(MENAFN- The Peninsula) The Peninsula
In anticipation of the screening of one of the most popular events at the Ajyal Youth Film Festival, Made in Qatar, a series of roundtable discussions were held between members of the local and international press and filmmakers, whose work has been selected for screening this year.
The eagerly-awaited annual slate of independently-made short films, some of which have been supported by Doha Film Institute, has been a core festival event celebrating the exciting state of filmmaking in Qatar.
Rawda Al Thani, director of 'I Have Been Watching You All Along (Qatar/2017), made her short film during a workshop at the DFI, which she says not only introduced her to different styles of filmmaking, but also changed the way she saw her future. Her film has already been screened at the Arab Film Festival in San Francisco, USA, but Rawda Al-Thani says that having the chance to show it 'at home is exciting.
Khalifa Al-Marri, the director of ‘Embodiment' (Qatar/2017) said: 'I have a background as an artist and I became interested after I took a workshop at the New York Film Academy through the Al Jazeera Media Training and Development Centre here in Doha. The course taught Al-Marri the basics, which he supplemented with courses at the DFI.
Other filmmakers also remarked on the way Qatar's film community has developed. 'In the last 10 years, it has grown so much and not just in terms of more active participants but also in terms of growing appreciation for film, which you see in the increasing number of jurors and growing audiences for screenings,said Meriem Masraoua, director of 'Our Time Is Running Out (Qatar/2017).
Aisha Al-Jaidah, director of animated short '1001 Days (Qatar/2017) was the first Qatari student to be sent to study animation abroad and has been the head of her own animation studio for several years.
Presented by Occidental Petroleum Qatar, this year's Made in Qatar is a showcase of 16 short films which will be shown in two programmes of eight films. Made in Qatar second programme screens today (Friday) at 8.30pm and will be followed by an awards ceremony, when the three-member jury of regional industry professionals - Lebanon's Ely Dagher, Kuwait's Dana Mado and Qatar's Salah Al-Mulla will announce the winners of this year's prizes.
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