Three of Hollywood’s most influential film industry experts landed in the UAE this week to explore the possibility of film corporation partnerships between the UAE and Hollywood, as well as to promote a programme that connects film makers from around the world with leading US entertainment professionals.
Len Amato, president, HBO Films (and Film Independent board member); Josh Welsh, president, Film Independent; and Jennifer Kushner, director of artist development, Film Independent, kicked off their packed schedule in Abu Dhabi this week and tabloid! was invited to join in.
First stop, we met the trio after an hour long Q&A at New York University’s (NYU) Art Centre on Sunday where some twenty lucky film students had the opportunity to hold discussions, share their questions and ask advice in a very intimate setting.
Global Media Makers programme
After the jokes and the selfies, we sat down to discuss the initiative that they were promoting, the Global Media Makers programme.
“We will be bringing 15 filmmakers from seven countries in the region for an intense creative development and mentorship opportunity in Los Angeles where we will be connecting them with US industry and artists, people like Len, to help them develop their projects and their crafts and gain access and exposure to the US film industry,” explained Kushner, who oversees the Film Independent Artist Development programs that support over 100 filmmakers every year.
Although the programme was launched in 2016 by Film Independent, a not-for-profit arts organisation that supports visual storytelling, in partnership with the US Department of State, they added UAE in the pool of countries to consider in 2017.
“UAE is a very robust player in the region in terms of content creation so it was important for us to include it,” said Kushner.
“It seems that there is a real effort and desire to build an industry here and that has been really interesting, to speak with the people who are trying to create that infrastructure... it seems like there is a strong commitment and a great amount of resources that are dedicated to it right now,” added Amato.
The other six countries whose artists are being considered in the programme include Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, turkey, Jordan and Tunisia.
While how much the programme will impact the participant’s careers remains to be seen, Kushner offered an example of how it helped two Moroccan participants last year, who were making their first feature film.
“They got to work with Jeremy Podeswa, a Game of Thrones director. He helped them develop a scene for their feature. I think it gave tremendous confidence in their voice and their vision and their story. And to have that opportunity to work with someone like that who is so experienced,” she said.
“I think they leave the programme believing in themselves a lot more,” she added.
Here it is worth mentioning, for anyone who is not aware, that the hit series Game of Thrones is an HBO production. While Amato is the president of HBO Films, it is a division of the giant television network. It produces feature films and miniseries and is separate from the Game of Thrones production.
We tried to press Amato on whether we could expect to see HBO Films shoot in Abu Dhabi or Dubai in the near future, however, he was not giving away anything on that front either. “There are always opportunities but it depends on the programming and the particular things that are being made,” he said.
Challenges for filmmakers
Having just met with the NYU students and other film industry experts in Abu Dhabi, challenges that independent film makers and programme creators face in this region were hot on their minds — namely the diversity of the population and lack of platforms to showcase their work.
“The Emirates has a very diverse population and so sometimes it’s hard to create programming that can appeal to all the different populations that exist within the country. That’s a challenge,” explained Amato.
However, they agreed that other challenges that they learnt about where common global issues.
“Making independent film is very hard. It’s something people do out of passion and conviction for their personal story that they have to tell,” said Welsh.
Advice from the experts
We could not leave the film industry experts without asking their advice for visual storytellers in the UAE, and this is what they had to say.
“The advice that one gives is universal in that, you are trying to make content, you are not just trying to make a movie that shows in a theatre and gets nominated for an academy award,” said Amato.
“You have to be passionate, you have to care about what you are doing, and it has to be a vocation. It’s something that you should be doing only if you feel like you have to do it. It’s not a choice because it’s going to make you famous or rich,” Amato added.
“You really have to be prepared to live in a state of unknown... you are really not going to grow unless you are willing to take risks. I have seen it here and I have seen it in the US, the hesitation and the reluctance to fail. You can’t really make any progress that way,” said Kushner.
Len Amato’s journey to success
tabloid! caught up with the trio the following day at another event, this time held at Abu Dhabi-based production house TwoFour54’s office, where they had the opportunity to meet and speak with a diverse group of artists including local film makers, producers and actors.
Amato talked about how he went from not having a dependable job and very little money to producing successful movies and becoming the president of HBO Films, by hard work and dedication and without any “connections” in the industry.
“I was a waiter for four years to support myself. My girlfriend, who became my wife, was a modern dancer, so we had no money, we were just artists in New York,” he said.
Amato said he simply loved the arts which got him to write, play music and act as well as attend film school in Chicago for two years. While in New York, the heart of the publishing industry, he managed to eventually get a job as a manuscript reader and write coverage, his summary, on the stories.
“That’s how I made money. That coverage would go to the studio executive and they would usually read the coverage and say whether or not they wanted to pursue it [the script] as a project or read it themselves,” he said.
A determined Amato then went onto work for an independent producer, where in time he became a story editor. It was when he was working here that his “big break” came.
“The big break was when I heard that Robert De Niro was going to start a company, and I respected Robert De Niro so much, he was like a hero, I thought I am not worthy to work with him, he wouldn’t notice me.”
After much deliberation Amato said he finally got the courage to approach De Niro and decided to write him a letter.
“The smartest thing I did was put the letter in a FedEx envelop, because I figured if it’s in a FedEx envelope they might think it’s important and they would have to give it to him, they’ll think maybe its taxes or something.”
“Miraculously he got the letter and I got a call the next day and ended up meeting him.”
Amato did not have an impressive CV but he said De Niro was one of those people who could understand that. Although he did not get the job that he was looking for he ended up working as a freelance reader with De Niro’s newly founded Tribeca Productions company.
“That to me was the big break. To not have any connections but be able to do something that I loved, with people that I respected.”
Amato went onto other roles in De Niro’s company before landing a job with Warner Bros producers, Spring Creek Productions. Here he ended up producing hit movies such as Analyze This and Analyze That, where he worked with his De Niro; Possession, featuring Gwyneth Paltrow and Aaron Eckhart; as well as Blood Diamond, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, just to name a few.
And the rest is history as they say. He has been working at HBO for around 10 years now.
Grounded
So how has Amato kept his feet on the ground and not fallen into the Hollywood lifestyle that has derailed so many?
“I just like the idea to let the work, or the results from the work to do the talking, rather than figure out the right clubs to go to, or the right people to know.”
“I was older when I started so I valued it... When something good finally happened I appreciated it and I didn’t want to blow it.”
Final evening in Abu Dhabi
They spent their final evening in Abu Dhabi watching a movie, The Lights of Rome, with a crowd of around 100 people at a private viewing at the US ambassador’s residence, Barbara Leaf. The trio seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the subtitled documentary that followed the story of the 1990 UAE football team that played in the Italy World Cup.
Box
HBO Films is a division of the giant cable television network HBO and produces feature films and miniseries. HBO Films productions have won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie every year from 1993 to 2015, except in 2000 and 2003.
Film Independent is a not-for-profit arts organisation that supports visual storytelling. It also produces the Spirit Awards, Los Angeles Film Festival and Film Independent at LACMA.
