There were films, fashion and public conversations with cinema celebrities. But beyond the red carpets, this year's Festa del cinema di Roma proved a meeting point for understanding the world around us, and sharing thoughts with like-minded people from faraway lands. Here is my personal diary of a wonderful event held in one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
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Fatma Al Remaihi, CEO of the Doha Film Institute, flanked by the managing team of the Ajyal Film Festival
Doha's Ajyal Film Festival aims to make educated audiences out of today's youth
I believe wholeheartedly that we are what we watch. It’s been my mission to find works of art on the big screen — and on the little one now through Netflix and the likes — that will make life better. I mean, we can all remember that moment, as children, walking out of a theater having watched our favorite character or cartoon on the big screen and feeling an extra bounce in our step. I still experience that these days, whenever I watch something really special. I walk out of the darkened theater into the light of day — as a film writer most of my viewings are done during the day — feeling like anything is possible.
So when the Doha Film Institute kicked off their Ajyal Film Festival in 2014, I went to Qatar to experience the wonder first hand. It was everything I hoped it would be, children and young adults as juries, films that although made for all ages, could really infuse younger minds with a message of peace and hope. You know, an idealist film writer’s dream come true.
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A still from ‘Family Romance, Llc’ by Werner Herzog
The Cannes 2019 Diaries: Wondrous Werner Herzog, 'Papicha' is my new heroine and the life surreal of a film journo
In ‘Family Romance, Llc’ Werner Herzog finds a new way to work through the difficulties life throws our way — outsource them to an agency specializing in family connections. He does it with his usual flair for our human ridiculousness and making the impossible seem real. During the junket following the screening, I loved listening to my esteemed colleagues’ confused explanations of stories they thought they’d seen like this one in documentaries, or even completely convinced this was a reality film, instead of fiction. And Herzog himself quite perfectly, calmly and smoothly shooting down each and all of their perplexed ideas.
‘Family Romance, Llc’ was a Special Screening at this year’s Festival de Cannes.
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Julianne Moore in ‘The Staggering Girl’ by Luca Guadagnino
The Cannes 2019 Diaries: Films that broke my heart and Luca Guadagnino's Valentino project
There has been a certain je ne sais quoi in the air here in Cannes, and I wasn’t able to quite put my finger on it. It bothered me, someone always good at defining a moment, person or place, that I couldn’t put that feeling into words. Then I attended the press conference for Luca Guadagnino’s ‘The Staggering Girl’ and I had a ‘EUREKA!” moment. So bear with me for a moment while I get to that…
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Alain Delon, photo courtesy of the Festival de Cannes
Cannes Film Festival announces Competition, Un Certain Regard titles and an honorary Palme d'or to Alain Delon
As a young girl, I remember watching anything that had Alain Delon in it. I had a super crush on him and, lucky me, no film of his was deemed inappropriate by my parents. So along with Luchino Visconti’s ‘The Leopard’ and ‘Rocco and his Brothers’, I also caught Delon in films like ‘The Swimming Pool’, ‘Zorro’ and yes, even ‘The Concorde… Airport ‘79’. In fact, from the latter I required that a friend of the family who knew how to knit make me a royal blue crew neck wool sweater that looked just like his. I would find you a photo but I would have to watch that entire film all over again and well, I’ve moved on from my pre-pubescent crush. And my taste in film has highly improved.
But Alain Delon remains the fascinating man, the sultry sex symbol that could even steal women away from Mick Jagger. And this year’s he’s the Festival de Cannes honorary Palme d’Or recipient. Kudos to the festival for finally getting the reclusive actor to accept their coveted lifetime award.
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La Pointe courte © 1994 Agnès Varda and her children - Montage and design : Flore Maquin
The Cannes Film Festival unveils its poster which pays tribute to the late, great Agnès Varda
As I learned at this year’s Qumra, held by the Doha Film Institute, the grand dame of French New Wave cinema Agnès Varda was all about finding the stories, the viewpoints that no one else would bother with. The Festival de Cannes, in its poster just unveiled for the 72nd edition of the festival, pays homage to La Varda but also to her indomitable spirit by showing the filmmaker on her first cinematic venture perched high up on a platform, atop the shoulders of a crew technician. She’s is looking to capture that image, that viewpoint which no one else would have even thought about. She is Varda, in all her perfectly humble and adventurous attitude. The same Varda who asked me, to my utter disbelief, if I’d liked her “little film” a few years ago in Cannes.
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A still from ‘Femmetasia’ by Mouhssine El Badaoui
Five projects from this year's Qumra I simply cannot wait to watch
The yearly, five days long Qumra event in Qatar, held by the Doha Film Institute each March is that rare occasion for those of us who write about cinema to connect with the filmmakers, producers, film programmers, sales agents and festival directors who make the magic happen. Don’t misunderstand me now, I think film journalists and bloggers are equally to praise or blame for great movies being made. Our collective word, the reviews and interviews we manage to sell to publications or feature on our blogs, can create a movement that reverberates around the world. I know colleagues who pride themselves on making or breaking someone’s career. It’s not nice, but it is true. Take the case of Gianfranco Rosi’s ‘Below Sea Level’ and the infamous Variety review that ensured the film never made it to a cinema near you — a fact the filmmaker mentioned in his Masterclass at last year’s Qumra.
That said, in Doha there is a great energy created by the powers that be of the DFI, which allows journalists to relate to the film projects in such a personal way that it’s impossible thereafter to dislike it or even ignore it.
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A still from Hamida Issa’s ‘Places of the Soul’
The Qumra Diaries: Souq Waqif, "from desert to desert", Alice Rohrwacher and Kiyoshi Kurosawa
On my last day in Doha, I spend the afternoon wandering around the Souq Waqif which I learned from a local filmmaker, literally translates as “the stand up souk.” In the olden days, before Qatar turned into the international, cosmopolitan country it is today, the sea would come straight into the alleys of the souk so the merchants had to stand up and pick up their wares during the tides. Thus the name, and actually while I wandered around checking out the shops, having a shawl sewn from a traditional flower fabric by a local tailor while drinking a karak chai (cardamon infused milky tea) and eating a chapatti flat bread filled with zaatar, I felt like I was transported back to those early days of the pearl divers and their haunting songs of the sea.
Doha is special place. I’ll never get tired of saying it. And their annual Qumra event, organized by the Doha Film Institute is sheer cinematic magic. Qumra is a meeting place, a five-days long networking session, a place to pitch, secure financing and ensure a screening chance for film projects. But it is also an occasion to recharge our collective passion for the movies. For journalists, producers and of course filmmakers, the atmosphere at Qumra offers an almost electric energy, a jolt of renewed hope in the future of the 7th art.
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Eugenio Caballero talks with Richard Peña during Qumra
The Qumra Diaries: Eugenio Caballero and Pawel Pawlikowski share their filmmaking wisdom
When I look at the title of this piece, I feel overwhelmed myself. I mean, it would be pretty wonderful to just hear one of the these two men who are such Maestros in each of their professions give a Masterclass. But when you get them both, within 24 hours of each other, on a stage, talking to the equally wondrous Richard Peña, well, you have cinematic magic.
Or more precisely, what you have is the Doha Film Institute’s annual Qumra event.
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The Qumra Diaries: Discovering Agnès Varda in the land of cinema
It is obvious from the moment one steps on a Qatar Airways aircraft that cinema is important in Doha. I mean, just going through the entertainment system on my particular flight, I found ‘Rebecca’ by Hitchcock, Barry Jenkins’ hauntingly touching and all too true ‘If Beale Street Could Talk’, Paul Dano’s intimate portrayal of a family struggling to remain a single nucleus ‘Wildlife’ and even the 2019 Best Picture Oscar winner ‘Green Book’.
Qatar knows good cinema and nowhere is that better understood than in the welcoming arms of the Doha Film Institute.
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Hanaa Issa with filmmaker Elia Suleiman at a DFI event
"This is the environment where films flourish": Talking Qumra 2019 with Hanaa Issa in Berlin
Ever since its creation in 2010 on the peninsular country of Qatar, the Doha Film Institute has been revolutionizing cinema in the Region. The word “revolution” is never a sign of good things in the Arab world and yet at DFI, they should welcome the term when it comes to describing the work they’ve been doing almost singlehandedly to create and foster a healthy cinema culture in the Arab world. And beyond.
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Sawsan Arsheed in a still from Soudade Kaadan's 'The Day I Lost My Shadow'
The Venice Diaries: Lion of the Future winner Soudade Kaadan's 'The Day I Lost My Shadow'
'The Day I Lost My Shadow' by Soudade Kaadan won the Lion of the Future – “Luigi De Laurentiis” Venice Award for a Debut Film Jury at the 75th Venice Film Festival. It's a win to be celebrated for all women filmmakers, of course, but also for Syrian filmmakers who, since the start of the war in 2011 have all but disappeared. Scattered around foreign lands, their voices and visions have become the true casualties of this conflict.
In her film, which world premiered at the festival in the Orizzonti section, Kaadan uses the metaphor of personal shadows as a way to show how the war strips people of their humanity and hope. When Sana, played by the beautiful Sawsan Arsheed, goes out looking for a gas canister so she can cook for her son, she is pulled into a three day nightmare that eventually ends the way everything ends in Syria... I'll leave that to your imagination and perhaps your first viewing of the film.
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The Locarno Diaries: Women power, Courage with a capital "C" and a healthy dose of great cinema
As I flew over to Milan to reach Locarno then by car over the Alps, I watched 'The Gospel According to André' on the plane -- the documentary about the grand fashion figure that is André Leon Talley. It was a perfect way to dive into the Locarno Festival since Talley's life has been all about courage and bold choices and this year's film festival is channeling that spirit exactly.
Also, as a woman I find solace at an event that kicks off with a press release announcing their commitment to sign the Programming Pledge for Parity and Inclusion in Cinema Festivals for parity and equality in the industry. Locarno will be the first festival after Cannes to commit to this pledge. So on August 5th at 9.45 a.m. Marco Solari, Locarno Festival President and Carla Speziali, Locarno Festival Vice President, will gather at the Spazio Forum to publicly and officially sign the initiative by SWAN, the Swiss Women’s Audiovisual Network, a sister movement to the French 5050x2020 campaign that took place on the steps of the Palais this May 2018 during the Cannes Film Festival.
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The Poster for Nadine Labaki's 'Capharnaum' - Photo by Fares Sokhn
The Cannes Diaries 2018: The Doha Film Institute continues to "grab at the stars"
Best selling author R.A. Salvatore once wrote "It is better, I think, to grab at the stars than to sit flustered because you know you cannot reach them." In all they do, and how they unrelentingly and tirelessly support filmmakers, the Doha Film Institute folks prove time and time again that they are grabbing at the stars, not sitting by, flustered.
After having been to Qumra this past spring, I can't imagine the Arab cinema landscape without the presence of DFI. In fact, even after the Dubai International Film Festival called off its 2018 edition, because of DFI's mission I remain hopeful for the future of cinema in and from the Region, and I know I'm not the only one to feel that way.
This year, in fact, in Cannes there are six DFI-supported films. In the main Competition, there are Nadine Labaki's 'Capharnaüm' -- check out my interview with the filmmaker in The National newspaper -- and Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s 'The Wild Pear Tree'; ''Sofia' by Meryem Benm’Barek and 'Long Day’s Journey Into Night' by Gan Bi are screening in Un Certain Regard; and in the Directors' Fortnight sidebar audiences will find both 'Weldi' by Mohamed Ben Attia and 'The Load' by Ognjen Glavonić. So, if you thought that DFI was only about cinema from MENA think again!
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The Qumra Diaries: The life lessons learned and great persons met, thanks to the Doha Film Institute
As of my very first steps at this year's Qumra, around the Souq Waqif, spent inside the Date Market fair and eating a bowl of fragrant Moroccan fava bean soup at a nearby restaurant, to my very last moments wandering inside the Hamad International Airport drinking an espresso with a fellow journalist, Doha gave me the very best she has to offer. And that's pretty darn sensational in a country that can count culture, fashion and heritage at the top of its list of priorities.
From the brand new, still partly in construction National Museum of Qatar rising out of the sands, and shaped like a Desert Rose, the crystallized rock that is formed when lighting hits the dunes, to the institution of the Museum of Islamic Art, where most of the Qumra events and masterclasses are held, to the leisurely, harass-free environment of the Souq itself, I felt like I was being coddled in a cocoon of culture and learning, one that would definitely remain with me for months to come.
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Apichatpong Weerasethakul talks to Richard Peña during a Qumra Masterclass
Photo courtesy of the Doha Film Institute
The Qumra Diaries: Wisdom from the Masters with Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Andrey Zvyagintsev
The great thing about an event like Qumra, the yearly industry meet-up organized by the Doha Film Institute to inspire and connect filmmakers with the world of cinema business, is that one gets to discover wonderful gems. And not only the up and coming filmmakers whose projects were featured in this fourth edition, some of which are definitely heading to Cannes! I also had the leisure to rediscover Russian filmmaker Andrey Zvyagintsev (‘Leviathan’ and ‘Loveless’ among others) and hear his insight during one of the six masterclasses, and actually uncover ApichatpongWeerasethakul, watch his dreamy work for the first time. And what a wonder that was! As Italian Maestro Gianfranco Rosi admitted to me later, I also remained enchanted by Weerasethakul’s ‘Emerald’ a dreamy look at a rundown motel, featuring flying particles and voiceovers, which I’m still working through and thinking about quite a few days later.
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Bennett Miller conducts a masterclass during Qumra 2018
The Qumra Dairies: Wisdom from a Master with Bennett Miller
When Oscar-nominated American filmmaker Bennett Miller sat down to give his masterclass during this year's Qumra in Doha, he immediately apologized for his voice. "It doesn't hurt, it just sounds bad," he admitted, about the husky sound that appeared to be a really bad case of laryngitis. Maybe they could stop a bit early, said his moderator, who instead then actually proceeded to go overtime with the talk.
Living on the edge, this idea that the masterclass could be cut short by Miller's loss of voice altogether actually added an extra layer of urgency to everything that the talented, kind, thoughtful and wonderfully candid filmmaker had to say.
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Gianfranco Rosi gave a Masterclass at this year's Qumra
The Qumra Diaries: Wisdom from the Masters with Tilda Swinton and Gianfranco Rosi
The greatness of Qumra, the annual industry event held by the Doha Film Institute to help connect, inspire and encourage filmmakers, lies in its diversity of activities. From the daily working breakfasts with some of the most well-respected festival directors and programmers, sales agents and producers to the Masterclasses with cinema greats, from its Qumra Talks to the networking sessions held each afternoon just around the corner from my hotel, there is a buzz of activity at any given moment and even a non-filmmaker like me can feel the excitement of great cinema in the making.
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Sofia Coppola (left) and Kirsten Dunst on the set of 'Marie Antoinette', photographed by Brigitte Lacombe
The Qumra Diaries: Brigitte Lacombe and the power of a photograph
I know that a Diaries series is meant to go chronologically, yet there are moments when the rules need to be broken.
For me, hearing master photographer and longtime Doha Film Institute collaborator Brigitte Lacombe talk about cinema and fashion from a photographic point of view was one such moment. I could not wait to get home and write about the pleasant afternoon I spent in her company -- along with a theater-full of attendees of this Qumra talk -- and her sister's, video photographer Marian Lacombe.
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Tilda Swinton and Cameron Bailey
The Qumra Diaries: Tilda Swinton, the Museum of Islamic Art and to Doha, with love
From the moment I boarded the Qatar Airways plane in Fiumicino, I realized I was being transported somewhere special. I also knew my journey, as both a film writer and a human being, would be a life changing one.
To begin with, the airline offers Karak chai -- a milky tea infused with cardamom or saffron to taste -- and a choice of films that included 'Murder on the Orient Express', the new version by Kenneth Branagh. Not what I would have gone to the movies to watch it but at 30 thousand feet, flying over lands and bodies of water I'll probably never set foot on or swim through, cup of fragrant tea in hand one's taste adjusts. And I even found myself crying through some of Branagh's Hercule Poirot moments.
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