AGSIW Supports Arabian Sights Film Festival

As part of its support to Washington’s Arabian Sights Film Festival, AGSIW’s Raymond Karam participated in a panel on the “New Arab Cinema.” Panelists discussed the wide ranging and significant strides in the evolution of Arab cinema, regionally as well as internationally, and the requisites for a strong industry with solid foundations. Karam spoke of the importance film plays as a vehicle to understand and study the culture and society of a country. He emphasized some of the challenges faced by films from the Arab world, including the need for a crossover film that does for Arab cinema what “Amores Perros” and “Old Boy” did for Mexican cinema and Korean cinema respectively. Karam added that this is a double challenge for Arab cinema in that film would need to cross over into the wider Arab market first: “The Arab world is not a monolith but is very diverse culturally, and even linguistically. It’s historically been difficult to release an Arabic film outside of its home territory – unless it’s Egyptian. A Lebanese film might be very successful in Lebanon but that doesn’t mean it will work in Dubai, Cairo, or Amman.”

The panel was moderated by Colin Brown, former editor-in-chief of Screen International, and managing partner of international operations at Mad Solutions. The panel also included Perihan AbouZeid, co-founder of Movie Pigs, Khadija Al Salami, director of I Am Nojoom, Age 10 and Divorced, Najwa Najjar, director of Eyes of a Thief, Sherif Nakhla, director of Les Petits Chats, and Danielle Perissi, head of documentary, marketing, and communications at Image Nation, Abu Dhabi.

The views represented herein are the author's or speaker's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of AGSI, its staff, or its board of directors.