DOHA: At least ten Qatari youth will get a hands-on training in filmmaking as the Doha Youth Centre, in partnership with the Office of Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) under the US department of State's Bureau for Near Eastern Affairs, is set to launch a project involving youth to promote democracy and development through visual media.
Selected Qataris, belonging to an age group of 16-25, will be engaged in a 64-hour-long project from August 29, 2009. They will be given comprehensive, theoretical and practical training in short film making enabling them to reflect their perspectives on specific national issues through visual media, the camp director and the award winning Qatari film maker Abdulrahman Najdi told The Peninsula yesterday.
During the workshop, the young Qataris will learn more about how films are made, how scenarios are written and how people express their pints of view through film.
Najdi said the participants themselves will write the script which can be either in English or in Arabic. The films will be screened and discussed in a series of seminars and will be posted on internet that would offer scope for further discussions between the viers and the film makers, he said.
According to Najdi the media outlets in Qatar have not paid significant attention in sharing youth concerns and their perspectives on national issues and democratic developments. This project is expected to fill the lacunae.
Appreciating the initiative, Joseph LeBaron, the US ambassador, said: "There must be a sustained effort to listen to each other; to learn from each other; to respect one another; and to seek common ground". The cinema is one powerful way for communicating across boundaries and correcting images that some have sought to distort, he said. Joey R Hood, the First Secrtary, Press and Cultural Affairs, the US embassy; al Zwaid, Chairman, Board of Directors, Doha Youth Centre; Abdulla Ziyara, Ali Gholoum and noted TV director Ismail Mohamed Al Hasan aer among others to supervise the camp.
© The Peninsula 2009
