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Tue. Mar. 27, 2001
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Art & Culture > Movie &Theatre > Archive
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Arab Screen Independent Film Festival
March 17th - 23rd; Doha, Qatar
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After its highly successful debut in London in April 1999, the Arab Screen Independent Film Festival (ASIFF), under the leadership of head organizer Mohammad Maklouf, held its second film festival in the golden Middle Eastern city of Doha, Qatar the week of March 17th to 23rd.
The first ASIFF aired more than 100 films by Arab directors/producers from various countries around the globe including Italy, Canada, France, Norway, Switzerland, Jordan, Morocco, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Iran, and Tunisia.
ASIFF's mission is to honor and recognize veteran Arab filmmakers, and to encourage young talent by granting them independence and freedom to express their social, political, and human concerns in short films and documentaries. It is serving to alleviate the desperate need for a starting point from which various Arab filmmakers can promote global solidarity and deal with social issues of concern to Arabs.
The decision to move the festival from London to the Middle East was wise, resulting in a higher attendance along with more films being submitted. It also generated a feeling of autonomy and self-preservation, and garnered monumental sponsorship and support from the Al Jazeera television network, the top-rated Arabic news channel in the Middle East, ensuring that it would be covered throughout the Arab world.
To further maintain its international standards, the Festival planned to host 200 guests including Middle Eastern and international professionals for the cinema/television industry, as well as journalists and producers from mainstream television and print media in the region and beyond.
Festival founder Mohammad Maklouf stated, "The ASIFF is distinguished with being the first documentary and short film festival that will be held in the Arabian Gulf." It will also serve as "the first gathering for young Arab filmmakers that has ever taken place in an Arab country with a large number of participants."
The week-long festival was to feature many events including official competition films, Arabic panorama, International Panorama, Iraq: Films Under Siege, Films of the Resistance, Palestine in the Memory, Censored Films in the Arab world and many more. Prizes of fifty-thousand dollars each were to be awarded for competition in categories such as best documentary film, best short film, Jury Special Award for Best Documentary or Short Film, best director, best script/screenplay, best cinematographer, and Critics and Journalists Award.
Media representation plays an extremely important role in placing Islamic social and political issues and beliefs at the forefront of humanity. In the final analysis, in this life, it doesn't seem to matter who is on the side of truth as much as it matters who is telling the story.
By Allah's Grace and Mercy, future generations of Muslims will face the challenge of ensuring accurate and adequate media representation of Islam head on, and will succeed in their efforts to depict Islam and Muslims with the utmost clarity and truthfulness to our non-Muslim brothers and sisters across the globe.
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