Abu Dhabi: A UAE co-produced animated character based on Ibn Al Haytham, a well-known Arab scholar, will be featured as the mascot and guest of honour at China’s biggest science festival this summer.
The animated character was produced in the UAE through Blink Studios, and is part of a collaborative effort with the UK-based organisation 1001 Inventions.
Hani Kichi, Director and Producer at Blink Studios, said: “Looking at the true historical figure of Ibn Al Haytham made us very interested to be a part of this major project. Our main tool is animation and effect, we love to be a part of storytelling, any project that has a value in sending messages to people and is something related to this part of the world, then we are very interested to be involved.”
Discussing the development process, Kichi added, “1001 Inventions approached us with this story and concept, which we started working on together, to develop this project. We worked with 1001 to understand Ibn Al Haytham’s back story and did a lot of research on him and the era he lived in. We got a lot of manuscripts, references and paintings, so we can somehow imagine the world around him and how that character needs to be portrayed. In the end, our character is appealing to children around the world, not only here in the region.”
Ahmad Salim, Producer and Director of 1001 Inventions, said: “We worked with Blink Studios in the UAE on creating the character and production, and also officially partnered with Unesco. This year, the China Science Festival, which is expected to have more than one million people visiting, decided to embrace the UN’s declared Year of Light for 2015, so the theme of the festival was ‘light’. When we found out about this we told them what about celebrating Ibn Al Haytham, who was called the father of optics, and they immediately loved the character.”
Salim added that a short animated film on Al Haytham will also be touring eight Chinese cities, “From what we know this is the first time that China has celebrated an Arab figure”, he said.
Part of the goal behind the production is to make children interested in science, said Salim, “One of the biggest issues facing countries all over the world is the declining interest in people wanting to study science, so the big challenge is how to get people interested in science? The stories we have and are producing such as with Ibn Al Haytham are very interesting and very good in inspiring people to study science, it’s a universal message behind this short film.
“Chinese people will be exposed to this fun narrative story, for Arabs and Muslims in general it’s an important lesson that demonstrates when they were doing things that were having a major positive impact on humanity”. He continued.
The short film will first be shown at science festivals around the world before its full release to the public next year. “We are very hopeful that the UAE will get the chance to screen the film this year, but eventually it will be released for free on the internet.” Salim adds.
Kichi also says he hopes the short film will lead to more investment for future content to be produced in the Arab world, “10 years before there were only a few companies involved in production and producing content, but it is growing now, the main issue though to be frank is there is a lack of investment. There is a lot of benefit out of creating content for kids to learn from, this project is a great creative initiative and has great value for the next generations.”
“We have 350 million people who speak the Arabic language, but just 1 per cent of content on the internet is Arabic, so that has to change. This short film will have two languages, Arabic and English.” He said.
