Documentary Voices: Pulling Focus

Filmmakers in the Middle East are picking up cameras and raising their voices — but there's a long way to go.

The time has come for peoples of the Middle East to tell their own stories. And Documentary Voices: Pulling Focus, the Gulf region's first film festival dedicated to documentary, aims to be the vehicle that helps these voices grow and go beyond their borders.

"There is a lack of understanding about people here, the cultures, the societies," says the festival's artistic director, Emmy Award-winner and news and documentary film producer Anisa Mehdi.

"And if people outside the region begin to understand better the complexities, the distinctions, the commonalities with the peoples here, then we might be less prone to attack as easily as we do."

Speaking to tabloid! ahead of the festival, which started yesterday, Mehdi said the event was to empower filmmakers, encourage their skills and find better ways to communicate about significant issues of the region.

"I'm not promising that we're going to change the world, but it's very important that we have local people tell their own stories rather than have people from the outside," she said.

Mehdi has a track record in building bridges through interactive workshops among people of different cultures who share similar concerns.

She devotes professional and personal time to productions that break stereotypes and amplify authentic voices from diverse communities. A notable example is Inside Mecca, her National Geographic documentary that is now used as an introduction to Islam courses at some universities.

Muslim voices

Born to a Canadian-American mother and Iraqi father, Mehdi is devoted to empowering those who share her faith. "I think that the Muslim voices that make headlines in the US are not reflective of my experience of the faith. So I'd really like to see more authentic voices."

But the Gulf region has not yielded as many aspirant documentary filmmakers as she had expected.

She is hoping, however, that the event will generate more interest in documentary films and encourage people to try their hand at it.

"Happily, in the US there are more Arab Americans and Pakistani Americans going into journalism so we'll have another generation of trained people to do coverage locally and abroad."

A reason the craft is not popular in the Middle East, Mehdi suggests, is because filmmakers are functioning in societies that don't necessarily have a history of freedom of speech and an independent press. "It's new here — probably only two decades old — and it's very exciting. In my country things are starting to clamp down and we're losing it [press freedom]."

Another barrier, she ventures, is that there is no tradition of filmmaking here, as well as a lack of funding. "It's not a financially smart business to go into and it's hard to get access to the people you want to meet and places you want to access."

Motivation

Filmmakers in the Gulf region may be eager to tell their stories — but will Western audiences be receptive to them?

"There is a segment of the Western audience that will watch American Idol and there's a segment of the American audience who really wants to know what's going on because they are concerned about the future and want to do something about it," Mehdi says.

Documentary film distribution agencies that run festivals and travel the world looking for films have also been brought in to tell budding filmmakers how they can get their work to a wider audience.

Mehdi adds that financial gain was rarely a motivation. "Most of the time it's not just selfish work — the filmmakers are motivated to make a difference."

Having viewed every documentary that will be screened, the ones that stand out for her are stories of hope.

"There are a couple of films that leave us saying ‘What are we going to do?'"

There are stories of addiction and homelessness, victims of the Iraq war, refugees as well as a critique of American news media.

"But each one of them is powerful," says Mehdi.

Get the lowdown

Premiering yesterday under the support of the Dubai Culture and Arts Authority (DCAA) and Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF), Documentary Voices: Pulling Focus focuses exclusively on documentaries.

Twenty films, sourced from Arab countries, the US and Iran, and depicting themes including music, politics, war, peace, and faith, will be screened and critically reviewed during the event.

Running until July 8 at Dubai Knowledge Village, the event will feature a series of screenings and workshops that will see new and established filmmakers presenting and discussing diverse viewpoints on culture, society and development.

It also aims to entertain and educate audiences of all ages, while providing filmmakers from the region an insight into production, financing, distribution and creative development.

Filmmakers will attend the screenings of their work and engage with the audiences. They will also participate in an intensive schedule of workshops, master classes and discussions designed to hone skills, promote effective communication, and encourage networking.

For more information go to www.documentaryvoices.com

Documentaries showing

WOMEN POLICE STATION by Azar Mehrabi
An eye-opening and entertaining study of Iranian female police recruits and their various training sessions.

NOBODY'S ENEMY by Neda Sarmast
Examines the lives, voices and hopes of Iran's young people in a time of great change and international instability.

WEAPONS OF MASS DECEPTION By Danny Schechter
A critique of media coverage on the war in Iraq.

ARUSI PERSIAN WEDDING by Marjan Tehrani
Iranian-American filmmaker Marjan Tehrani chronicles her brother's return to Iran as he travels with his American wife to have a Persian wedding ceremony.

SATELLITE QUEENS: BEHIND THE SCENES OF A PRIME TIME ARAB TALK SHOW by Bregtje van der Haak
The film focuses on the popular talk show Kalam Nawaem, watched by millions of viewers throughout the Arab world via satellite.

FRONTRUNNER by Virginia Williams
The scene is Afghanistan's first-ever democratic election and Dr Massouda Jalal determinedly runs as the only woman candidate.

REFUGEES FOR LIFE By Hady Zaccak
This documentary film follows the lives of three Palestinian refugees — a taxi driver, a fisherman and a widow — and their attempt to reach their relatives in Germany.

WHEN THE PEOPLE SPOKE: PART ONE by Ameer Al Zuhair
The progression of women's political rights in Kuwait after the Gulf War.

IMMORTAL MEMORY by Philip Bajjaly
The story of two survivors — a tobacco farmer's son with a video camera and a news cameraman — of the 2006 military conflict in Lebanon.

RESONANCE by Alaa Al Dajani
Abu Mustafa Sa'id, a blind young Egyptian musician from an unwelcoming neighbourhood, finds his liberation in traditional eastern music.

THE PARTY AFTER THE WAR by Nathan Fisher and Matthew Bowlby
The documentary chronicles the lives of Iraqi refugees from various religious and socioeconomic backgrounds who now live in Syria and Jordan.

I KNOW I'M NOT ALONE By Michael Franti
Armed with an acoustic guitar and a video camera, songwriter Michael Franti goes on a musical journey through war and occupation in Iraq, looking at the human cost of war.

THE TROUPE by Rabeah Ghaffari
Follows Mohammad Ghaffari, an Iranian director/actor living in exile in New York city, who produces Ta'ziyeh, a traditional theatrical form from Iran.

BAM 6.6 by Jahangir Golestan-Parast
A look at how the devastating earthquake that struck Bam, an ancient Iranian village in 2003, transformed lives.

LIFE IN FOG by Bahman Ghobadi
A fourteen-year-old boy, forced to provide for his younger siblings after the death of their parents, is driven to quit school and smuggle goods across the Iran/Iraq border.

CYANOSIS by Rokhsareh Ghaemmaghami
Jamshid Aminfar is a painter, forced to work on the streets of Iran but determined to pursue the art he loves despite constant interruption and hassle from officials and the public.

HIDDEN IN DUST by Mahboubeh Honarian
This documentary is about young Iranian men and women who talk about how they got into drugs and the rise of drugs in Iran.

TO HAVE OR NOT TO HAVE by Niki Karimi
Looks at the problems facing childless couples in a society where infertility is a leading cause of divorce.by Rokhsareh Ghaemmaghami Jamshid Aminfar is a painter, forced to work on the streets of Iran but determined to pursue the art he loves despite constant interruption and hassle from officials and the public.

HIDDEN IN DUST by Mahboubeh Honarian
This documentary is about young Iranian men and women who talk about how they got into drugs and the rise of drugs in Iran.

TO HAVE OR NOT TO HAVE by Niki Karimi
Looks at the problems facing childless couples in a society where infertility is a leading cause of divorce.