Al Burda Festival 2021
Al Burda Festival is a biennial event launched in 2018 by the UAE Ministry of Culture & Youth. It focuses on creating dialogues around the present and future of Islamic arts and culture, and invites creative leaders, scholars, artists, and community members to collaborate, exchange insights, and co-create ideas.
This year’s edition takes place in Dubai Exhibition Centre at Expo 2020 in Dubai. It includes Al Burda Cinema, and I was invited to curate part of program. I put together two double bills that will screen between 2.30pm and 5.30pm on December 21. The festival and screenings are free to attend.
OSHA (Rasha Amer, 2021, 15 min)
Osha is the youngest female falconer in the Emirates, practicing a tradition that is male-dominated. Set in the stunning empty quarter of the United Arab Emirates this film sheds light on a rarely seen world.
For too long, falcon hunting has been a masculine sport and this young woman is out to break down the gendered barriers and become an even greater falconer than her mother.
MARS, OMAN (Vanessa del Campo, 2019, 20 min)
An old Bedouin riding his camel can’t believe his eyes: a woman dressed in a big, compact armour and a bizarre helmet is studying an insignificant rock. Astronauts in the desert of Oman...Or is it Mars?
Bedouins, spaceships, desertships, two young Omani girls passionate about space and a lost director reflecting about life in this Universe and the relation between nomadism, exploration, colonialism and freedom.
THE SWAHILI BEAT (Kenny Mann, 2008, 28 min)
An upbeat look at the remarkable history of the Swahili people of Kenya and Tanzania's East African coast. Packed with the music and dance of its indigenous peoples, the film takes viewers along the coast from the fabled island of Lamu to Zanzibar, Mombasa, Kilwa, Bagamoyo and Dar es Salaam, tracing the development of the Swahili culture through the intermarriage of Arab settlers, arriving from Oman in the 8th century, with local Africans.
Though the strength of Swahili culture has prevailed through much of this invasion and colonization, communities now face new threats in the face globalization, the internet, and tourism.
SONG OF LAHORE (Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Andy Schocken, 2015, 82 min)
The film examines the lives and the cultural heritage of Pakistan's classical musicians, and asks whether there is still room for them in a society roiled by social and religious upheaval. After toiling in obscurity for years, an innovative album leads Sachal Studios to international acclaim, and a triumphant concert with Wynton Marsalis and his orchestra at Jazz at Lincoln Center.
This feature length documentary by Academy Award winning filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and Andy Schocken follows their dramatic journey, and asks if they will ever find an audience at home.
I will also be moderating a talk on the same day, titled “Moving Beyond Stereotypes: Islam in Films” and with filmmakers Amjad Abu Alala and Ayman Jamal.
“Films play a crucial role in shaping how we understand the world, and the silver screen has long been a medium for change. In that vein, how have recent productions reinforced or reinterpreted the stereotypes of Islamic culture, who is changing the game and how, and what opportunities lie ahead for filmmakers, directors, producers, and actors to effect real change?”
Amjad Abu Alala is a Sudanese director and producer, born and currently residing in the UAE. He studied media at the Emirates University and worked as a film and documentary director with various media institutions for arab and western channels.
His four short films screened on different film festivals: Teena, Coffee and Oranges, Feathers of the Birds and Studio, which was supervised by the iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami.
In 2013 he received the award for the Best Arabic Theater Script from the Arab Authority for Theater for Apple Pies. As a producer, he founded a creative laboratory in collaboration with the Doha Film Institute, which has already produced five short films. Furthermore he programs the Sudan Independent Film Festival.
You Will Die At 20, his first feature film, received the Lion of the Future in Venice, as well as the Grand Prix at the El Gouna and the Amiens festival.
Ayman Jamal is the Founder and Producer of Barajoun Entertainment, a leading production and visual effects studio in the MENA region. Jamal’s passion for storytelling inspired him to produce and direct his first full animation feature film Bilal: A New Breed of Hero, which tells a story about faith, hope, and courage.
Jamal was included as one of the top 10 filmmakers in the Arab world in the May 2016 issue of Variety Magazine during the Cannes Film Festival, and recently ranked as number 31 in the list of public intellectuals in the Global Influence edition “Thought Leaders in the Arab World”.