Saudi filmmaker Shahad Ameen sheds light on her debut feature ‘Scales’
VENICE: Shahad Ameen always had faith things would change. When the Jeddah-born director first decided to become a filmmaker, there were no cinemas in Saudi Arabia and women were often limited in the career paths they could pursue.
None of this mattered to Ameen — she never doubted that she could achieve her goal. Now, her faith has paid off: Cinema has come to Saudi Arabia, and Ameen’s debut feature film “Scales” has premiered at the Venice International Film Festival, after four years of grueling work.
“People looked at me like, ‘Are you crazy? What are you going to do with this degree? Why would anyone study filmmaking?’ I said, ‘I know what’s going to happen, you don’t.’ I knew that something would change,” Ameen tells Arab News.
Ameen first fell in love with visual storytelling through watching Japanese animation and American films, but it wasn’t until she saw “Al-Kawaser,” the popular 90s Syrian television show starring Rashid Assaf, that she knew she wanted to make a career out of it herself.
“Before that, I knew that I would be a writer, maybe a poet, but I remember seeing that series and thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s an Arabic show that I’m really interested in watching! People are speaking my own language and they look like me.’ This is when I decided to be a filmmaker. I really wanted to tell Arabic stories, and I really wanted to see something that represented me on screen,” says Ameen.
The film was shot in Oman.
Her father bought Ameen her first camera at nine years old, and her friends and she quickly began shooting short films — often period pieces with props from around the house, edited directly onto VHS, and filming the credits by holding the camera up to a PowerPoint presentation on the family computer.
When Ameen first arrived at film school in London she was surrounded by American and European students who were far ahead of her in terms of their film education, but she refused to let that deter her.
“In the Arab region, especially in Saudi Arabia, it was not something that we knew. I felt like I was lagging behind compared to my classmates,” she says. “I had to work much harder to understand film theory and the visual language. I learned that cinema is a visual language, and you have to depend on visuals. That’s something that we don’t understand as Arabs, because we’re very much a literary-based culture.”
Ameen didn’t listen to everything they taught her in film school, of course. Students are instructed to never use babies, boats or beasts in their debut feature, because of the intense difficulty and skill needed. But with her first full-length film, following a series of acclaimed shorts, Ameen decided to tackle all three.
Set in a dystopian world, “Scales” is a fable about a small fishing village and the mermaids that live in its surrounding waters, and a young girl who defies tradition to set her own path forward, much like Ameen herself.
“We had to stay for 33 days on the water in a small village that doesn’t have any infrastructure for cinema production. What you learn in film school is true,” she says. “Shooting the mermaids was so hard. Shooting on water would triple our time, literally. Every shot we would need to wrangle the boat, the waves would keep tilting the boat, not to mention loading and offloading actors. It was so challenging, but so much fun.”
Ameen brought in a strong Saudi cast and crew for filming in a remote town in Oman. In the lead role of Hayat, Ameen cast her long-time collaborator Baseema Hajjar, a 15 year-old actor also born in Jeddah, with seasoned actor Yaqoub Alfarhan as Hayat’s father Muthanah.
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VENICE: Shahad Ameen always had faith things would change. When the Jeddah-born director first decided to become a filmmaker, there were no cinemas in Saudi Arabia and women were often limited in the career paths they could pursue.
None of this mattered to Ameen — she never doubted that she could achieve her goal. Now, her faith has paid off: Cinema has come to Saudi Arabia, and Ameen’s debut feature film “Scales” has premiered at the Venice International Film Festival, after four years of grueling work.
“People looked at me like, ‘Are you crazy? What are you going to do with this degree? Why would anyone study filmmaking?’ I said, ‘I know what’s going to happen, you don’t.’ I knew that something would change,” Ameen tells Arab News.
Ameen first fell in love with visual storytelling through watching Japanese animation and American films, but it wasn’t until she saw “Al-Kawaser,” the popular 90s Syrian television show starring Rashid Assaf, that she knew she wanted to make a career out of it herself.
“Before that, I knew that I would be a writer, maybe a poet, but I remember seeing that series and thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s an Arabic show that I’m really interested in watching! People are speaking my own language and they look like me.’ This is when I decided to be a filmmaker. I really wanted to tell Arabic stories, and I really wanted to see something that represented me on screen,” says Ameen.
The film was shot in Oman.
Her father bought Ameen her first camera at nine years old, and her friends and she quickly began shooting short films — often period pieces with props from around the house, edited directly onto VHS, and filming the credits by holding the camera up to a PowerPoint presentation on the family computer.
When Ameen first arrived at film school in London she was surrounded by American and European students who were far ahead of her in terms of their film education, but she refused to let that deter her.
“In the Arab region, especially in Saudi Arabia, it was not something that we knew. I felt like I was lagging behind compared to my classmates,” she says. “I had to work much harder to understand film theory and the visual language. I learned that cinema is a visual language, and you have to depend on visuals. That’s something that we don’t understand as Arabs, because we’re very much a literary-based culture.”
Ameen didn’t listen to everything they taught her in film school, of course. Students are instructed to never use babies, boats or beasts in their debut feature, because of the intense difficulty and skill needed. But with her first full-length film, following a series of acclaimed shorts, Ameen decided to tackle all three.
Set in a dystopian world, “Scales” is a fable about a small fishing village and the mermaids that live in its surrounding waters, and a young girl who defies tradition to set her own path forward, much like Ameen herself.
“We had to stay for 33 days on the water in a small village that doesn’t have any infrastructure for cinema production. What you learn in film school is true,” she says. “Shooting the mermaids was so hard. Shooting on water would triple our time, literally. Every shot we would need to wrangle the boat, the waves would keep tilting the boat, not to mention loading and offloading actors. It was so challenging, but so much fun.”
Ameen brought in a strong Saudi cast and crew for filming in a remote town in Oman. In the lead role of Hayat, Ameen cast her long-time collaborator Baseema Hajjar, a 15 year-old actor also born in Jeddah, with seasoned actor Yaqoub Alfarhan as Hayat’s father Muthanah.
Читать далее: https://www.arabnews.com/node/1566361/lifestyle
Тел.: +7 (499) 769-58-15
Наш сайт – jobforarabists.com
#jobforarabists #ArabWorldNews #НовостиАрабскогоМира #JFA #arabic #арабский #arabiclanguage #arabist #арабскийязык #арабист #арабский #job #карьерадляпереводчиков #translatorscareer #новости_@jobforarabists
Arab News
What We Are Reading Today: Why Trust Science? by Naomi Oreskes
DUBAI: Lebanese-Australian model and influencer Jessica Kahawaty touched down in Brazil this week for a special project, which she revealed late on Tuesday. The model and event emcee told her 921,000 Instagram followers that she is in Brazil — a country she…
First Media Museum opened in Arab Region by North Western University
Northwestern-University
Located in the heart of one of the most advanced media and communication schools in the world, The Media Majlis at Northwestern University in Qatar, which is dedicated to the exploration of journalism, communication, and media in the Arab region has opened at Northwestern University's campus in Doha.
The Media Majlis features a multi-screen facade, as well as space where exhibition content and technology converge. The technology elevates a visitor's experience by inviting them to participate in a global conversation on a continually changing media landscape.
Drawing its name from the traditional Arab majlis or gathering place the museum seeks to be a vital source of interpersonal communication that connects values of local culture to universal and global concerns. All exhibitions are bilingual in English and Arabic, adding to the museum's global essence and eliminating language barriers from telling the full story.
"The Media Majlis, a decade in the making, is a space where our students and faculty, as well as the general public, can engage with content that examines media influences and impact," said Everette E. Dennis, dean and CEO at NU-Q. "The museum's programming, which will explore everything from Arab representations in film, to censorship and identity, underscores the importance of media in society and draws on images and materials from local sources and global collections."
A group of international media scholars and experts formed a Content Advisory Board that advised the university as it developed this unique museum where its exhibitions and programs are incorporated into the school's curriculum and all exhibitions and programming is open to the public.
A member of the advisory board, Lisa Corrin, the director of the Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University in Evanston noted the connection between the mission of the Media Majlis and the academic program at NU-Q.
"The museum's mission is to amplify the raison d'etre of Northwestern University to be a portal through which young minds can learn to think critically about how the vast media landscapes shape our world and in turn how they can use these platforms to have influence in and beyond Qatar," she said.
Exhibitions at the Media Majlis are curated so that visitors can journey through media-centric themes, exploring hundreds of images and films, as well as scores of original interviews developed in-house with scholars and professionals who are experts on the museum's current exhibition topic.
The Media Majlis's inaugural exhibition, Arab Identities, images in film, considers how over a century of film history has shaped and been shaped by notions of Arab identities.
The exhibition, which features clips from more than 200 films ranging from the 1880s to the present day, is accompanied by loans posters, lobby cards and drawings from regional private collections in Kuwait and Beirut, as well as international, including a print from 1851 on loan from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The exhibition will be on view through December.
Читать далее: https://www.iloveqatar.net/news/artsCulture/media-museum-opened-by-northwestern-university
Тел.: +7 (499) 769-58-15
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#jobforarabists #ArabWorldNews #НовостиАрабскогоМира #JFA #arabic #арабский #arabiclanguage #arabist #арабскийязык #арабист #арабский #job #карьерадляпереводчиков #translatorscareer #новости_@jobforarabists
Northwestern-University
Located in the heart of one of the most advanced media and communication schools in the world, The Media Majlis at Northwestern University in Qatar, which is dedicated to the exploration of journalism, communication, and media in the Arab region has opened at Northwestern University's campus in Doha.
The Media Majlis features a multi-screen facade, as well as space where exhibition content and technology converge. The technology elevates a visitor's experience by inviting them to participate in a global conversation on a continually changing media landscape.
Drawing its name from the traditional Arab majlis or gathering place the museum seeks to be a vital source of interpersonal communication that connects values of local culture to universal and global concerns. All exhibitions are bilingual in English and Arabic, adding to the museum's global essence and eliminating language barriers from telling the full story.
"The Media Majlis, a decade in the making, is a space where our students and faculty, as well as the general public, can engage with content that examines media influences and impact," said Everette E. Dennis, dean and CEO at NU-Q. "The museum's programming, which will explore everything from Arab representations in film, to censorship and identity, underscores the importance of media in society and draws on images and materials from local sources and global collections."
A group of international media scholars and experts formed a Content Advisory Board that advised the university as it developed this unique museum where its exhibitions and programs are incorporated into the school's curriculum and all exhibitions and programming is open to the public.
A member of the advisory board, Lisa Corrin, the director of the Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University in Evanston noted the connection between the mission of the Media Majlis and the academic program at NU-Q.
"The museum's mission is to amplify the raison d'etre of Northwestern University to be a portal through which young minds can learn to think critically about how the vast media landscapes shape our world and in turn how they can use these platforms to have influence in and beyond Qatar," she said.
Exhibitions at the Media Majlis are curated so that visitors can journey through media-centric themes, exploring hundreds of images and films, as well as scores of original interviews developed in-house with scholars and professionals who are experts on the museum's current exhibition topic.
The Media Majlis's inaugural exhibition, Arab Identities, images in film, considers how over a century of film history has shaped and been shaped by notions of Arab identities.
The exhibition, which features clips from more than 200 films ranging from the 1880s to the present day, is accompanied by loans posters, lobby cards and drawings from regional private collections in Kuwait and Beirut, as well as international, including a print from 1851 on loan from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The exhibition will be on view through December.
Читать далее: https://www.iloveqatar.net/news/artsCulture/media-museum-opened-by-northwestern-university
Тел.: +7 (499) 769-58-15
Наш сайт – jobforarabists.com
#jobforarabists #ArabWorldNews #НовостиАрабскогоМира #JFA #arabic #арабский #arabiclanguage #arabist #арабскийязык #арабист #арабский #job #карьерадляпереводчиков #translatorscareer #новости_@jobforarabists
www.iloveqatar.net
First Media Museum opened in Arab Region by North Western University
A museum dedicated to journalism, communication and media has opened at Northwestern University. Click the link to learn more about it!