Manama: Celebrated filmmaker Mira Nair, founder of the Maisha Filmmakers Laboratory, is inviting 12 Qatari aspiring filmmakers to take part in the sixth Maisha's Annual Filmmakers' Lab training programme.
Nair said that Maisha was "a boot camp for cinema" and the Qataris selected by a special committee for the training would have an intensive 25-day course in July and August.
"The programme will give these aspiring filmmakers the opportunity to bring their distinctive stories on the screen, while technicians can hone their skills using state-of-the-art equipment," Nair was quoted as saying by Qatari daily The Peninsula.
Maisha, meaning "life" in Kiswahili, provides new screenwriters and film directors from East Africa and South Asia with access to professional training and production resources.
It has teamed up with the Doha Tribeca Film Festival (DTFF) to offer several spots to young filmmakers from Qatar to travel to Africa to take part in the filmmaking labs.
"A community is built this way," said Nair. "This is not the first time interested filmmakers from the Gulf region joined the training programme, but this year, they want to invite Qataris."
The programme targets those who have already worked on a film of their own, with a production company or have some technical knowledge of filmmaking. Participants will be selected based on their 10 to 15-page screenplays, written in English.
Four writing mentors will help the participants revise their work by conducting workshops on the fundamentals of screenwriting as well as meeting with the participants, the paper said.
Qatar has recently embarked on an ambitious programme to spur Doha's economic and cultural reinvigoration by hosting international cultural events and bringing the world's cultural diversity to its residents and visitors.
In 2009, it launched a film festival modeled after the original New York City Tribeca Film Festival with the expressed aim of making it a major annual event in world cinema.
