Young filmmakers breathe life into Tripoli’s streets
In a city without a cinema hall, a festival, small in size and big in meaning, comes to bring Tripoli back to the screen and bring the screen back to it, even if for just one week.
As every year, the summer season in the capital of northern Lebanon ends with a crowd in the alleys of the Mina area adjacent to the sea. They are tourists of a different kind; they are Lebanese and Arab filmmakers and film experts who have come to the place to participate in the “Tripoli Film Festival” which, this year, reached its 11th session.
The festival will run from September 19 to 25 (Festival Management)
Egypt hosted by “El Mina”
What strikes Egyptian producer Mohamed Taymour most about this cultural event is “the intimacy that provides an opportunity to get to know filmmakers from all over the Arab world up close and deeply.” His colleague and fellow countryman, director Mahmoud Assi, agrees with him, adding to Asharq Al-Awsat that “there is no wasted time here, as the narrow spaces generate ideas and inspiration,” and that “the secret of the Tripoli Film Festival is not in the quantity of what is presented, but in its quality.”
The two young Egyptians, each of whom was carrying his film project to Tripoli, hoping to obtain support, did not hesitate to travel to Lebanon, despite the delicate security conditions. They found themselves drawing reassurance and laughter from a circle of colleagues in the profession.
Director Mahmoud Assi and producer Mohamed Taymour came to the festival from Egypt to present their projects (Festival Management)
persistence
Season after season, the festival becomes a meeting place for emerging Arab cinematic talents and veteran pioneers in the field, as confirmed by the founder and director of the Tripoli Film Festival, Elias Khalat. Khalat told Asharq Al-Awsat: “Despite the countless crises and the high moral and material costs, especially the difficulty of securing funding, we are committed to continuing.”
Perhaps the most prominent thing that has shaped the festival’s youthful identity and made it a destination for new generations of directors and producers is the “Filmmakers Days” forum. Khalat explains that “this specialized forum is taking up a larger space, year after year,” while the most important thing that has emerged from it is the “Arab Short Film Support Platform.”
Elias Khalat, Founder and Director of Tripoli Film Festival (Festival Management)
A unique platform in the Arab world
The uniqueness of this platform lies in the fact that it is the only one in the Arab world dedicated to supporting short films. Fatima Rasha Shehadeh, the forum coordinator, explains how the idea for the platform was born 3 years ago: “Elias and I have always noticed during our tours of Arab film festivals that funding is limited to feature films. We were aware in advance how much short film directors struggle to obtain financial support, so we decided to launch the platform in the 2022 edition of the festival.”
The platform achieved its first successes with the arrival of the first film it supported, “Sakun,” from Jordan to the “Berlin Film Festival.” Today, the chances of short films obtaining funding have doubled with the doubling of the number of supporters who believe in the platform, and they vary between NGOs and production companies from both Europe and the Arab world.
It is true that the amounts offered are not large, and their total does not exceed 6 thousand dollars, but the eagerness of young directors to present their projects within it indicates its artistic and moral importance to them.
Festival Forum Coordinator Fatima Rasha Shahada (Festival Management)
Beyond financial support
Lebanese director Sherine Karam stands on the podium in front of the audience and the jury that will decide whether her short film deserves support. She defends her idea as if she is defending the most precious cause to her heart. This immersion in the project and the insistence on delivering it to the audience play a pivotal role in choosing the films that deserve to be selected for the platform’s qualifiers. Shehadeh stresses this point and adds: “This year, 39 projects from across the Arab world reached us. We selected the eligible films based on the idea presented, and we also looked at the funding plan, focusing on projects that were a small amount away from implementation, so we pushed them forward.”
Among these directors, who are only missing a small amount of money to complete their project, is the Lebanese Elie Noujaim, who has reached the final stages of sound engineering and color for his film. In his 20-minute film, Noujaim chose a real-life story about a man who sells bottled water on the road, and saves his income to buy his coffin. The young director and actor says that his participation in the Tripoli Festival as a support seeker goes beyond the financial aspect; because for him, the place is “a meeting point for exchanging ideas and concerns in this difficult period, and a source of inspiration and energy recovery for many of us.”
Lebanese director and actor Elie Noujaim presenting his short film project to the jury (festival management)
Egyptian producer Mohamed Taymour, who is present with Sherif El Bendary’s film “Safra,” shares Najim’s opinion. Taymour points out that “despite the modest sums offered, the platform is a distinctive front for young people working in the film industry.” He adds: “Here we can build a good reputation for the film and increase the chances of its spread in the Arab world.”
His fellow director, Mohammed Assi, goes further to say: “Our presence here at this critical security moment, amidst the dangers surrounding Lebanon, is the most important thing, as the highest goal of cinema is to bring people closer together.”
Young filmmakers who have submitted their projects to the support platform (festival management)
collective victory
It’s time to announce the winners. The fear is clear on the faces of the emerging directors and producers, as any small support will push their projects forward. The grand prize goes to Sherine Karam and her film “Two Birds with One Stone”, and the remaining amounts are distributed between Najim and Taymour. But the happiness is not limited to the winners, as everyone is smiling and holding up their certificate of participation in the festival.
If the win is not financial, it is certainly professional and artistic. In addition to the opportunity to apply to the support platform, the festival allows young filmmakers to participate in training workshops and seminars concerned with cinema from all aspects.
The festival brings together veteran artists and emerging talents (Festival Management)
In this context, Shahada says that the festival administration seeks to “build bridges between young people and seasoned experts in the field.” This can be seen up close while touring the halls hosting the activities, where the seventy-year-old actor sits next to the twenty-year-old director, the professional producer and the up-and-coming screenwriter, as everyone exchanges cinematic experiences with humility and generosity.