anything that is being negotiated would be most welcome. There are no co-production agreements at the present moment. One of the main goals of film commissions [such as the ADFC] is to form co-production agreements.”
However, executives said a prerequisite of such an agreement would be a system of government incentives in the UAE to help finance films.
Canada is known for its generous tax breaks and other financial assistance to producers, which has helped it draw productions from the US. But there are no comparable incentive schemes in the UAE, which has acted as a deterrent for international productions to be made here. “There’s got to be a benefit for the parties of that co-production agreement, whether in filming, post-production or special effects,” said Mr Smythe.
However, talks to introduce incentives for the movie industry are under way.
“There has been positive movement, but I’m not at liberty to comment further at this time,” he said.
Mr Shepheard said plans for an incentive programme in Abu Dhabi were at “the research stage”.
Stefan Brunner, the chief operating officer at Imagenation Abu Dhabi, which is developing a number of Emirati films, said a co-production agreement with Canada would be “brilliant” news for the industry.
“We want to do co-productions down the road, with Canada for instance,” he said. “Canada is a country very close to the US, with the look and feel of the US, but doesn’t have some of the complexities … It’s much more open to co-producing [arrangements].”
Mr Brunner said similar agreements between the UAE and other Middle East countries could also be beneficial.
“We will need the region to tap into talent and resources we may not have here … You need to bring it in from other parts of the region,” he said.
Mr Brunner cited regional countries that already had established film industries, such as Jordan and Egypt, as examples.
Mr Shepheard said the ADFC was also looking to form co-production agreements with other countries.
“We’ve got a study under way looking at various European countries,” he said. “India and China are also key for us.”
Defying the Taliban, one (bad) movie at a time
Posted by: admin in General Industry News, India Industry News, Middle East Industry News on June 20th, 2010
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jJDhiEzaTgvU5O6mi14ZcxoNguawD9GEP4OO0
JALALABAD, Afghanistan — In real life he’s a pharmacist, a polite young man who dispenses antibiotics and advice in a tiny Jalalabad shop barely 40 miles from where Osama Bin Laden disappeared into the mountains.
But when evening falls, when Zhaid Khan shuts the pharmacy’s gates and sends his young assistant home, he becomes someone else. Then he’s a lover (albeit a chaste one). He’s a singer (or at least a lip-syncher). He’s a fighter, a hero, a defender of the powerless.
You’ve never heard of him, but Zhaid Khan is a movie star.
The quiet pharmacist is the chiseled face, the rippling muscles, the romantic hero of the minuscule Pashto-language vision of Hollywood set amid the towns and mountains of eastern Afghanistan. It’s a region where American drones regularly hover overhead, Taliban attacks come all too regularly and it takes more than a little courage to be an actor.
Khan is famous across Jalalabad, and fans sometimes come to the pharmacy to gawk at him and ask for autographs. Sometimes, though, the Taliban seek him out too. They leave him notes in the night, warning they’ll burn down his shop and kill him. One day, he fears, they’ll follow through on their threats.
But as Afghanistan struggles with an Islamist insurgency that has surged back since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion, putting broad swaths of the country under Taliban control, a handful of actors are making a cinematic stand.
They do it with movies that are sold here only on DVD, will never make it to Western art house cinemas, and can withstand only the gentlest of criticism.
There are shaky camera angles, wildly awful hairpieces and dialogue with the cadence of a press conference (”To achieve our goal we must try to attain our objectives and what we have vowed to do,” a hero intones in “Black Poison,” an anti-opium morality tale).
Each film is a patchwork of themes — romance, thriller, weepy family drama — knitted together by martial arts battles and lots of squirting sheep’s blood bought from local butchers. The bad guys all seem to have scars, limps or both. The good guys often wear white. They are made, very often, with little beyond a camcorder, a couple workshop lights and some pirated editing software.
But, they’ll tell you here, their battle is worth fighting.
“We are changing how people think,” said Khan. “Young people see our movies and they know that Afghanistan is not just AK-47s and war. There’s something else here too.”
In a country where most people live in desperate poverty, the movies show fantasies of middle-class Afghan life alongside the action and adventure. There are people with steady jobs, helpful government officials, uncorrupted policemen.
But the films also reflect the world around them. Jalalabad is not in the Taliban heartland but it is a part of Afghanistan’s deeply conservative Pashtun belt. Osama bin Laden once had a mansion just outside the city, and he escaped U.S. forces from his nearby mountain compound in Tora Bora.
So actresses tend to be rarities in Pashto-language films — few families allow their daughters to enter the movie business, and nearly all actresses must come from Pakistan. Sex is not even hinted at.
Song-and-dance scenes, which are at the heart of most South Asian movies, steer very clear of risque moves, with actors often lip-synching to music lifted from Pakistani movies.
The Taliban hardly exist in these movies. Religious extremism is sometimes hinted at, but most bad guys are generic gangsters or drug smugglers.
To the Taliban, though, the moviemakers are evil.
The Islamist fighters detest all forms of public entertainment, particularly any depiction of the human form, which they believe is forbidden by the Quran. When the Taliban ran the country, movies were forbidden, cinemas were closed and videotapes could only be watched in secret.
When they were forced from power, though, that quickly changed.
“One week after the Taliban were gone we were filming again,” said Farooq Sabit, a one-time kung fu master who runs a small Kabul photography studio and has directed a half-dozen or so movies. He works in Dari, Afghanistan’s most widely spoken language. The Dari film industry is better off than the Pashto movie world. The Taliban have far less influence in Dari-speaking regions, and filmmakers’ hurdles are more financial than physical.
If the Pashto speakers have the pharmacist to thrill to, the Dari film world has Saleem Shaheen, the unlikely sex symbol who may be the country’s biggest star.
He’s a round, fleshy man in his mid-40s with dozens of movies behind him as an actor, writer, producer and director. He also has the ego of a Hollywood mogul.
“My interviews are very interesting,” he said, sitting down with a visiting reporter. “More people will read your article because of me.”
Through a small acting school, relentless self-promotion and even more self-confidence, he has been a force in Afghan moviemaking for decades.
“In most of my movies I’m the director and the star. All the weight is on me!” he proclaimed, as rain pattered on the metal roof of his small office compound. He derides his competitors as money-grubbing arrivistes. “They are nothing,” he said, once again pointing out a European award he received a few years ago.
If nothing else, he makes a living at it.
That makes him a rarity in Afghanistan, where nearly everyone is a hyphenated professional: shopkeeper-actor; factory worker-actor; policewoman-director.
Many, particularly in the Pashto-language industry, don’t get paid at all.
“We call them and say ‘Come on, we’re shooting,’” said Mohammad Shah Majroh, a Jalalabad bureaucrat who oversees film permits and acts as the local movie world’s godfather. “If it’s lunchtime, we feed them.”
Stars like Khan are lucky if they make more than a few hundred dollars per film, which are shot for anywhere from $1,000 to $20,000 and sold on DVD in markets for about $1 apiece.
The handful of Afghan movie theaters that survive are reserved for Bollywood, the Indian song-and-dance films. They are easy-to-follow spectacles that include what Afghan movies do not: good production quality, heaving cleavage, and beautiful woman in skimpy saris.
Around here, Bollywood provokes a mixture of jealousy and bitterness: “The Indian women and those clothes,” Majroh said, sneering.
And Bollywood moviemakers, he added, don’t face the dangers of the homegrown industry.
Shafiqullah Shaiq knows about those dangers.
A wealthy Jalalabad businessman, he began making movies a couple years ago. First the Taliban left him notes, telling him to abandon the movie business. Then they attacked his office with grenades and sprayed it with machine-gun fire. Then they attacked it again.
No one has been injured yet, but he now rings his office compound with gunmen.
“I barely leave anymore,” said Shaiq, who wrote, directed and starred in “Black Poison,” the opium movie, and later made a sequel. He acknowledges their quality was far from ideal.
“I know these movies were not really good enough for the rest of the world,” he said. Then he added, with more than a touch of cinematic noblesse oblige: “I made them for the poor Afghan people.”
Imagenation Abu Dhabi Partners with Abu Dhabi Film Commission to Launch “Mawaheb”
Posted by: admin in Middle East Industry News, Training & School News on June 6th, 2010
WAM Abu Dhabi, (WAM) — Imagenation Abu Dhabi, in association with the Abu Dhabi Film Commission, today announced the launch of “Mawaheb”, a unique internship program focused on developing local film talent in the UAE.
Mawaheb (which means talents in English) will offer Emirati students with an interest in filmmaking the opportunity to gain hands-on experience abroad.
Support will be provided by Imagenation Abu Dhabi’s international partners, including such leading production companies as Participant Media, National Geographic Films and Hyde Park Entertainment.
There will be a mix of internships on offer, including appointments at joint venture offices in Los Angeles and New York City, and placements on the films sets of productions across the United States and India.
Mohamed Khalaf Al Mazrouei, Chairman of Imagenation Abu Dhabi remarked: “The key to developing a sustainable film industry in the UAE is to nurture our homegrown talent. We have a generation of creative and gifted young Emiratis whose careers can only benefit from exposure to the best in the international film business. Our hope is that through our internship program, we can identify high-potential talent that can play a role in the future of film in this region.” “The introduction of our internship program follows the announcement of our first slate of diverse Emirati films and once again demonstrates our commitment to discovering and fostering a pool of new talent, with the objective of preparing them to work in the industry. Upon completing their international assignments, interns will be able to apply their learning by joining the ranks of our film crew, while continuing to receive guidance and on the ground training, in front of and behind the camera,” said Stefan Brunner, COO of Imagenation Abu Dhabi, “We are proud to be leveraging our international partnerships to create comprehensive industry training opportunities for aspiring Emirati filmmakers.” ” One of our main goals is to find new talent and nurture them to help build the future of the film ‘&’ TV industry in the UAE. This unique programme, by Imagenation Abu Dhabi will provide the Emirati filmmakers a great opportunity to develop their skills at an international level, Abu Dhabi film organizations are working in synergy towards the development of film talent in the UAE. We are proud that the Film Commission will partner with Imagenation Abu Dhabi to further build on the rich opportunities available to young Emirati filmmakers. ” Said David Shepheard, Director of Abu Dhabi Film Commission.
Appointments at joint venture offices in Los Angeles and New York City are aimed at Emiratis who are interested in the business of filmmaking. These internships will last between one and three months, and will provide practical insight into the day-to-day business of movie making (development, production, distribution, sales and marketing) as well as theoretical filmmaking seminars with leading film institutions in LA. Candidates should be current students or recent graduates of business, film or broadcast, or young professionals in the media or emerging media space.
The month-long film set placements are aimed at Emirates interested in the creative side of filmmaking and will provide a more advanced experience in the disciplines of line-producing, camera work, costume design, make-up artistry and technical field work. These internships will last approximately one month on working sets in the United States and India. Candidates should be currently working in the film or broadcast industry, or graduating (2010) or recently graduated from film, broadcast, or media programs.
WAM/SS WAM/SS/AM
Occupied with free speech
Posted by: admin in General Industry News, Middle East Industry News on June 3rd, 2010
http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2917243.htm
The Melbourne International Film Festival is receiving Liberty Victoria’s free speech award, the Voltaire award, for its “refusal to buckle in the face of intense pressure from a foreign government and a left-wing filmmaker last year”.
The “foreign government” was China, which urged MIFF not to screen a documentary on Rebiya Kadeer, a Uighur Independence leader who was also a guest of the festival. The award seems valid here: MIFF allowed for a minority voice to be heard, and didn’t kowtow to governmental bullying.
On the other hand, the “left-wing filmmaker” was Ken Loach, whose series of written exchanges questioned MIFF’s decision to accept funding from “cultural partner”, the state of Israel. Loach wrote:
As you are no doubt aware, many Palestinians, including artists and academics, have called for a boycott of events supported by Israel. There are many reasons for this; the illegal occupation of Palestinian land, destruction of homes and livelihoods, the massacres in Gaza, all are part of the continuing oppression of the Palestinian people.
We hope you can reconsider accepting Israel as a sponsor.
The letters saw a showdown between Loach and festival Executive Director, Richard Moore. Loach eventually withdrew his film, Looking for Eric, from the festival, quoting Israeli poet, Aharon Shabtai:
I do not believe that a state that maintains an occupation, committing on a daily basis crimes against civilians, deserves to be invited to any kind of cultural event.
Despite Moore – the self-proclaimed winner of last year’s fracas – crowing that he would not be pressured as “part of an orchestrated campaign”, it is bizarre that Liberty Victoria would deem MIFF’s position on Ken Loach worthy of an award.
Moore and the festival have consistently misrepresented Loach’s withdrawal. As with the Edinburgh Festival, where he successfully made the same appeal, Loach stated: “This is not a boycott of Israeli films or filmmakers but of the Israeli state.” Thus, it was always a matter of accepting funding from a country that continuously and flagrantly disregards United Nations regulations and human rights appeals.
As with his opinion piece in The Guardian, ‘Censorship has no place in film’, Moore continues to frame the issue as one of censorship, claiming:
Politics will always walk hand in hand with film, and with film festivals, but at the core of every festival, from Melbourne to Montreal, is the independence and integrity of the programme.
When Richard Moore and Liberty Victoria recognise the festival’s independence, what are they claiming it is independent of – influence from, or relationship to, the outside world? Why shouldn’t international law and crimes against humanity be of interest to an Australian film festival? Cultural events, by Moore’s own admission, are also political.
There is a history of censorship with Moore and MIFF, as there is with all festivals – whatever the Melbourne International Film Festival chooses to show or omit from the festival’s selection helps to decide film in Australia for the next couple of years. It’s an incredibly influential position, and a glaring example of censorship through inclusion and exclusion.
Since Moore assumed the mantle of Executive Director, MIFF has gone out of its way to strengthen cultural ties with Israel. In 2007, MIFF showcased the thriving industry of contemporary Israeli cinema. In 2008, perhaps due to some concern about bringing Israeli cinema to the fore, MIFF had a Border Patrol section that theoretically “look[ed], in different forms and style, at the so-called ‘Israeli/Palestinian question’, from different perspectives”.
One of the two Palestinian films to screen in this section was Salt of the Sea. This brilliant film screened once at MIFF, near midnight on a cold wet week night. Filmmaker Annemarie Jacir has described the near physical impossibility of making the film, not least because she couldn’t get permission from Israel to shoot in any of the locations. The entire film, which tells the story of a Palestinian-American who tries to return to her grandmother’s house, was shot illegally in Israel.
Richard Moore states: “To be frank, there isn’t a lot of Palestinian cinema around”. But the reason the Palestinian film industry is so small is because Palestinians are living under occupation, in circumstances in which it is almost impossible to finance and resource a film project, let alone get permits to film, particularly if the film is at all critical of the occupying power, Israel.
The argument seems then to not be a question of which films Moore is choosing to bring to the festival, nor about the specific politics of these films, but about the films that can never be made. As Ken Loach suggested, until we have a free Palestine, we can never have industries without censorship. To pretend otherwise is to tacitly approve and support a boycott on Palestine; one where Palestinians can’t go to universities or hospitals or visit their families, let alone make cinema, which is a real testament to the brutality of the occupation under which they live.
Israeli journalist Gideon Levy recently wrote:
Doctors, professors, artists, jurists, intellectuals, economists, engineers - none of them are permitted to enter Gaza. This is a complete boycott that bears the tag ‘Made in Israel’. Those who speak about immoral and ineffective boycotts do so without batting an eye when it comes to Gaza.
MIFF is right not to bow to pressure from countries like China, who have a questionable human rights record. Equally, they shouldn’t bow to the bullying tactics of the state of Israel. Because when you accept Israel as a “cultural partner”, then you collaborate in a social, political and cultural denial of an entire people.
This year, Moore is emphasising his autonomy once more by declaring the 2010 festival ‘a Ken Loach-free zone’: “I won’t be going to see his film and if it plays in Melbourne, it won’t be in MIFF.”
This claim seems more than a tad disingenuous. Moore has, after all, confirmed that this year’s festival will again accept Israeli government funding, so nothing about MIFF’s understanding of their relationship to the world beyond the festival doors has changed. Most likely, the real reason Loach’s film about the war in Iraq won’t be showing this year is because he will ask the question: is MIFF still taking money from Israel?
This was never an issue of censorship, or not showing Israeli films. It was always about how Richard Moore and Australian cultural festivals are politicising their programs by accepting money from Israel, thereby supporting the actions of a brutal and oppressive government.
Loach again:
The boycott of apartheid South Africa suffered similar criticisms to the ones you now make. But who would now say it was wrong? … You either support the boycott or break it.
Jacinda Woodhead is a Melbourne writer and the online editor for Overland literary journal, where she blogs about politics and literature.
Lollywood likely to get ‘industry status’
Posted by: admin in Middle East Industry News on June 3rd, 2010
http://tribune.com.pk/story/18189/lollywood-likely-to-get-%E2%80%98industry-status%E2%80%99/
By Ali Usman
LAHORE: For the first time in its history, the Pakistani film industry is likely to get the official status of an industry, following which Lollywood investors will be entitled to the same facilities which the government provides to other industries.
The decision was taken in a meeting chaired by the Federal Minister for Culture Pir Aftab Hussain Shah Jilani at the Pakistan National Council of the Arts in Islamabad. The meeting was attended by Pakistan Film Censor Board Chairman Malik Shahnawaz Noon, Federal Secretary for Culture Moinul Islam Bokhari, United Film Association of Pakistan (UFAP) Chairman Mian Amjad Farzand, UFAP Vice Chairperson Sangeeta, director and producer Syed Noor, Sohail Kamran and other officials.
A participant of the meeting told The Express Tribune that a notification in this regard would be issued in tge next few days. It was also decided in the meeting that no Indian movie would be screened for 15 days when a newly released Pakistani film hits the cinema. “The decision is taken to support the Pakistani film industry and encourage film producers to make new films,” another participant of the meeting said.
With Lollywood attaining the official status of an industry, the film producers and stakeholders would be entitled to soft loans. The producers will not have to pay the commercial rates of electricity or water or other such things once the film industry gets status of an industry. Federal Minister Jilani assured that funds would be allocated in the upcoming budget for establishing a digital lab.
With the government extending cooperation and support for the revival of the film industry, observers believe that the ball is now in the court of the industry. They say that if leading figures in the industry still fail to make any considerable contribution for its revival, they should be ready to take the blame for what happens next.
Mian Amjad Farzand told The Express Tribune that the government was taking positive initiatives for the revival of Pakistani cinema and he hoped good Pakistani movies would hit the cinemas soon. “Meeting with the culture minister and other high officials remained very fruitful. Giving the status of an industry to the film industry is a commendable decision,” he said. He said that it was a practice all over the world that the local films of any country were given priority in the local market, adding that there wasn’t anything discriminatory in it if the Indian movies would not be allowed screening for two weeks if a new Pakistani film was being released.
Syed Noor also termed the meeting as successful while Sangeeta hoped the film industry would regain its lost glory with the efforts of all the stakeholders.
Published in the Express Tribune, June 3rd, 2010.
411 Publishing Announces National & International Online Listings
Posted by: admin in Africa Industry News, Asia Industry News, Australia/New Zealand Industry News, Canada Industry News, Caribbean Industry News, China Industry News, Europe Industry News, General Industry News, India Industry News, Korea Industry News, Los Angeles/Hollywood/California Industry News, Mexico Industry News, Middle East Industry News, Philippines Industry News, Russia Industry News, South America Industry News, Studio/Network News, Training & School News, United States Industry News on April 26th, 2010
LOS ANGELES, Apr 26, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — 411 Publishing Co., the leader in providing qualified below-the-line production resources to the entertainment industry with their L.A. and New York 411 print and online directories, has added National and International sections to LA411.com (www.LA411.com) and NewYork411.com (www.NewYork411.com).
411’s National section will initially include over 1,300 qualified listings in over 100 categories from the top ten production states outside of the L.A. and New York areas. Each National listing has been vetted by 411’s editorial staff to meet their standard of only listing companies and individuals with credits on theatrically released films or on television or commercials that have aired on broadcast or cable networks.
Up until now, the location requirement for all 411 listings was limited to Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, Santa Barbara, San Bernardino, San Diego, or Ventura Counties and New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, or Philadelphia. The National section has been added to help producers find qualified production resources and below-the-line talent in states offering them the best tax incentives and location possibilities. There are currently over 33,000 qualified listings in the L.A. & NY 411 directories.
“While our number one goal has always been to nurture and support local below-the-line production companies, we’ve been asked repeatedly by our users to supply qualified production resources outside of Southern California and New York,” said 411 Publishing publisher Sean Killebrew. “As such, we have added national and international listings and will continue to listen to the community and expand our reach as necessary.”
In partnership with sister company KEMPS, 411 users can also search 50,000 film, television and commercial production companies in 115 countries worldwide. The information is updated daily to ensure reliability.
The new sections are accessible to users from either LA411.com or NewYork411.com.
About 411 Publishing:
For over 30 years, 411 Publishing has set the standard for business-to-business directories. 411 Publishing provides the entertainment industry with the best, most trustworthy production resources for film, TV, commercials, video and music video production. 411 Publishing is owned by Reed Business Information, the largest business-to-business publisher in the U.S. and a member of the Reed Elsevier Group plc (NYSE: RUK and ENL), a global publisher and information provider.
SOURCE: 411 Publishing Co.
Bangladesh anger over India films
Posted by: admin in India Industry News, Middle East Industry News on April 26th, 2010
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8644976.stm
BBC News, Dhaka
Bangladeshi film-makers and actors say they have forced the government to reverse last weekend’s decision to allow cinemas to show Indian films.
Representatives of the film industry complained that the move could wipe out thousands of jobs.
There has been no official word yet from the government.
But a leading Bangladeshi film star told the BBC that the prime minister’s office had indicated the ban on Indian films would not be lifted after all.
The star, Razzak, said that a demonstration would not now go ahead as planned.
Film industry leaders had warned that 25,000 jobs could be in danger if Bangladeshi cinemas were allowed to show Indian movies.
They were banned in 1972 to protect local film makers and the local culture.
But cinema owners complain that Bangladeshi-made films are simply not popular enough, and that the middle-classes in particular prefer now to watch pirated DVDs of Bollywood films in the comfort of their own homes.
The previous government clamped down on the cinemas showing pornographic movies and many have since been forced to close.
On Saturday, the commerce minister announced that the ban on Indian films would be lifted to help the cinemas, but the actors seem to have won the argument - at least for now.