AFAC and Documentaries
They are doing important work for the documentary at AFAC (Arab Fund for Arts and Culture). I have been privileged to be tutoring at two of their workshops, the last one in Beirut late February. Rima Mismar is the woman in charge (photo, two from right), she wrote the following text taken from the website of AFAC. Via the link you will get precise information about the workshop and the upcoming films:
For each cycle of the Arab Documentary Film Program (ADFP), AFAC holds a workshop that aims at providing its documentary projects with professional support in areas where it is needed. In addition to providing financial support, AFAC works closely with individual grantees and involves a number of seasoned film professionals to act as advisors, particularly for less experienced filmmakers, the majority for this edition of the ADFP.
Between February 22 and 24, a development workshop for the 2012 ADFP projects took place in Beirut, with the support of a team of advisors, coming from different cinematic and geographical backgrounds. Seven documentary projects took part in Beirut’s workshop, most still in development phase, one that has finished shooting while two
others still in production for various reasons: Dahna Abourahme’s A folktale of Palestine (Lebanon), Selim Mrad’s Counterbalance (Lebanon), Rachid Biyi’s Bread and Angels (Morocco), Nadine Salib’s Mother of the Unborn (Egypt), Mariam Mekiwi’s Hinter Tausend Staeben Keine Welt (Egypt), Ramez Mikhael’s The Craft (Egypt), and ElKheyyer Zidane’s Deadly Business (Algeria).
A top-notch team of advisors was assembled to give the filmmakers in-depth feedback in addition to an insight into the market, additional sources for funding, and possible solutions to the restrictions they are facing. The advisors committee comprised Danish documentary consultant and critic Tue Steen Müller, American producer Joslyn Barnes, Syrian producer and festival director Orwa Nyrabia, and Lebanese filmmaker and Commissioning Editor Mohamad Soueid.
http://www.arabculturefund.org/bulletin/article.php?genre=1&id=247#.UUXwAY6rN2R