Officials and artists demand more development and the participation of young people in choosing what suits their aspirations
Arab Child Cinema... and the challenges of creating content that attracts the future generation
The recent Sharjah Film Festival for Children and Youth raised the slogan "Think Cinema".
Photography: Youssef Al Harmoudi
Jawaher bint Abdullah Al Qasimi: "Objective films educate children, broaden their perceptions, and encourage them to search by broadcasting positive indirect messages."
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Officials and artists emphasized the importance of cinema in shaping the personality of the future generation, and its role in consolidating principles for it, which dictates the need to select content with positive values, and at the same time be interesting and keep pace with global content that attracts young people and youth remarkably, noting that there are great challenges dictated by the strides they have made. The seventh art industry in the world.
The specialists and artists whose opinions "Emirates Today" surveyed about the reality of Arab child cinema and the challenges it faces, demanded the necessity of activating the role of the new generation and involving it in choosing content that matches Arab and human values, stressing that today's child who is fluent in dealing with technology, modern devices and the world of the Internet differs. Exactly about yesterday's child, which calls for the makers of Arabic content presented to this category to develop their tools, and respect the mentality and aspirations of children.
Promising referees
Sheikha Jawaher bint Abdullah Al Qasimi, Director of the "Fan" Foundation and the Sharjah International Film Festival for Children and Youth, said, "The festival, which was organized under the slogan (Think Cinema), highlighted the importance of involving children in cinema, as they participated during the events in the evaluation process of films in the promising panel of judges consisting of Children and youth of no more than 20 years old, who were selected and trained by specialists in this field.
She told "Emirates Today" on the sidelines of the recently concluded festival: "The cinema has an important role in educating the child and forming his personality. It is possible to show a three-minute video or short film on bullying that can deliver the message to the child instead of reading a big book, hence the importance of this Art is in educating young people and forming their consciousness.”
Sheikha Jawaher bint Abdullah Al Qasimi stressed the keenness of the Sharjah International Film Festival for Children and Youth to screen films that simulate important issues that young and young people may go through, such as those related to mental health, bullying, refugee issues and the Palestinian cause, as the focus was on such topics in the works presented by the festival.
She continued, "I was with my son at an exhibition and they were talking about refugees, so he asked me: What is the meaning of refugees?
So I began to explain the details of this issue, which aroused his curiosity, and from here we find that targeted films educate the child, broaden his perceptions and encourage him to search by broadcasting indirect messages that benefit the young.
She explained: "It is well-known that there are technological standards in cinema, but we were keen to add other specifications that fit our customs and traditions, in addition to focusing on Arab and human values, especially the refugee problem, which was highlighted at the Sharjah Festival through the presentation of works with strong and purposeful messages. enrich the content provided to the child.
value preservation
For his part, Emirati artist Saeed Salem said, "Today's child has different aspirations from the aspirations of yesterday's child, as young people currently deal with technology and modern devices more, which constitutes a great challenge for directors and artists, and requires them to provide attractive content for the son of this time who spends most of the time. Its time on mobile devices, and content delivered across different platforms.”
He added: “It is important to create cinematic content that simulates and benefits the mind of the child, taking into account the preservation of value.
Herein lies the important role of cinema.
interest
For her part, Emirati director Nujoom Al-Ghanim stressed at the beginning of her speech the importance of promoting special programs for the Arab child amid the huge potential of global content, which poses a great challenge in this industry, especially with the presence of different platforms to display diverse content.
She pointed out that the arts, with their support from the responsible authorities, will achieve a lot, "and will make miracles, which we found at the Sharjah Film Festival for Children and Youth;
So I have complete confidence that this event will do something very important.”
Nujoom Al-Ghanim added: "I attended the festival as a guest, and I extend my thanks and gratitude to the Emirate of Sharjah for taking care of children's activities and films for many years, until they were able to establish and establish an important platform represented in this festival and other initiatives that concern children."
She added, "We have certainly made great strides in this field, but we still have to develop in this industry to find greater opportunities to train children and highlight them in the field of cinema. I also think that we need to train crews to shoot films for children, as this will contribute to the development of children's cinema."
treasure
As for the Syrian artist, Rasha Rizk, she pointed to the responsibility that the various channels bear on her shoulders, considering that the audience's vision and its impact on the purposeful content presented is a "treasure", and therefore she demanded the importance of creating qualitative content and involving the child in it to see its results on the ground.
She described children's festivals, such as the Sharjah Festival, as an important task for refining the personality, adding: "The Sharjah Festival enables us to see works of art with the eyes of a child, and to know what he likes and what he does not like, which will help us move towards content that is attractive to this category."
• Today's child who is fluent in dealing with technology and the world of the Internet is completely different from yesterday's child, which requires filmmakers to develop their tools and respect the mentality and aspirations of children.
Upgrade the experience
The UAE continues its interest in the cinema of the next generation through festivals and events concerned with children and youth, including the Sharjah International Film Festival for Children and Youth, which is not only interested in the content presented to these groups, but also involves them in the process of education, cinematic creativity and the art of filmmaking by supervising their training Practically in all the details related to directing, film analysis and arts, in addition to their meeting with creative filmmakers who will help them improve the experience of producing films for children and young people in the UAE, which will contribute in the future to creating local experiences that compete with the world.
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