[fusion_text]Meeting Arab Film Institutes Commission
On the sidelines of the 16th edition of the Mediterranean short film festival that was held in Tangier, and with an invitation from the Moroccan Cinema Center, The Arab Film Institutes Commission held a meeting attended by:
- Shiraz Latiri Al Sharif – Director of the National Center of Cinema and Image (CNCI), Tunisia.
- Maya De Freige – Director of the Lebanon Cinema Foundation
- Narjiss Nejjar – Director of the Moroccan Cinema Center
- Murad Shwehi- Director of Centre National de la Cinématographie et de l’Audiovisuel (C.N.C.A)
- Mohanad Yaqubi – Palestine Film Institute
- Rashid Abdelhamid – Palestine Film Institute
- Mohammed Sarem Al Haq Fahri- Director of the Moroccan Cinema Center
The Meeting comes as part of the regular consultation between the heads of the Arab Film Institutes Commission, and after signing a memorandum of understanding during Manarat Festival.
A number of issues were discussed during the meeting regarding taking concrete actions throughout 2019, for distributing the Arab films and encouraging the co-production among the Arab countries, and it was agreed on:
- Launching the “Arab Film Days” which will be held simultaneously in the AFIC member countries, that consists in a screening of two feature films, and two short films from every AFIC member country, highlighting the most important productions of each participant;
- Organizing cinema convoys on the sidelines of the “Arab Film Days” in the cities and villages of each country for the purpose of demonstrating, and this according to available sources of each participant;
- Inspired by the initiative of the Moroccan Cinema center “Arab Film” – at the Venice Festival- it was agreed to launch the “ARAB FILMS PLATFORM” in order to encourage co-production between Arab countries through an open call:
- Selecting films in development (Pre-Production phase) provided by teams of filmmakers/producers from more than one Arab Country;
- Provide selected films with professional assistance and coaching in order to be developed technically and financially
- Promoting and networking the selected projects in Arab and International Film Markets.
The participants highlighted the need to strengthen the relations between AFIC members. As an initial step, the Moroccan Cinema Center kindly offers to undergo the restoration and digitization of one Arabic film produced by a member country (and that does not have a technical laboratory) per year. It was decided to choose a Palestinian Film to be restored and digitalized in 2019 as support to the newly born PFI. All Participants proved the desire to promote Arab Cinema, and to work accordingly to what was agreed in the meeting, in accordance with available resources.[/fusion_text]