Qumra Projects Twenty-three feature-length and ten short film projects at various stages of production have been selected to benefit from the experience of the Qumra Masters, as well as bespoke mentorship and business meetings with international experts. The primary motive of this international gathering of creative film professionals is to contribute to the development of emerging voices in cinema, with a special focus on first- and second-time filmmakers. Development Feature Narrative Bull Shark Death Street Evil Eye The Pearl The Search for the Star Pearl Stolen Skies Till the Swallows Return Development / Feature Narrative Director / Screenwriter Mohammed Al Ibrahim Bassam Al Ibrahim Director’s Note Mohammed Al Ibrahim Bull Shark Producer Mohammed Al Bassam Al Ibrahim With this film I intend to awaken Mohamed Al Hamadi, ‘Qirsh El Thor’ / Qatar, Bahrain, USA / Arabic, English Ibrahim’s 2010 graduated from audiences to a growing trend of Bassam Al Ibrahim, Khalid Al Jaber Genre: Crime Drama narrative short ‘Land the University of malicious greed that destroys any of Pearls’ screened at Essex with a BSc notion of a just-world hypothesis, a number of events, in Engineering and whether cultural or religious, especially An up-and-coming investment banker makes his mark in including the Gulf Telecommunications. in the Gulf region. Behind a veil of Company Profile the Arab region’s most prominent Islamic investment bank, Film Festival, the Doha Tribeca Film His educational background, project Islamic rhetoric oozed a dark secret Innovation Films is a film and only to find he has been caught in the middle of the costliest Festival and the Abu Dhabi Film Festival. management aptitude and business that represented the region’s worst television production company whose embezzlement scheme in Arab history. He participated in the FEST Training acumen have aided him in his role as nightmare – man’s manipulation of a main vision is to create a solid film Ground in Portugal. In 2013, he wrote Executive Producer and Board Member banking system ordained by God. The industry that exports world-class and directed the short film ‘Bidoon’, at Innovation Films. Over his career, aftermath of this era dismembered filmmaking. Past productions include which was named best short narrative Al Ibrahim has produced a number hundreds of families, sparked an the feature film ‘Lockdown: Red Moon at both the Abu Dhabi and Gulf Film of award-winning films, including attempted revolution, and led to losses Escape’, as well as several successful Festivals. He is currently majoring in ‘Bidoon’ and ‘Qarar’, and has overseen in the billions of dollars. The tone of short films; the company also co- Film and Media at the University of production on many other projects ‘Bull Shark’ will be one of looming produced the American indie title California, Santa Barbara. that have pushed the boundaries of paranoia, akin to classic film noir, with ‘KillCam’. Innovation prides itself on filmmaking in Qatar, tackling the thriller, viewers’ allegiances repeatedly shifting creating and nurturing local talent, both Mohamed Al Hamadi horror and romance genres in films to the character seen in the best light in in front of and behind the camera, and including ‘I’, ‘His Name’ and the feature- any given situation. Finally, the audience most crew members working with Mohammed Al length ‘Lockdown: Red Moon Escape’. wonders whether this is the work of Innovation are local film professionals Hamadi works as Al Ibrahim co-founded ILOVEQATAR. a single powerful man, or that of a or trainees. We actively contribute a Senior Standards net, an online community forum that collective conspiracy gone awry. to local expertise by having interns Engineer at Qatar has developed into one of Qatar’s most shadow industry professionals on set Petroleum. He successful brands, and was appointed and placing trainees on commercials, graduated from a committee member on ict-QATAR’s and short and feature films. Innovation the University of Tulsa with a BSc in youth Internet policies initiative. also conducts scriptwriting, producing Chemical Engineering and is completing and directing classes, and weekly acting ‘Bull Shark’ is inspired by real events that took place during the second wave a degree in Fine Arts from Virginia workshops overseen by Academy Award of economic growth in the GCC, from the late 1990s until 2011. At that time, Commonwealth University in Qatar, Khalid Al Jaber nominee Scandar Copti. a sharia-compliant standard for private-equity investment banking allowed with a double major in Painting & for the development of hedge funds to facilitate the infrastructure of Printmaking and Fashion Design. Al In 2010 Khalid Al Jaber FINANCIAL Hamadi has been heavily involved in the mega-cities and numerous other projects in all GCC countries and around created Innovation INFORMATION arts scene in Doha since 2007 and in the world. When an up-and-coming banker gets hints of foul play from his Films, a subsidiary of Tulsa before that. In 2011, he joined the the Innovation Group. most loyal investors, he is compelled to attempt to topple a regime stifled Total Budget: TBD Innovation Group as CEO of Innovation His aim was to develop by greed, excess and power. Secured Financing: $150,000 Films and has since then produced a cinema and filmmaking number of films, corporate videos, web in the region with the help of his Confirmed Financial Partners: series and music videos. filmmaker partners. Al Jaber produced • Private funding his first feature-length film ‘Lockdown: Red Moon Escape’ in 2012, and is set Looking For: to produce a number of short films and • Co-producer features as part of the company’s long- • Development funding term plan to create more homegrown Contact • Funding content. Innovation Films • Production advice Bassam Al Ibrahim • Script feedback +974 7708 8077 [email protected] 36 37 Development / Feature Narrative Director / Screenwriter / Producer Mohanad Hayal Hala Al Salman Director’s Note Mohanad Hayal Death Street Producer Mohanad Hayal Being raised by Iraqi In 2006, Haifa Street in Baghdad was Hala Al Salman ‘Sharia’ Al Maut’ / Iraq, Qatar / Arabic was born in Iraq. After parents between among the roughest streets of the civil Genre: Drama graduating from the multicultural war, which lasted for two years. Haifa Baghdad University’s cities of Dubai and Street went from being home to the Faculty of Fine Arts & Montreal has made most important university professors Company Profile Tariq, the sniper of Haifa Street in Baghdad, kills Ahmed on the day Cinema and attending Hala Al Salman a and intellectuals to a street of death, Dream Group is a production company he intends to propose marriage. While Tariq prevents anyone from several film-directing workshops in the true citizen of the world. For five years, lined with snipers and dead bodies. whose goal is to seek and explore approaching the corpse in the street, an intimate and telling drama USA, he gained considerable experience she produced short socio-political This film is drawn from a 10-minute individual creativity, producing high- unfolds. working as an assistant to directors documentaries from across the Middle experience I had on the street in 2006, impact films with a social conscience. Mohamed Al-Daradji and Oday Rasheed. East for Current TV and the CBC. Her when a stranger walking by my side Dream Group has produced numerous He has made a number of short and background in journalism and never- was shot by a sniper and dropped short films, documentaries and documentary films. His ‘Happy Birthday’ ending fascination with the human dead. A hail of bullets came upon us television programmes and contributed was selected for the 2013 Berlin condition have always informed her from everywhere, and in those strange to the establishment of the Iraqi International Film Festival. He conducts work as a narrative filmmaker. Her most moments, I don’t know how I found Independent Film Centre. filmmaking workshops and is one of the recent film, ‘Bêtes humaines’ (2011) is refuge in a house nearby. I learned that founders of the Iraqi Independent Film a quirky French-language omnibus film the people who sheltered me were Centre. set in the Montreal metro. It premiered the family of the man who had just at the International Newport Beach died beside me, and I witnessed them Film Festival and was nominated for a struggling for three hours, trying to Gemini Award. collect his body without getting killed. Fear prevented me from helping in any way. We were all helpless, as death was the master of the situation. This film wonders what happened to the family? Who was the sniper? What happened to the dead man in the street? Haifa Street, one of the most dangerous locations during the civil war in Baghdad, in 2006. Tariq, a 23-year-old sniper, kills 45-year-old Ahmed in front of the home of Su’ad when he comes to ask for her hand in marriage. Tariq prevents anyone from reaching Ahmed’s corpse – including Su’ad and her children, Salam and Nadia. As the family faces the arduous task FINANCIAL INFORMATION of recovering Ahmed’s body, the conflicts among Su’ad, Salam – a devout Muslim who rejects the idea of his mother’s remarrying – and Nadia, who Total Budget: $383,500 Looking For: is torn between personal ambitions of liberation from male power and her Secured Financing: $65,000 • Co-producer (Europe) sympathy for her mother. This family drama is set against the question of why Tariq refuses to allow Su’ad to recover the body of her beloved. Confirmed Financial Partners: • Company Dream Group, Iraq • Doha Film Institute, Qatar • Iraqi Independent Film Centre Contact Dream Group Mohanad Hayal [email protected] 38 39 Development / Feature Narrative Director / Screenwriter Sophia Al-Maria Anna Lena Vaney Director’s Note Sophia Al-Maria Evil Eye Producer Sophia Al-Maria is Anna Lena Vaney ‘Evil Eye’ sets out to explore the Anna Lena Vaney ‘Al Ain’ / Morocco, Qatar / Arabic a Qatari-American is a film producer.