The festival in Damascus still runs today and tomorrow. I left this morning and the few times I was in the cinema, it was full. Beyond any doubt, this festival – that has been running for four years – has found its place in the cultural life in Damascus. There is a hunger for films, from Syria, from other countries in the Arab world, well from all over the world. For films that never reaches Syria if not for Dox Box. The festival leaders told me, as just one example, about the atmosphere in the hall when naked Finnish men opened their hearts on camera in ”Steam of Life”, dividing the audience into those who found that the film crossed the line of what you can show, contrary to those who loved the film – and those who giggled whenever a new sequence introduced nudity! I have previously praised the selection of international films, good to hear and see that they are also watched with good audience numbers and that they are appreciated, as are the films of Kim Longinotto, guest of honour at the festival this year.

With Longinotto and Syrian artist Ahmad Moulla, I was in the jury of ”Voices of Syria” section of the festival. We saw 6 films and they were not on a very high general level, to be honest. The filmmakers tend to forget the visual side, they go for the words and very often with one political correct interview after interview to constitute the structure. The reportage genre is the inspiration, the journallistic tradition. The selection of the 6 was done from 17 films. We found a winner, one stood out for its story and commitment and main character, the result will be revealed at the closing ceremony tonight.

There is hope that this situation can change if you look at the parallelly running Campus training session that thematically is described below. There was talent to find among the 14 projects coming from 9 countries. Especially among the female directors, who dared to pick up controversial subjects for discussion, with a lot of energy and passion, even if there still is a long way to go for many of them before they acquire filmic skills and find their own voice. But for them the documentary film is to be made to change something or at least to point at something that needs to be changed. Combined with the many different funds and their connected training and development initiatives, there is reason for optimism that more creative documentaries will come forward. Seen in the light of the revolution in Egypt and its inspirational spread, the only thing EUropean filmmakers can do is to help training. The many European training programmes should be open, also for Arab filmmakers. In times of democracy building.

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So there we were at the beautiful Danish Institute in Damascus on a rainy tuesday, March 8. The small shops at the soukh were closed, not because of the International Women’s Day but to celebrate the constitution of the governing Baath Party on this very day in 1963. The sun came out later in the morning, and the shops opened for afternoon customers.

Inside the Institute a presentation of the 14 projects of the 2011 Dox Box Campus were taking place for a handful of hours. In a relaxed atmosphere where representatives from different regional and international funds were present to comment on the filmmakers projects, encouragement and constructive critique: Cara Mertes from the Sundance Institute, Lucan Rosan from Dubai Film Connection, Marie-Pierre Macia from Abu Dhabi film festival fund, Usama Rifae from AFAC (Arab Culture Fund), Melanie de Vocht from Jan Vrijman Fund – Paul Baboudjian from Screen Institute Beirut had been there days before to on-to-one meetings with the project owners. Producer Orwa Nyrabia and directors Kim Longinotto and Raed Andoni joined the panel to come up with collegial remarks… no television channels present and maybe again a sign of the future of documentary financing, also in this part of the world: public or private funding will make the creative documentary genre not only survive but hopefully also blossom. There is indeed a long way to go for the filmmakers at the Campus but they have stories and passion, and they want to tell them  NOW in times where big (and smaller) changes take place in many of the Arabic and Middle Eastern countries. At this Campus session the main theme was the role of women in muslim societies. It was approached from many different angles. There was a story about women riding bikes in Damascus, very few do so, fathers and husbands forbid it. There was a very courageous, personal project about women and their sexuality in Syria, told through three open-minded women. There was a beautiful story about an orphanage girl from Jordan. And a short one about cats – by the director to be accompanied by fragments of women monologues… and many other strong stories. And there was (photo) “Let me entertain You” by Dania Alhamrani (in the middle of this photo taken at the Toronto Documentary Forum) about three performers in Saudi Arabia. She comes from the only women run production company in the country.

Three project prizes were given, see below.

www.idfa.nl

www.screeninstitute.org

www.arabculturefund.org

www.sundance.org

http://www.abudhabifilmfestival.ae/en/sanad/about-sanad

www.dox-box.org

Three projects were given a financial support at the end of the presentation day at Dox Box Campus 2011:

”Brakes” by Bassel Shehade received the ”Best Syrian Project Grant” of 6000$ (previous title: Female Wheels).

”My Uncle. ”The Terrorist”” by Elias Moubarak from Lebanon received the ”Dubai Film Market Development Grant” of 5000$.

”Woman With a Camera” by Karima Zoubir (photo) from Morocco received ”Best Arab Project Grant” of 3000$.

More information on the winning projects can be achieved by contacting the Dox Box festival and Campus staff. Or me!

www.dox-box.org

I am listening to Cara Mertes from the Sundance Institute, she has a power point presentation. Behind her is a quote by Robert Redford: Because audiences are starved for new ideas, voices and visions… as a motivation to set up the festival and the Sundance Documentary Film Program. It is film culture and not television we are focusing on, she says.

The room is full of young upcoming filmmakers from this region, where history happens every day. Yesterday the demonstrators were attacked at the Tahrir Square in Cairo, Libya is burning, in Saudi demonstrations are banned… The filmmakers from Egypt go online several times during the day to check the news.

Women, young women are here and they might not have professionally developed projects yet, but they have strong proposals and treatments:

A Moroccan filmmaker wants to make a film about a woman, who makes wedding videos in a male society. A Syrian filmmaker wants to make a film about three different women, one, in her fifties, who is totally open to talk about her sexuality, one who is raised in a strict religious environment and the filmmaker herself, who takes experience from her own hard upbringing. A Jordanian filmmaker who wants to make a film about a girl, who was brought up in orphanages and has fought her way out of misery, and is very much helped by the filmmaker herself. Who by the way used to play in the Jordanian national football tema for women… yes, you get surprised in this training Campus at the Dox Box Festival, you learn a lot from the participants, you get alternative information and is told not to trust BBC and other Western media, or the Al Jazeera. This is why documentaries are so important, is it not?

Robert Redford talks from the screen, it is about bringing people together – as they are doing here in Damascus.

http://www.sundance.org/

www.dox-box.org

Photo: There are still demonstrators at the Tahrir Square (Ekstra Bladet, Copenhagen some days ago)

There is no revolution in Damascus – small demonstrations in front of the Egyptian and Libyan embassy were stopped immediately by the authorities – but there are many revolutionaries among the participants at the Dox Box Campus that runs parallel and as an integrated part of the Dox Box documentary film festival. The Egyptian young filmmakers were all on the Tahrir Square in February when freedom was in the air. ”They all want to make documentaries now”, says one of the participants with a smile. A former stewardess she is here to promote a film project about a young woman with a hearing problem – who expresses herself through paintings, as the director does through her film. Both come from a background with mothers who protect them in a way that is also caging them. A soul-sister documentary.

Smoke is in the air in Damascus, must be the most smoking city in the world!, but ideas are also floating in the rooms of the Dox Box festival, where filmmakers meet mentors and funders. A young Lebanese male director has an exciting film project called ”My Uncle the Terrorist” – Fouad Chemali was one of the main figures behind the Black September movement, a poet, a lawyer and a political activist. He died in 1972 before the happenings at the Olympics in Munich. The director – through his mother and the brother of Fouad, and several other people who knew Fouad – wants to make a film ”from inside” wanting to understand who he was and why he decided to go for the planning of the Munich massacre on Israeli sportsmen.

And what about a film from Saudi Arabia about entertainers… in a country where there are no cinemas, public concerts do not happen. A flamboyant director presents the film here in Damascus – characters so far in the film are a stand-up comedian and a magicien, in will come, probably, a musician and a filmmaker. 

What can you do as a mentor… inspire, encourage, inform, I would say… Among the mentors is cinematographer Kirsten Johnson, who shot ”The Oath” (PHOTO)together with Laura Poitras, and who is very generously sharing her advice to the Middle East participants hungry for inspiration. It is indeed a scoop for the festival to have her present, one thing is to be a good cinematographer, another is to have the pedagogical skills to convey what you are doing.

www.dox-box.org