InfoAnda - Saudi Government Cancels first Jeddah Film Festival

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Home | News Briefs | U.S. | World | Celeb Buzz | Entertainment | Sports | Business | Health | Sci / Tech | Politics | Weird & Offbeat --- Advertisment --- Saudi Government Cancels first Jeddah Film Festival July 19, 2009 10:07 a.m. EST --- Advertisment --- The Media Line Staff It was the night before the first major cinema event to ever grace the streets of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and Mamdouh Salem was exceedingly busy. Salem, a filmmaker with the Al-Ruad Media, was putting the final touches to the first Jeddah Film Festival, of which he was the founding director. "It was Friday 11pm and I was still at the cultural center preparing," Salem told The Media Line. "Checking the sound balance, arranging the lighting and organizing the filmmakers from various Gulf countries." Then the call came. "I received a call from the Jeddah Municipality to tell me that the entire festival must be cancelled," Salem remembered. "I asked why but the official did not provide me with a reason, only that I was not to show a single film." "I was completely shocked," Salem said. "I just sat down in silence for five minutes... Finally one of the judges asked me what had happened and I simply said: 'It's cancelled, everything is cancelled.'" Salem said he spent an inordinate amount of time fundraising and arranging the event. "I have been preparing for 6 months," he said. "Recruiting films and directors, arranging the location, lighting system, projectors, technical training, posters and seminars about the festival... everything was ready." "Then they tell me the night before that it's all cancelled," he sighed. For the past four years Salem has organized small film festivals in the city, but under the guise of "visual exhibitions." This year the event received the backing of Rotana, the largest production company in the Middle East, chaired by Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. 71 films, most from Gulf countries, were set to be screened and a variety of awards given. A number of regional entertainment personalities and 50 directors flew in from across the Middle East for the event. "What are we supposed to do now?" Salem added. "How can we plan events if they will get cancelled at the last minute?" Salem claims that together with Rotana well over one million Saudi Arabian Riyals (about $267,000) was "wasted" on the cancelled festival. Ensuring the event was officially sanctioned, the organizers intentionally included a number of films produced by conservative directors or whose purpose was to portray Islam in a positive light. "It's a big surprise for all of us," Hussam Abu Sabra, CEO of Donya Productions, a Saudi production company, told The Media Line. "One of the films is a silent Islamic film, without women or music, but the government doesn't understand the meaning of film... They don't know what to do about the religious protests, so they just say don't talk about film, film is forbidden." "I travelled over 1200 kilometers and paid for two directors to fly into the country to see our films." Abu Sabra added. "It's lots of money - our tickets, cars and hotels - but you can either laugh or cry," he said laughing. Halema Muzafar, on a team of film festival judges who had already started working, agreed. "It was a big dream for us," she told The Media Line. "What can I say? I'm very sad." Abdul Nushim Al Mutairi, an aspiring young Saudi director, came to Jeddah for the first Saudi screening of his short film The Project. "We just stayed in the hotel and did nothing," he laments. "The film has been screened at film festivals in Spain and Dubai and privately in Saudi, but this would have been my film's first, and perhaps only, public screening in the country." Al Mutairi placed the blame for the festival's cancellation squarely on the kingdom's religious establishment. "Prior to the festival religious conservatives were very active with the government," he says. "They tried to do whatever was necessary to stop the film festival." "It's weird," he continued, "They let us make the film, the police support us making the film in the streets, yet Saudi is the only country in the Middle East without cinema... We are like fish without water." Some in the Saudi film industry, however, said the event was disorganized and suggested there may not be a political calculation behind its last minute termination. "I'm not sure the government stopped the festival because it's film," Silvio Saadi, CEO of Saudi Arabia's first production company Silver Grey Picture & Sound, told The Media Line. "The government is always supporting art initiatives, but this wasn't organized properly. There was no proper jury, no selection board, it was just a mess. In my opinion, that's why it got stopped." The Jeddah Municipality and the Saudi Ministry of Culture did not return requests for comment. The first commercial screening of a Saudi movie in over 30 years took place last month with much fanfare. Despite street protests by Saudi religious groups opposed to the screenings, thousands of people attended. This was followed late last week by Saudi Interior Minister Prince Naif bin Abdulaziz banning the opening of public cinemas in the kingdom. The developments follow extensive debate within Saudi society over the propriety of films. The government has indicated a willingness to consider the opening of public movie theaters, but this has been resisted by the kingdom's religious establishment, which follows a strict Wahhabist interpretation of Islam and believe films have the potential to debase the Islamic fabric of Saudi society. Copyright © 2003 - 2009 AHN - All rights reserved.Redistribution, republication. syndication, rewriting or broadcast is prohibited without the prior written consent of AHN.License AHN news for your website, business, digital signage network or publication. Home | News Briefs | U.S. | World | Entertainment | Sports | Business | Health | Sci / Tech | Politics | Weird / Offbeat © 2009 AHN Client Login | Submit News | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Contact | Content Services All Rights Reserved

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