For the occasion & celebration of the National Day, Anasy Media Production announced the launch of Abu Dhabi Documentary Film Club in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture, Youth & Community Development and Zayed University Alumni. The Club, which is considered an important cultural activity, aims to enrich the cultural scene and spread the culture of documentary films making. It is also considered a center for gathering documentary films makers in particular, and the media.

 

The purpose of the club is to create and provide a centre that facilitates the chance of social interaction by sharing and exchanging ideas, opinions on different ways to view a scene or plot of a documentary, talking about the themes, characters, script, style, music, etc. 

 

The Club will officially open on the 27th of October 2011 at the Ministry of Culture, Youth & Community Development Center by screening the Emirati film "Hamama" directed by Nujoom Alghanem. It will also screen documentaries from different countries and cultures, some of which were awarded and nominated at local and international film festivals. The club will invite guest speakers, stage documentary viewings and debates, and organize similar events such as workshops, museum trips and other outings with the goal of increasing the scope of education and social interaction. 

 

The Advisory Committee consists of academic members and professionals in the field of documentaries, culture and arts in general, like: Dr. Nezar Andary, Assistant Professor of Film and Literature at Zayed University, Waleed Al Zaabi, Manager of Heritage and Arts Department at the Ministry of Culture, Youth & Community Development, Özge Calafato, Programming Manager at Abu Dhabi Film Festival, Dr. Dale Hudson, Faculty Fellow, Film & New Media at NYUAD, and Nadia Fares from New York Film Academy - Abu Dhabi.

 

Waleed Al Zaabi, Manager of Heritage and Arts Department at the Ministry of Culture, Youth & Community Development, said, "The Ministry of Culture is considered a centre for spreading culture across UAE; and it extends the bridges of knowledge among the different nationalities living in UAE. It always seeks to cooperate with the establishments and authorities to support the culture and arts. The Ministry, in partnership with Anasy, established Abu Dhabi Documentary Film Club for giving opportunities to the filmmakers to gather and meet in a specialized club which displays different cinema experiences motivating their innovative capacities, providing them with new experiences and encouraging them to produce more and more."

 

"It is necessary for us in the Ministry of Culture, Youth & Community Development to listen daily to the pulses of such new beauty found beneath the walls and mirrors of generations that grow in need of more care, as the existing means of virtual communication or social interaction are much greater than those offered for the old generations that experienced the age of modernity in the last quarter of the twentieth century," Al Zaabi clarified. 

 

"Moreover, we shall converse with everybody, as the world seeks to communicate, and even to merge rather than to be separated or isolated. The world we live in these days embraces wonderful ideas and images, whether different or similar ones, but they finally aim to reflect the long or short aesthetic conflict between the vanishing influence of the past and the new influence of modernism. Every party in such conflict seeks to prove that it is entitled to exist instead of others, " Al Zaabi stated. 

 

Mariam Al Hamadi, Member of Zayed University Alumni, said, "On behalf of the Media and Communication Alumni in Zayed University, we have the honor to contribute in supporting the movement of media, through Abu Dhabi Documentary Film Club even if such contribution is minimal. The documentary is considered an important aspect of documentation and spread of culture among people, documenting the most significant events in our civilizations. Such documentary is the main evidence on what happens on earth, including events and developments in all different aspects we live."

 

"We have to contribute by making documentaries which reflect different aspects of life in the human communities, their environments and civilizations. We hope to take the first step of success in Abu Dhabi Documentary Club," Mariam added.