For our final day, DTFF is hosting Filmmakers' Day, and we have a great list of workshops slated. From acting and improvisation to script writing — we'll teach you the basics of filmmaking.
All workshops are taking place at our festival hub — the Museum of Islamic Art.
So stay tuned throughout the day for updates!
Also keep checking our Day 4 Photo Gallery for photo updates of events & celebs
4:45pm: Audience Q&A with Sampson and Delilah producer Kath Shelper
After the screening of Sampson and Delilah at the City Center, the film's producer Kath Shelper spoke to the audience about how she and the director, Warwick Thornton, wanted to make a film about Alice Springs in Australia, where they're from.With the support of government initiatives, they introduced non-professional aboriginal actors Rowan McNamara and Marissa Gibson who played the lead roles.Today Marissa has gone back to school while Rowan dropped out.
A member of the audience who is from Alice Springs shared how moved she was by the "strong and authentic representation of the challenging life there."
4:15pm: Recap: A New Generation of Arab Filmmakers Speak Out
(Falling From Earth director Chadi Zennedine (left) and Heaven's Doors directors Imad and Swel Noury (right))
Issues of cultural and national identity, new paths in filmmaking and a positive emergence into the international film scene were discussed by Lebanese Chadi Zeneddine, Moroccan Swel Noury, Jordanian Amin Matalqa and Egyptian Marwan Hamed.
The talk, hosted by the international editor of Variety magazine Ali Jaffar dealt with the struggle for Arab filmmakers’ work to be recognized in the West, addressed the need to generate an Arab filmmaking community and to break stereotypes. “People see us as Arabs as though we are all the same. We are very different and there are a lot of questions that we need to answer,” Hamed said.
The directors generally agreed that one of their main responsibilities is to create a new, powerful presence for Arab cinema (‘Arab’ defining both filmmaker and themes) in the world, while still using film as a form of personal expression that can reach audiences worldwide with its human, universal themes.
“If we are seen through the prism of our Arab identity,” Noury said, “we will lose a lot.”The filmmakers also agreed on the importance of recognizing the advantages of the digital age.
Matalqa spoke of how much posting his short films on youtube helped him get motivating feedback and develop a following. “You need to make a few good films first in order to gain trust from financiers and respect from your audience,” Matalqa said, “like the Field of Dreams metaphor, if you build it, people will come.”
2:15 pm: Recap: Elia Suleiman Masterclass
The Time That Remains director Elia Suleiman just wrapped up his masterclass for The Fabulous Picture Show in the MIA atrium, and it's no exaggeration to say that our audience (including many aspiring filmmakers among them) was deeply taken with his humor, eloquence and soul.
"I never wanted to be an authority when I was acting," he said of his on-camera appearances, often in the margins of a frame. "I wanted to be some kind of transparency, a guide."
Suleiman (whose film looks at 60 years of Palestinian history in Nazareth) also told anecdotes about a scene that required an Israeli tank to be blown up (three cameras were destroyed in the process), and the challenges of adapting his own father's diaries into The Time That Remains' intensely personal (but not fully autobiographical) narrative. He described his own family as "absolutely tender, and absolutely humorous," and recalled finding many of his father's stories about 1948 almost to fantastic to be true.
He expressed some pessimism about Palestine's future, and a feeling in his own life of lacking a homeland. "I'm not saying it in a tragic way, I'm saying it in a privileged way. Every place I enjoy is a homeland of mine."
11:30 am: Sir Ben Kingsley and Elia Suleiman at the MIA
Sir Ben Kingsley just wrapped up a conversation with DTFF's Executive Director Amanda Palmer on the MIA grounds. Coming up at noon, Elia Suleiman will kick off his masterclass for The Fabulous Picture Show in the MIA atrium. Hurry down, and check back for updates!
10 am: Palestinian Rap Group DAM To Perform on Closing Night!
– DAM is the first and leading Palestinian rap group. Composed of Tamer Nafar, 27, his younger brother Suhll, 23, and Mahmoud Jreri, 24, the group has performed together since the late 1990s. DAM's music is a distinctive fusion of East and West, combining Arabic percussion rhythms, Middle Eastern melodies and urban Hip Hop.
8 am: Filmmakers' Day Schedule of Events
The Time That Remains Screening & Master Class with Elia Suleiman
– Screening of film and discussion and Q&A with Director. Master Class will be taped for the show ‘Fabulous Picture Show’.
Team Qatar Screening & Up For Debate: The Film Challenge
– Comedians Dean Obeidallah, Maysoon Zayid and Omar Offendum will join a new generation of teenage debaters in a live debate about film.
MLC Stuntmen Demo
– Stuntmen will demonstrate techniques to pull off amazing feats in various film styles.
Improv Acting
– Scandar Copti and Hisham Suleiman, possibly with rap artist Offendum, lead an interactive and hilarious improv session.
Schools Tent
– School clubs (photo, AV etc..) and Doha Youth Center to show work in the tent.
Workshop with Al-Jazeera English: Inside the News
– Inside the News with news correspondent Imran Garda from Al-Jazeera English. Workshop will go behind the scenes of the News and Journalism Field and explain Al Jazeera’s editorial mission. Imran will explain what is required of him and review the practical and technical process as he talks through some of his key moments.
Peace & Love Booth
– Rema Sayge's ongoing ‘Love Universally’© documentary has come from streets of New York to the Community of Doha. We want Doha to share with us their secret to happiness. Step inside and let us know how you would like to make a difference in this wonderful world that we live in. If you woke up one morning with ability to change the world how would you describe the world you live in? You have 3 minutes to answer 3 questions and about Peace and Love!
Writing Your Own Film Workshop with The Noury Brothers
- Cutting edge Spanish-Moroccan Directors Swel and Imad Noury of ‘Heaven’s Doors’ will share their insights and experience of bringing ideas to screen.
Animation Workshop with Joe Summerhays
- Joe specializes in children’s and adolescent entertainment and educational projects with a focus on animation, instructional design, and original programming. He is the author of 35 children's books, and designer of over 70 award-winning interactive children’s software titles. Joe has guided more than 5000 educators and young people in the creation of over 400 short animated films.
3DTV with Sandy Climan
- Chief Executive of 3ality Digital and his crew of 40 or so employees have developed a patent-pending system of turning films shot on two-dimensional cameras into 3D flicks using equipment.
Crash Course on 1 Minute Filmmaking with Scandar Copti
– Scandar will take 5 people and lead a workshop on creating a 1 minute film through the entire production process in front of an audience.
“Writing your own movie: A case study on Heaven's Doors”
A workshop with the Noury brother
Sunday 1st November, 11:30 am to 12:30 am @ MIA Grounds TENT
The United States has the Coen Brothers, Belgium has the Dardenne’s and, in 2006, the twenty-something Morrocan Spanish brothers Swel and Imad Noury gave the world their edgy debut feature, “Heavens Doors."
Written by Swel Noury and co-directed with Imad, “Heaven’s Doors” debuted in Berlinale and was quickly hailed as belonging to the new and exciting generation of Morrocan storytellers, with its interwoven non-linear narratives and highly technical and stylized approach to editing and camerawork.
As the son of famous Morrocan director Hakim Noury, the brothers soon set to work on their next feature, an adaptation of Swel’s favorite writer, Dostoyevsky and his first novel “A Weak Heart”. The result was their second feature “ The Man Who Sold The World” which will premiere in 2010. For this interactive DTFF workshop, the Noury brothers will share their experiences and offer a candid survival guide to the challenges of being first time filmmakers: from writing, directing, financing and production. Swel is now writing third script.