Curator’s Statement
Only ten years ago, the whole Gulf region lived in a total cinematic drought. This was an impossible situation at a time when the world was celebrating over 100 years of cinema. Actually what was missing was an attractive, calm, understanding and patient environment, and more importantly, one that believes in culture, in the language of pictures, that has a passion for cinema ... a lot of it.
As soon as this environment materialized in 2002 with the Emirates Film Competition in Abu Dhabi, the cadre started shyly, hobbling, in an absurd flow, individually, and enthusiastically. The joy was overwhelming. What would our image look like on screen? How strange to sit in a cinema, seeing ourselves projected onto the screen with a new image we were not used to. An image that was very much like us. The cinematic image that others had of us was always either of stupid Bedouins or rich people swimming in barrels of oil or, both a fresh and rather old-fashioned image, terrorists.
That day I wrote: ‘this experiment... does not impose actual postulates of cinema presence in the Emirates. It is only an attempt to break through the block of dullness and rigidity that surrounds an important cultural project that has been – and still is – neglected, on purpose or not. The experiments of professionals, amateurs, and students come together to have an impact, not to be presented to a few and that’s it. They are being projected to alarm, to draw attention, not to become commercial material or a product. They are projected to say in plain frankness: we didn’t die. If some of these experiments are confused or technically poor, visually or in terms of sound, they came by themselves to say it openly: yes, it is like this, poor and desperate.’ This misery that not many understand has also been a new source for a series of fallacies about our image: Why are film festivals being held in countries that do not produce films? Or why encourage amateurs and video films and gather under a fictive setting called ‘festival’?
Personally I was not very concerned with names, designations or the setting at the time. What interested me was the involvement, the attraction and the polarization, to keep the flame burning so that the smoke won’t kill us when it is put out. Despite the sharp criticism, inside I knew that the sorting phase was to come later and that we have to change that negative image in the mirror of the other. The bet was not on movie production; it was very simple: on individual artists, on a purer image of us, and on a group in which all speak their mother tongue: cinema, and on cool breezes to comfort our dry lungs. And correspondingly watching the image of the other, his understanding of renewing our impression of him, to remove false impressions if existent. Very briefly and simply: environment.
The programme presented here is a simple selection from the Gulf and what I know for sure today is that the last ten years had a lot of cinema about them.
As soon as this environment materialized in 2002 with the Emirates Film Competition in Abu Dhabi, the cadre started shyly, hobbling, in an absurd flow, individually, and enthusiastically. The joy was overwhelming. What would our image look like on screen? How strange to sit in a cinema, seeing ourselves projected onto the screen with a new image we were not used to. An image that was very much like us. The cinematic image that others had of us was always either of stupid Bedouins or rich people swimming in barrels of oil or, both a fresh and rather old-fashioned image, terrorists.
That day I wrote: ‘this experiment... does not impose actual postulates of cinema presence in the Emirates. It is only an attempt to break through the block of dullness and rigidity that surrounds an important cultural project that has been – and still is – neglected, on purpose or not. The experiments of professionals, amateurs, and students come together to have an impact, not to be presented to a few and that’s it. They are being projected to alarm, to draw attention, not to become commercial material or a product. They are projected to say in plain frankness: we didn’t die. If some of these experiments are confused or technically poor, visually or in terms of sound, they came by themselves to say it openly: yes, it is like this, poor and desperate.’ This misery that not many understand has also been a new source for a series of fallacies about our image: Why are film festivals being held in countries that do not produce films? Or why encourage amateurs and video films and gather under a fictive setting called ‘festival’?
Personally I was not very concerned with names, designations or the setting at the time. What interested me was the involvement, the attraction and the polarization, to keep the flame burning so that the smoke won’t kill us when it is put out. Despite the sharp criticism, inside I knew that the sorting phase was to come later and that we have to change that negative image in the mirror of the other. The bet was not on movie production; it was very simple: on individual artists, on a purer image of us, and on a group in which all speak their mother tongue: cinema, and on cool breezes to comfort our dry lungs. And correspondingly watching the image of the other, his understanding of renewing our impression of him, to remove false impressions if existent. Very briefly and simply: environment.
The programme presented here is a simple selection from the Gulf and what I know for sure today is that the last ten years had a lot of cinema about them.
Biography
Masoud Amralla Al Ali was born in Sharjah, UAE, in 1967. He is the curator & director of the Emirates Film Competition (2002-2007), artistic director of the Dubai International Film Festival, and director of the Gulf Film Festival, and served as a jury member in several Arabic and international film festivals. His writings comprise poetry, including a collection of poetry entitled ‘Hymns of a Seagull’, and cinematic critiques and have been published in Arab magazines and newspapers. He also directed several shorts and documentaries including ‘Al-Rumram’ (1994), ‘The Rainbow Room – 100 Years of Cinema’ (1996), ‘Horizontals and Ornament in the Baroque Age’ (1999), and ‘The Mountain Keepers’ (2005).
