Grants Catalogue 2016 Table of Contents Message from the CEO Grants Programme Team Feature Narrative Feature Documentary / Feature Experimental or Essay Short Narrative / Short Experimental or Essay Film Funding Now in its sixth year, the Doha Film Institute Grants Programme is past the Two of our grantees from this year were selected for screening in the 2016 Doha Film Institute Grants big five-year mark, solidifying our core commitment to identify and support Cannes International Film Festival’s official selection, alongside four older Programme emerging talents from across the world, and nurture the next generation of grantee projects, which I think is testament to the strength of our Grants filmmakers. programme, the exciting new filmmakers emerging from our region and 2016 Our goal was to strengthen the foundations of a thriving film industry in beyond, and the high quality of the films we are pleased to be able to support. Qatar, and to extend our support to emerging filmmakers from across the Our Grants programme aims to seek out original voices in film, encourage Arab region and beyond. During this period alone, I am proud to say that creative interaction among the filmmakers, and develop a community of we have been able to support 315 diverse global projects from 56 countries, filmmakers around the Doha Film Institute alumni. Selected projects are with over 80 percent coming from the Arab world. These are stories that not also offered creative development support by the Institute’s professionals only represent our voices, but ones that embrace diversity to highlight key throughout the life-cycle of the films. Through the growing Qumra platform, challenges facing our shared global humanity. year-round development opportunities, and support in connecting grantees I am encouraged by the first- and second-time filmmakers in our latest with the practical needs of their projects, we aim to form long-lasting, round of grants who approach these issues with an unequivocal creative productive relationships that will bear value well into the future. curiosity. Their passion for storytelling is only matched by their directorial As we look onwards to our first decade, it gives me great confidence to vision, and it is that unique combination in projects that are challenging, witness the remarkable strides made by our family of filmmakers, who are creative and thought-provoking that we aspire to support. redefining Arab and world cinema, and making their presence felt on the While providing the platform for new cinematic voices, we are also looking world stage. We feel honoured to support them in bringing their powerful to build a culture of universal storytelling with films that resonate across stories to life, and contribute to the development of a sustainable film all cultures. We want to empower talented young people by helping them industry in Qatar and the region. tide over the challenges they face in fulfilling their creative aspirations, and encourage the creation of compelling content. The resulting 58 projects come from 24 countries this year and join our – Fatma Al Remaihi grantee alumni in telling stories that help us understand each other and CEO, Doha Film Institute foster a greater appreciation for the people and the world around us. They cover a broad range of subjects and represent some powerful new voices in cinema. We are especially proud of the high quality of Qatari projects represented, some from established names and others from emerging young talents, and we are delighted to assist them in pursuing their filmmaking ambitions right here at home in Qatar. Doha Film Institute Hanaa Issa, Director of Strategy and Development Grants Team Khalil Benkirane, Head of Grants Delly Shirazi, Grants Senior Coordinator Meriem Mesraoua, Grants Coordinator Wesam Said, Grants Coordinator Vanessa Paradis, Grants Assistant Feature Narrative A House in Jerusalem A Kasha Amerli Beauty and the Dogs Bull Shark Cocote Daoud’s Winter Dark Skull Diamond Island Dogs Headbang Lullaby Hitch 60 (Working Title) I Dreamt of Empire iPhone Memory Memory Hotel Multicoloured Bahtan Musk Screwdriver Solo Stateless The Maiden’s Pond The Journey The Poster The Silence of the Wind Volubilis Wallay Whispering Sands You Will Die at Twenty Zanka Contact Development Grant Director’s Note Director’s Biography Company Profile Feature Narrative A House in Jerusalem I grew up driving with my father Muayad Alayan is a film director, Co-founded by Muayad Alayan and Spring Grants 2016 through the West Jerusalem cinematographer and producer Rami Alayan, PalCine Productions ‘Bayt fi Al-Quds’ / Palestine, Qatar / Arabic, English, Hebrew neighbourhoods of Baq’a and based in Palestine. His directorial is a film production company based Talbiya to get to school in the debut ‘Love, Theft and Other in Bethlehem, Palestine. PalCine Genre: Drama, Fantasy old city. My father used to Entanglements’ (2015), which he started out as a collective of Muayad Alayan Interests: Politics, Psychology, Social Issues narrate stories that painted in also produced, had its premiere Palestinian filmmakers and artists Director / Screenwriter / Producer my imagination how life there in the Panorama section of the coming together to produce their A Jewish American family finds it hard to adapt to their new home in was when Palestinians still lived Berlin International Film Festival. own audio-visual collaborations and Jerusalem after they discover the grave of a young Palestinian girl. there before 1948. Today, years It was nominated for the First productions. It soon expanded to after my father passed away, I still Feature Award and has since offer experience and skills to other take that same road, and, like all been distributed in more than local and international productions, Palestinians, I see the juxtaposition 20 territories. His first short film non-profit organisations, of life there today with what once premiered at the Clermont-Ferrand communities and institutions was. It is here that the story of this International Short Film Festival seeking to produce audiovisual Rami Alayan film is set. It explores how the new in 2009 and went on to screen at projects in Palestine. PalCine’s Screenwriter / Producer residents of the Arab houses deal more than 60 festivals. He also projects range from documentaries with the past and its phantoms co-directed and produced the and narrative films to commercials through denial, rejection, cognitive documentary ‘Sacred Stones’, which and music and educational videos, dissonance, distortion and, in won the Al-Jazeera Channel Award and several of its films have won rare cases, acknowledgement. in 2012. international awards. Questions about truth and justice are best answered by children In the hope of fulfilling their life-long desire of living in the Holy Land, a because they are innocent and Jewish American family move to Jerusalem, where they buy a house that was pure. Through the story of a young once the property of Palestinians. Shortly after they settle in, they discover Jewish American girl who has just the grave of a young Palestinian girl in their new garden, which dates to moved to Jerusalem with her family the 1940s. Their hopes for a utopian life begin to crumble as seven-year-old and her discovery of the ghost of Rebecca finds it hard to adapt to her new home, and is increasingly haunted a Palestinian girl of the same age, by the ghost of the dead girl. who lived with her family in the same house before 1948, the film explores the innocence with which Contact children approach one another PalCine Productions before they are corrupted by the Muayad Alayan fears and prejudices of their parents. +972 52 808 9352 [email protected] Production Grant Director’s Note Director’s Biography Company Profile Feature Narrative A Kasha ‘A Kasha’ is an offbeat and hajooj kuka is a filmmaker Led by Steven Markovitz, Big World Fall Grants 2016 humourous love story set in a from Sudan. kuka’s 2014 feature Cinema was established in 1994 Sudan, South Africa, Qatar / Arabic / 2017 time of war – but the war is in documentary, ‘Beats of the and has produced, co-produced Sudan and it is happening right Antonov’, had its premiere at the and executive-produced short Runtime: 72 min now. In the Nuba Mountains and Toronto International Film Festival, and feature-length fiction and hajooj kuka Genre: Politics, Satire the Blue Nile region, our lives are where it won the People’s Choice documentary films. The company’s Director / Screenwriter Interests: War saturated with the rhetoric and Documentary Award. The film has award-winning projects include ideology of war and revolution. But been broadcast on POV, screened ‘Stories of Our Lives’ (winner of An offbeat Sudanese love story set in a time of civil war. the people here are also trying at more than 60 festivals and won the Teddy Award at the Berlin to live normal lives – there are seven international awards. kuka International Film Festival in 2015); gatherings and music, romance and also trains and works with young ‘Beats of the Antonov’ (winner, laughter. I find the juxtaposition filmmakers across Sudan. Toronto International Film Festival of big philosophical ideas around People’s Choice Documentary revolution with peoples’ simple lives Award in 2014); ‘Viva Riva!’, which Steven Markovitz very compelling; I want to explore was selected for the Berlin and Producer the collision of these two worlds. Toronto International Film Festivals; and ‘Congo in Four Acts’, which was selected for the Berlinale, the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam and the Hot Docs Canadian Internationl Film Festival. The company has an extensive Adnan is a revolutionary war hero whose love for fighting and his AK-47 are production and distribution network rivalled only by his feelings for Lina, his long-suffering sweetheart. When across Africa. Adnan is late to return to his military unit after leave, the army commander launches a “kasha” to round up truant soldiers.