The activities of Sharjah, the guest of the Mexico Book Fair, opened a dialogue window to read the current Mexican film industry and its Emirati counterpart, during a discussion session that hosted Nasser Al Dhaheri and Mexican filmmaker Samuel Kishi, to talk regarding the challenges facing cinema in both countries, the impact of technology on the reality of film production, and the changes that it faces. It was imposed by global media platforms such as “Netflix”.
The session, which was moderated by writer Estrella Ariza, Nasser Al-Dhaheri, started by talking regarding his experience in producing his first long-form documentary film, entitled: “The Biography of Water..and Palms..and the People.” He revealed that the film was the result of a question regarding the roots of UAE society, explaining that he had gone through A long research experience with the help of a team of Dutch filmmakers, to trace the deep dimension of the Emiratis since ancient times.
Al Dhaheri explained that the challenges of cinema in the UAE are the challenges of cinema everywhere, as its audience is characterized by elitism, and it does not find financial support, indicating that 90% of films in cinemas in the UAE are American films, and the rest is distributed to English and Arabic films.
Al-Dhaheri stopped at the impact of technology on filmmakers in the world, saying: “The film industry was previously very expensive and might not bear error. Virtual reality technologies also opened up the opportunity for filmmakers to bypass the exorbitant costs of building filming locations, and be content with virtual reality.
For his part, Samuel talked regarding his experience in the film industry by recalling the story of one of the films he worked on, through which he succeeded in reaching participation in the Berlin Film Festival, but he was surprised that all screens were booked and there was no opportunity for him to show his film, as commercial films were dominant. The Tyrant, and there was no opportunity for an independent film of his production to be screened.
Samuel confirmed what Al-Dhaheri went to regarding the tyranny and dominance of American commercial films over global theaters, saying: “93% of the cinema that is shown in Mexico is American commercial films, and 6% are Mexican films, while only 1% is for foreign films, and this is what makes us before A difficult reality in which there is no place for the film that invites the audience to think or search, as everything that presents easy films resembles fast food.