DOXBOX Damascus Diary 1
This is a small report from the first day of the new DOX BOX documentary festival in Damascus. At the opening yesterday there was full house in at the Al Kindi Film Theatre, where the DOX BOX team, headed by Diana El Jeiroudi and Orwa Nyrabia welcomed the flight-delayed foreign guests – and first of all a full house of an audience, that watched the classic “Light & Shadows” by Omar Amiralay, Mohammad Malas and Ossama Mohammad from 1994, followed by Pirjo Honkasalo´s “3 Rooms of Melancholia”, that will be subject to a masterclass, where the Finnish director will be accompanied by Danish editor Niels Pagh Andersen.
The atmosphere is all very generous and full of hospitality, the catalogue is fine, the organisers are nervous, it is as it should be for a first edition of a long awaited festival in a country where the tradition for documentaries is not really existant.
For the Danish readers – the Danish Institute in the soukh of Damascus is exactly so beautiful as the rumours had announced. The Institute supports the festival and we are several who think about projects that would qualify one to stay in the historical building so wonderfully kept with courtyards that are second to none when it comes to beauty.
The film programme starts in a while: Nicholas Philibert, two Arabic documentaries that I will write about, Herzog with his “Lessons of Darkness” and Remunda´s “Czech Dream”. Cross fingers for audience!
