The Doha Film Foundation is organizing a comprehensive “First Cut Lab” workshop in a special version via the Internet, starting from July 18, in a series of four main sessions, each of which is dedicated to a long or short film chosen. The workshops were designed for cinematic teams from Qatar or the East Al-Awsat whose projects go through different stages of post-production, and seeks to enhance the technical capabilities of the selected projects and expand the sales prospects of completed projects and support opportunities for their spread and access to festivals.
As a result of the Foundation’s commitment to its inherent mission to support promising talents in the region, the intensive workshop for each selected team consisting of producer, director and montage technician provides the opportunity to receive consultations on their complete projects by international film consultants in addition to a consultant montage technician, and participants can discuss their work and get comments Directly through personal sessions or in small meetings on electronic communication platforms, and at the end of the workshop, each team will receive a written report that they can guide in the montage and post-production process.
It is noteworthy that all projects participating in this year’s workshop will receive guidance from expert Matthew Daras, founder and director of First Cut Lab, who is a famous festivals program designer and former art director of TorontoFilmLab in addition to being a creator of the Pop Up Film Residency site, along with montage experts Benjamin Mirgot, Sebastian Sepulveda, industry consultants, Sata Kisuku, Maryam Sassine, Godola Minsult and Vim Vanker.
The first session will focus on the documentary film McCain Al Rooh (Qatar) by Hamida Issa, which explores the duality between tradition and modernity and between nature and civilization, through an environmental and leadership trip undertaken by the director to Antarctica, and in the second session will be presented the short novel Alyan (Qatar) to Khalifa Al Marri, which is A project for the Qatari Film Fund, which deals with the story of the friendship of a Bedouin boy with a small camel, while the third session will highlight the blessing of the bride (Lebanon, Qatar), directed by Bassem Berish, a novel about a tense relationship between the mother and her daughter, while the fourth session will focus on the search for cichhids (United States of America (Libya, Lebanon, France, Qatar) by director Jihan Kikhia, as the film follows the steps of the daughter of a leader, an opponent of Gaddafi, but peacefully, and her mother searched for him for 19 years.
Commenting on this, Fatima Hassan Al-Rumaihi, CEO of Doha Film Corporation said: “The Doha Film Foundation is committed to supporting promising voices and talents in Qatar and the region through various training and development programs throughout the year, and we are proud to be part of a global network of institutions that can expand the scope of Our community reaches the internationally acclaimed First Cut Lab workshop and accelerates the success of distinguished projects ready for launch. “
“The films chosen this year will become part of a prestigious group of first shows supported by the First Cut Lab workshop, many of which participated in the premiere of international film festivals such as Cannes and Berlinale, and translating the workshop experience digitally will open up new forms of cooperation.” Between our talented movie teams and global mentors, while maintaining the creative spirit to enhance skills through live discussion and hands-on teamwork. ”
