Sharjah Film Platform 2019 - First Edition

Sharjah Film Platform is a new film festival organised and hosted by Sharjah Art Foundation. The festival aims to support film production in the UAE and the surrounding region, and to also provide “a critical platform for both established and aspiring filmmakers”.

The festival will take place between January 18-26 and the line up is a showcase of films from around the world, short and full feature length, including documentaries, experimental and classics. All non-English language films will have English subtitles. Tickets AED 15 and there’s a discounted rate if you buy 10 or more tickets. The complete line up can be found here and you can buy tickets from here.

I’ve programmed 3 films directed by Youssef Chahine for this festival, to commemorate the 10th anniversary of his death (I wrote about his films here recently).

The are more than 140 films grouped into 23 Programs, each program will be screened twice. The screenings will take place in 4 different and slightly unique venues within central Sharjah, so it’s worth checking out if you are not familiar with them. The last two and within walking distance.

Additionally, there are several talks/workshops which are free to attend:

January 18:

January 19

January 20

January 25-26

The two short films selected for the opening are the winning participants of the annual Short Film Production Grant, Laymoon (dir. Abdulrahman Al Madani) and Maryam (dir. Mohammed Al Hammed). Both filmmakers will discuss their films after the screenings on opening night. 

The following is the schedule and the line up. Click on the program number to read more about the films and to buy tickets. I also included when the repeat screenings will take place.

We’ve not really had a festival like this that has a varied selection of experimental and non-experimental films and I’m looking forward to lots of film discoveries during this event.

 
Laymoon (dir. Abdulrahman Al Madani)

Laymoon (dir. Abdulrahman Al Madani)

Laymoon 
Director: Abdulrahman Al Madani, 2019, UAE, 16 min

A neglected housewife’s constant attempts to regain her short-tempered husband’s interest in their marriage prove futile. Influenced by her best friend, she realises her efforts need to stretch beyond a wholesome meal.

Maryam 
Director: Mohammed Al Hammadi, 2019, UAE, 22 min

An ambitious young Emirati’s dream to pursue an acting career in New York is challenged by the sudden of her father and the opposition of her mother, who wants her to marry.

 

SATURDAY, JANUARY 19

AFRICA HALL

6.00pm - 7.30pm: Programme 3 (and on Tuesday, January 22, 9.00pm-10.30pm)

  • Cairo Station, Youssef Chahine, 1958, Egypt, 73 min

9.00pm - 12.00am: Programme 4 (and on Tuesday, January 22, 3.00pm-4.55pm)

  • Osha's Gift, Hind Abdullah, 2016, UAE, 8 min

  • My Name Is Nour, Haisam Abdelhamed, 2018, Egypt, 14 min

  • New Year's Eve, Salah Elgazzar, 2016, Egypt, 11 min

  • Will they make it? Baitna Cheshire, Muzamil Elrayah, 2017, Sudan, 82 min

SHARJAH INSTITUTE FOR THEATRICAL ARTS

6.00pm - 8.20pm: Programme 5 (and on Wednesday, January 23, 9.00pm-11.20pm)

  • Dimmed Light, Waleed Alshehhi, 2017, UAE, 8 min

  • A Regular Day, Abdulla Al Benhumdah, 2018, Saudi Arabia, 6 min

  • Stone on the Road, Mohammed Bloshi, 2016, Kuwait, 8 min

  • Chess Turn, Ramy Ayman, 2017, Egypt, 15 min

  • Human, Issam Taachit, 2017, Algeria, 7 min

  • Balloons, Mohamed Mokhtar, 2018, Egypt, 6 min

  • Straight Outta Cairo, Mohamed Higazy, 2018, Egypt, 15 min

  • In the Name of God 333, Abdelrahman Nached, 2018, Egypt, 5 min

  • Asphalt, Ali Hammoud, 2016, Lebanon, 70 min


9.00pm - 11.25pm: Programme 6 (and on Wednesday, January 23, 6.00pm-8.25pm)

  • Wudu, Ahmed Hasan Ahmed, 2017, UAE, 22 min

  • Birth, Abdulla Hasan, 2017, UAE, 82 min

  • My Father’s House, Noora Al Musallam, 2018, Kuwait, 14 min

  • Female Scream, Nasser Altamimi, 2014, UAE, 16 min

  • Madness of Fame, Aly Kassem, 2018, UAE, 7 min




MIRAGE CITY CINEMA

9.00pm - 11.15pm: Programme 2 (and on Saturday, January 26 in Sharjah Institute for Theatrical Arts)

  • Spaces of Exception, Matt Peterson & Malek Rasamny, 2018, USA, Lebanon, Palestine, 90 min

 

SUNDAY, JANUARY 20

AFRICA HALL

6.00pm - 8.45pm: Programme 8 (and on Thursday, January 24, 9.00pm-11.45pm)

  • Leave Us Be, Sara Aboubakr Tallawi, 2016, Egypt, 13 min

  • Not Yet, Bandar Sawai, 2017, Jordan, 17 min

  • The Father Might Die at the End, Abdulrahman Salem, 2017, Egypt, 7min

  • Sama, Hind Anabtawi, 2017, UAE, 21 min

  • Mohammed Rafi Fan Blog, Nihaal Faizal, 2017, India, 31 min

  • I Have a Picture: Film No. 1001 in the Life of the Oldest Extra in the World, Mohamed Zedan, 2018, Egypt, 72 min

9.00pm - 11.10pm: Programme 9 (and on January 24, 6.00pm - 8.00pm)

  • The Land , Youssef Chahine, 1969, Egypt, 130 min


AL HAMRA CINEMA

6.00pm - 8.30pm: Programme 10 (and on Wednesday, January 23, 9.00pm-11.30pm)

  • Eye Test, Sudha Padmaja Francis, 2017, India, 15 min

  • A Stroll Down Sunflower Lane, Mayye Zayed, 2016, Egypt, 14 min

  • Cursed, Samer Houssein, 2009, Egypt, 3 min

  • Big Willow, Jared Katsiane, 2013, USA, 11 min

  • Cherries, Dubravka Turic, 2017, Croatia, 29 min

  • Wintry Spring, Mohamed Kamel, 2015, Egypt, 15 min

  • The Queen's Pink, Jayant Dasgupta, 2016, India, 15 min

  • Alexandria, Ahmed Tag Mohamed, 2018, Egypt, 6 min

  • Under the Sky, Yamen Abd Alnour, 2015, Egypt, 40 min

9.00pm - 11.30pm: Programme 11 (and on January 22, 6.00pm-8.30pm)

  • TRAMA, Will Fredo, 2018, Germany, 8 min

  • Le Marché Oriental, James Webb, 2008, South Africa, 3 min

  • The dust doesn't want to come out of the Esqueleto, Daniel Santiso & Max William Morais, 2018, Brazil, 20 min

  • Summer Before Springs End, Terence Price II, 2016, USA, 9 min

  • How to Make an Image, Eshan Rafi, 2018, Canada, 16 min

  • Radio Ghetto Relay (Alessandra Ferrini, 2016, UK, 16 min

  • There Was Nothing, Yaminay Chaudhri, 2017, Pakistan, 15 min

  • Home Abroad, Boan Wang, 2017, Belgium, 11 min

  • 1991 (Saif Alsaegh, 2018, USA, 12 min

  • A Vacation, Deniz Eroglu, 2018, Turkey, 29 min

  • And What Is the Summer Saying?, Payal Kapadia, 2018, India, 23 min


SHARJAH INSTITUTE FOR THEATRICAL ARTS

6.00pm - 8.30pm: Programme 12 (and on Tuesday, January 22, 9.00pm-11.35pm)

  • Time Spy, Sun Xun, 2015, China, 10 min

  • Print More Newspapers, Youngjae Lih, 2015, Sweden, 8 min

  • Chronoscope, 1952 or 1953, 11pm. (I), Alessandro Balteo-Yazbeck, 2017, Germany, 34 min

  • Tonight's Programme, Ali Eval, 2017, Iraq, 15 min

  • 2001: Pressure Makes Diamonds, Kazim Rashid, 2018, UK, 13 min

  • Unexploded Ordnance, Sikarnt Skoolisariyaporn, 2018, Canada, 30 min

  • If I Steal the Sea from You, Ro Caminal, 2018, Spain, 16 min

  • Your father was born 100 years old, and so was the Nakba, Razan Allah, 2017, Lebanon, 7 min

  • Necessity Has No Law, Ahmed Hamed, 2017, Egypt, 6 min

  • As My Father Was, Muslim Habib, 2018, Iraq, 14 min



9.00pm - 11.30pm: Programme 13 (and on January 25, 6.00pm - 8.30pm)

  • N.O.M.A. - Ernesto Shikhani, Carlos Manuel Cabral da Silva Nunes, 2004, Portugal, 16 min

  • Ward B12, Becky Beaker, 2018, Zambia, 18 min

  • Arise, Nikolaj Bendix Skyum Larsen, 2013, India, 40 min

  • Who is Now Lying, Muhamad Erlangga Fauzan, 2017, Indonesia, 72 min


MIRAGE CITY CINEMA

9.00pm - 11.35pm: Programme 7 (and on January 23, 6.00pm—8.35pm in Al Hamra Cinema)

  • Staying with the Trouble, Altona Larionov, 2018, UK, 14 min

  • Establishing Eden, Broersen & Lukács, 2016, The Netherlands, 10 min 

  • WHOLY, Andrea Dojmi, 2018, UK, 12 min

  • Nowhere, Neli Ružić, 2018, Croatia, 18 min

  • Sisyphus, Driss Aroussi, 2017, France, 12 min

  • As Sovereign as Love, David K Ross, 2017, Canada, 13 min

  • KILAUEA: Pele's Domain (JoAnn Gillerman, 2018, USA, 29 min

  • Tropical Malaise: Prologue (Domingo Castillo, 2017, USA, 19 min

  • On Familiar Waters, Rita Mahfouz, 2018, Lebanon, 8 min

  • The Colour of the Current, Rodrigo Luque & Marcelo Sandoval, 2017, Peru, 10 min

  • Neromanna, Sotiris Tsiganos & Ionian Bisai, 2017, Greece, 9 min

 

MONDAY, JANUARY 21

AFRICA HALL

6.00 - 8.30pm: Programme 15 (and on Thursday, January 24, 9.00pm - 11.30pm in Mirage Cinema)

  • Naqlah, Yousef Al Bagshi, 2017, Kuwait, 8 min

  • Petals, Ghofran Gouda, 2018, UK, 8 min

  • Preemptive Listening (Part 1: The Fork in the Road), Aura Satz, 2018, UK, 9 min

  • Prototype, Wesley Fawcett Creigh, 2017, USA, 6 min

  • See More Glass, Ali Heraize, 2018, Canada, 11 min

  • Baghdad Photographer, Mejd Hameed, 2017, Iraq, 4 min

  • Shouted from the Rooftops, Beri Shalmashi, 2017, The Netherlands, 7 min

  • The Color Remains the Same, Ali El-Darsa, 2015, Canada, 13 min

  • White Time, Radfan Alqirsh, 2012, USA, 9 min

  • Video Home System, Charlene Bamboat, 2018, Canada, 19 min

  • Missing My Home, Amjad Kawish Farajie, 2014, Iraq, 5 min

  • A Room Without Mirrors, Kwang-Ju Son, 2018, South Korea, 11 min

  • First Day of School, Aram Abdulrahim, 2018, Syria, 8 min

  • Love (Waddah Alfred, 2017, Syria, 12 min

  • Souvenir in Exile, Almokhtar Karboua, 2018, Algeria, 31 min

9.00pm - 10.45pm: Programme 16 (and on Saturday, January 26, 3.00pm-4.45pm)

  • The Sixth Day, Youssef Chahine, 1986, Egypt, 105 min 


AL HAMRA CINEMA

6.00pm - 8.25pm: Programme 17 (and on Friday, January 25, 9.00pm-11.25pm in Mirage City Cinema)

  • Unfinished Business, Bojan Fajfric, 2017, The Netherlands, 18 min

  • Pangaea, Emma Rozanski, 2015, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 9 min

  • Encounters with Silence, Janus Victoria, 2016, Japan, 30 min

  • The Lost Object, Sebastián Díaz Morales, 2016, The Netherlands, 15 min

  • No, I Was Thinking of Life (CC), Mona Varichon, 2018, USA, 12 min

  • Madame Cléante Will Not Go To the Graveyard, Pamela Varela, 2016, French Guiana, 39 min

  • Home Exercises, Sarah Friedland, 2017, USA, 22 min

9.00pm - 11.25pm: Programme 18 (and on Wednesday, January 23, 6.00pm - 8.25pm in Africa Hall)

  • Lacuna, Marcia Beatriz Granero, 2017, Brazil, 10 min

  • Cement X, Lene Vollhardt, 2018, Germany, 15 min

  • Porosity Valley, Portable Holes, Ayoung Kim, 2017, Australia, 21 min

  • Glitch Noir - Datasifter Prelude, Cody Healey-Connelly, 2015, USA, 3 min

  • All About Animals: Director’s Panel Pilot Presentation, Cody Ziglar, 2017, USA, 11 min

  • More Love, More Joy, More Mortgage, Chinar Shah, Leslie Johnson, Smriti Mehra, 2018, UK, 4 min

  • I’m ± Here, Nadim Choufi, 2018, UAE, 5 min

  • Fables 1, Wong Ping, 2018, Hong Kong, 13 min

  • Maula Jutt, Haider Ali Jan, 2015, Pakistan, 4 min

  • The Units of the World According to Semicolon, YoungEun Kim, 2011, South Korea, 26 min

  • Fade Out, Abdelrahman Alama, 2017, Egypt, 9 min

  • Nanaira, Meera Al Qassimi, 2018, UK, 20 min

  • Nylon, Ahmed Mohsen Mansour, 2016, Saudi Arabia, 2 min

  • The Man in the Bushes, Vasilios Papaioannu and Emma Piper-Burket, 2017, USA, 6 min


SHARJAH INSTITUTE FOR THEATRICAL ARTS

6.00pm - 8.10pm: Programme 19 (and on Wednesday, January 23, 9.00pm-11.10pm in Mirage City Cinema)

  • A Crow Has Been Calling For a Whole Day, Liu Yi, 2016, China, 12 min

  • Stealing Earth, Karan Shrestha, 2018, Nepal, 13 min 

  • A Poetic Truth in a Pathetic Fallacy, Elise Rasmussen, 2018, South Africa, 16 min

  • When the Body Becomes All Eyes, Anal Shah, 2017, USA, 29 min

  • Reddishblue Memories, Iván Argote, 2017, France, 12 min

  • These Silences Are All the Words, Madiha Aijaz, 2018, Pakistan, 15 min

  • Ghosts Don't Care If You Believe in Them, Arturo Kameya, 2018, The Netherlands, 18 min

  • I Will Outlive You, Claudia Martínez Garay, 2017, The Netherlands, 16 min

  • Kings and Thieves, Kianoosh Motallebi , 2018, The Netherlands, 4 min


9.00pm - 11.30pm: Programme 20 (and on Thursday, January 24, 6,00pm - 8.30pm)

  • Jareedy, Mohamed Hisham, 2016, UAE, 28 min

  • Hunt In the Woods, Elton de Almeida, 2018, Brazil, 20 min

  • Cactus Flower, Hala Elkoussy, 2017, Egypt, 104 min


MIRAGE CITY CINEMA

9.00pm - 11.30pm: Programme 14 (and on Friday, January 25, 6.00pm - 8.30pm in Africa Hall)

  • The Other, Bettina Grossenbacher, 2017, Switzerland, 14 min

  • A Blink of an Eye, Fatima Al Banawi, 2017, Saudi Arabia, 8 min

  • Clams Casino, Pam Nasr, 2018, USA, 11 min

  • Before I Forget, Mariam Mekiwi, 2018, Germany, 31 min

  • Happy Birthday, Marsha!, Tourmaline, 2017, USA, 15 min

  • Ephemera, Thanh Thao Ho, 2017, Vietnam, 22 min

  • A Passage Between Two Points, Lamis Souliman, 2017, France, 10 min

  • an experi-mental e-motion picture, Noura A. Rahman, 2018, Egypt, 5 min

  • Still Life After Death, Sandra Powers, 2018, USA, 11 min

  • In-Between, Sahar El Echi, 2018, Tunisia, 6 min  

  • Color It Yellow, Leen Awad, 2018, Jordan, 10 min

 

TUESDAY, JANUARY 22

AFRICA HALL
6.00pm - 7.55pm: Second screening of Programme 4
9.00pm - 10.30pm: Second screening of Programme 3

AL HAMRA CINEMA
6.00pm - 8.35pm: Second screening of Programme 11

SHARJAH INSTITUTE FOR THEATRICAL ARTS

6.00pm - 8.00pm: Programme 22 (and on Thursday, January 24, 9.00pm-11.10pm)

  • The Donkey, Tariq Keblaoui, 2018, UK, 22 min

  • A Dream, Ghadeer Mohamed, 2017, Bahrain, 7 min

  • Ten Thousand, Sayed Kassem, 2018, UAE, 24 min

  • Mesteka & Rehan, Dina Abd Elsalam, 2017, Egypt, 60 min 

9.00pm - 11.35pm: Second screening of Programme 12


MIRAGE CITY CINEMA

9.00pm - 11.25pm: Programme 21 (and on Friday, January 25, 9.00pm - 11.25pm)

  • Ghost Mode, Sofia Alaoui, 2018, France, 16 min

  • Kindil el Bahr, Damien Ounouri, 2016, Kuwait, 40 min

  • Unravel, Jean Claire Dy, 2017, The Philippines, 27 min

  • Men with No Name, Nuruzzaman Khan, 2017, Belgium, 12 min

  • Léo, Julian Alexander, 2017, USA, 15 min

  • Friendship Crossroad, Waleed Al Madani, 2018, Portugal, 13 min 

  • River, Bagane Fiola, 2018, The Philippines, 22 min

 

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 23


AFRICA HALL

6.00pm - 8.25pm: Second screening of Programme 18


9.00pm - 11.25pm: Programme 23 (and on Friday, January 25, 9.00pm - 11.25pm in Sharjah Institute for Theatrical Arts)

  • Raheel, Ayat Asadi Rahbar, 2018, Iran, 30 min

  • Chooka, Parastoo Anoushahpour and Faraz Anoushahpour, 2018, Canada, 21 min

  • Hills Without Names, Hilal Baydarov, 2018, Azerbaijan, 93 min

SHARJAH INSTITUTE FOR THEATRICAL ARTS
6.00pm - 8.25pm: Second screening of Programme 6
9.00pm - 11.20pm: Second screening of Programme 5


AL HAMRA CINEMA
6.00pm - 8.35pm: Second screening of Programme 7
9.00pm - 11.30pm: Second screening of Programme 10

MIRAGE CITY CINEMA
9.00pm - 11.10pm: Second screening of Program 19

 
 
 

SATURDAY, JANUARY 26

AFRICA HALL
3.00pm - 4.45pm: Second screening of Programme 16

SHARJAH INSTITUTE FOR THEATRICAL ARTS
3.00pm - 5.15pm: Second screening of Programme 1 and Programme 2