The Film Commission Documenting Collective Memory Cinematically – Al-Bilad Newspaper

2023-04-30 23:07:57

Country – Riyadh

The Film Authority operates in multiple tasks represented in managing and organizing the film sector, supporting and empowering filmmakers, developing the production environment, marketing Saudi works locally and internationally, in addition to motivating institutions and companies to produce and develop content.
Based on this interest, the authority launched yesterday an open meeting on documenting societies through films and personal experiences, targeting filmmakers and critics interested in social documentation in cinema.

The virtual meeting dealt with several axes, most notably discussing the responsibility of the director, producer, and writer towards society, emphasizing the ethical responsibilities in making feature films, and the documentary film as a tool for discovering society, as well as highlighting the role of the media in shaping the public’s knowledge and understanding towards its society and the societies around it, and putting forth The extent of the influence of cinematic societies such as Hollywood, the dominance of the media and its platforms, and their stereotyping of societies.

The meeting also aimed to highlight the importance of documenting and preserving societies and collective memory through cinematic media, exploring local documentation experiences for filmmakers and those interested in them, as well as monitoring new trends in documenting societies, and discussing the development of critical theories and practices of film documentation.
This meeting comes as part of a series of open meetings that the Film Commission has been organizing with those interested and working in the film sector in the Kingdom, to enhance communication with the film community, by opening a space for dialogue and exchanging experiences with them, identifying and discussing their needs and proposals, and bringing ideas and visions to help develop the sector, and empower working in it.

It is noteworthy that the Film Authority had previously launched its strategy, which was designed to achieve three of the goals of culture for the year 2030 AD, namely: the direct contribution of the Authority to the gross domestic product, increasing the number of job opportunities in the film sector, and increasing the number of feature films produced locally.
The strategy identified seven indicators to measure the performance of the strategy and the level of its achievement, which are: the number of locally produced films, the percentage of local content on viewing platforms, the number of cinema screens, the area of ​​filming areas within production studios in the Kingdom, the number of students enrolled in film majors in the Kingdom, and the percentage of average General satisfaction with the ease of doing business, and revenues from showing Saudi films “long and short” and Saudi series locally and globally through traditional and digital channels, as these indicators will give an accurate measure of the progress of the implementation of the strategy.

Posted by Albilad Newspaper

The first Saudi newspaper was founded by: Muhammad Salih Nassif on 11/27/1350 AH corresponding to April 3, 1932 AD. It was reissued under the name (Saudi Arabia) on 1/4/1365 A.H. 3/4/1946 A.D.