Day 2 Highlights

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Photo Gallery
Click here for photos from Day 2.

Preparing for Family Day’s “Direct Your Dad”
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Tomorrow, kids and families will be able to make their film directing debuts on “live” movie sets from the worlds of Western, Horror, and Arabian Nights complete with costumes and props. To prepare for the big day, Dale McCarthy is building and painting the backdrops and sets for the shoot. Scenes will be videotaped and then given to participants after a quick post-production edit.

The Art of Collaboration: Mira Nair’s Maisha Film Lab
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Since 2004, the Uganda-based Maisha filmmaker program has taught East Africans the art of filmmaking and this year DFI began a collaboration to send Qataris to director Mira Nair’s self-proclaimed “bootcamp” filmmaker labs. Today, we screened some of these short films, including the one that won best screenplay at the Maisha workshop – Niam Etany’s “super, full”. We also hosted an insightful discussion on cooperation between directors and their producers, writers and cinematographers, using Nair’s films “The Namesake,” “Monsoon Wedding” and “Salaam Bombay!” as examples.

This “sideview” panel discussion featuring Mira Nair offers audiences a rare opportunity to engage with filmmakers through an informal dialogue about work and process.

DFI Film Student Interviews Mira Nair
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DFI film student Wafah Al Saffar talks with acclaimed director Mira Nair (Salaam Bombay, Monsoon Wedding) about how to make it as a young director, and about Mira’s inspirational Maisha Labs project, empowering aspiring filmmakers in East Africa – a project that impressed H. E. Sheikha Al Mayassa Bint Hamad Al Thani when she visited the project in Uganda.

Rachid Bouchareb’s Masterclass

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In this Masterclass, Bouchareb discussed his most recent films and others, including the triumphant “Days of Glory,” about Algerian fighters in World War II. If not for the films of Rachid Boucherab, a huge part of 20th Century French-Algerian history would be forgotten. In his own words, “Cinema is a wonderful tool to converse with French society,” and this Masterclass will be a rare opportunity to converse with the man himself. Boucherab is indisputably one of the most significant and thought-provoking filmmakers on the international scene.

Travelling to Capture the World of Film: A Dialogue with Brigitte Lacombe
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DFI presents “I Am Film: Work-In-Progress,” an exhibition of portraits of important film figures from the Arab region by acclaimed French photographer Brigitte Lacombe, with video interviews by her sister French filmmaker Marian Lacombe. It is the first comprehensive photographic and video documentation of the Middle East’s emerging and iconic cinematic storytellers. Brigitte and Marian Lacombe talked and answered questions about this unprecedented photography project at DFI’s new multi-media exhibition space in Katara.

For more videos from our I Am Film Series click here.

Ziad Doueiri
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Filmmaker Ziad Doueiri spoke to us about his work on Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs and a difficult moment with Harvey Keitel.

One of the Giffoni Jurors Speaks on Filmmaking

DTFF in association with the Giffoni International Film Festival, the largest kids film festival, has invited six Giffoni international jurors and 60 local jurors, both Qatari’s and expats, and throughout the festival they will watch films, learn about film making, attend panels and have the opportunity to exchange opinions and ideas.

One of the kids makes the distinction between loving film and being a part of it.

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