Reel challenge

THE UAE has had no history of film industry. That is slowly changing. In 2005 an Emirati director produced the country’s first full length feature film. Now an Iranian screen writer and director has joined hands with a UAE based Film Company, giving another nudge to the country’s fledgling movie making scenario.

Amir Shayesteh Tabar, Iranian film aficionado who until now has produced documentaries, short films and TV clips, has launched his maiden full length feature film, Violin, in collaboration with Sixteen By Nine Motion Pictures, a film company based in UAE. Tabar is the founder of Nations Productions, a group of international expatriate film directors from across the world.

Sixteen By Nine Motion Pictures, formed in 2006 by a group of professionals, is perhaps one of the first motion picture companies to be set up in the UAE with the specific aim of making feature films in the Middle East. Nations Productions and Sixteen By Nine has signed a contract to produce films in the country.

Amir Tabar and Waqqas Kaccezai, CEO of Sixteen By Nine Motion Pictures, who are attending the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF), spoke to City Times about their new film, the challenges of making films and what is needed to give a fillip to the region’s emerging movie making industry.

Amir Shayesteh Tabar

I studied painting, digital arts and industrial management at Tehran. I was always drawn to the arts. But my family was vehemently opposed to my pursing the arts career because they said there was no future and stability in it. But I think it’s my destiny and my responsibility to be an artist. Whether I make money from it or not, it doesn’t matter. I can’t stay away from art. Violin is my first full length feature film which, ironically, is also somewhat my own story.

Tell us more about the movie.

I wrote the story myself. Violin is about a 14-year-old boy who loves music and longs to become a composer but he is living in a very conservative family where even listening to music is forbidden. So it’s a story of hope and challenge.

It’s being shot in the historical city Isfahan in Iran, Taj Mahal in India and Niagara Falls in Canada, with a budget of US$ 7.5 million (Dh27.37 million). The movie is expected to be released by the end of 2008. It is a Persian language film. The movie is an appreciation of the architecture of Isfahan and of music and focuses on someone who wants to break the limitations of his society. Right now it is in the pre-production stage.

What do you think are the main problems that movie makers face in the region?

Because of the wide gap in cinema industries between the advanced countries and here, I think moviemakers of the Middle East region might face difficulties in terms of distribution. After all, cinema is a combination of industry and art. You have to sell your product. Other countries have hugely advanced industries which are able to sell cinema worldwide. So the idea of distribution network, so well established there, is very new in the Middle East. Acceptance of cinema is another problem in the region. Cinema is new in the region and it’s going to take time for people, especially investors, to be aware of cinema as a viable industry.

And what about finance?

That’s the biggest problem. Because there is no acceptance of cinema there is very little investment here. My first challenge in making Violin was to convince one company to invest. But in this part they always ask: “How is my money going to come back? What are the returns? Give me a feasibility report etc.” It’s all numbers, no discussion or question of art.

So we spent some years dealing with such problems. That’s why, our Nations Production’s main mission is set in place a network for talented directors and moviemakers so they can remain connected to those countries with advanced production and distribution capabilities and where the film industry is well established.

What is your view of DIFF?

DIFF is proving to be a good contact point in terms of connection with other people linked to film industry, with producers, directors and companies interested in films. We’re meeting a lot of people here connected with films, which otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to.

Waqqas Kaccezai

Of Pakistani origin, Waqqas Kaccezai, CEO of Sixteen By Nine Motion Pictures, was born and brought up in the UAE. Long associated with film industry, he has worked with Warner Brothers in the Hollywood movie, Syriana, starring George Clooney and Matt Damon. His motion picture company is already working on three projects and is the co-producer and marketing partner for Violin.

Many foreign film companies are coming to this region to shoot their movies, like Syriana, Kingdom etc. How is that impacting on the local film industry?

Getting outside people to come here and shoot will not help the local industry because that will only help that particular story by another producer. In the long run, exhibition of films alone will not help us. The development we’re talking about is producing films from the UAE. For example, we have a couple of subjects. Not all of them can be shot here.

The only thing we’re doing is registering and writing them here and then going out to other appropriate locations to shoot them, be it here or elsewhere. There are big film companies like Warner Brothers, Mirage Studio and others coming to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Ras Al Khaimah. But they are coming in to make their own films.

In your opinion what will help the local film industry?

Producers coming out of this region. The subject need not be about the UAE. What people normally assume is that if people come to shoot to your country, you have a film industry. No. You have a local film industry when you shoot in your country or you go out to shoot the requirement of your country. It means having the infrastructure of writing, of producing, of acting, of building a complete section and then distributing and marketing also. Not just watching films.

By watching films, you’re putting money into other people’s pockets. You need other people’s money to come into your pockets. The idea is that every section or department or person involved in production makes their financial profit from the films. So it has to serve a lot of purposes than just making a film or watching a film. Everybody involved in industry has to earn out of that.

And what do you think will help that initiation process?

Supporting production houses to make films by UAE producers, by UAE investors, by UAE directors, by UAE moviemakers, by UAE or Middle East companies.

If BBC makes a film, that’s a British film any day. It’s not a UAE film. Till now, the Middle East is just exhibitors. We only show films made by the world.

In your view, how is the local film industry in the UAE coming up and what is its greatest challenge?

It’s slow but promising, and the greatest challenge is that there is no film history in the UAE.

When you have a history, you have data, facts, statistics, events to represent. We don’t have that. There is no pattern or strategy to fall back upon. So we have to recreate everything from scratch. Then film financing is not available in this country yet. We’ve to come up with that. Like with any other subject, there has to be a lot of survey, lot of research that needs to be done.

We’ve to convince people more because they don’t have anything to see to compare what you are doing. Equal amount of knowledge from the producers, makers, reporters from the UAE is required in order for us to be successful in a world class manner. So it’s our responsibility to make sure that whatever history is created today is strong enough for the coming generation.

What do you think about the film making talent here, like script writers, directors etc.?

We may have lots of talent but until we have an Academy it’s like we don’t have any talent.We need polished talent. We need an Academy, like the New York Film Academy which is coming to Abu Dhabi. But then again, one or two things don’t make a hook for you. For example, until and unless there is a Ram Gopal Verma or a Subhash Ghai or a Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Yash Chopra films can’t stand out.

What I mean is competitors. We need equal amount of competitors, tough competitors, in order to have a healthy industry. Whatever talent we have is coming trained from outside and trying it here. We need people to come out and emerge from here, in acting, in screen writing, camera, cinematography and art direction. They all are important aspects of film making, not just acting and directing. And we need to have financial institutions that understand this.

What is your view of the DIFF?

The best part of DIFF is that we’re getting to meet every industry professional: distributors, investors, territory right holders, co-producers. That is the part of DIFF that links us to them. It’s the best platform to communicate with them. Otherwise nobody knows about us. Even here, the western superstars are more popular than anybody else. Whereas, I feel we should have local stars at equal par from this side to get them world class recognition. But unfortunately, the film making part is weaker here than the films which are coming from outside. That is why the comparison between stars is never done.