Saudis were not given the opportunity to watch the first-ever Saudi movie called “What’s Up?” The film was not and will never be available to be viewed inside the Kingdom because we have begun producing movies without there being any public cinemas. The idea of constructing and establishing cinemas in the Kingdom still faces a lot of illogical and unjustified hostility.
When you go to movie shops, you’ll find almost all Eastern and Western movies on sale. This means that there is opposition to having public cinemas but no opposition to the content of movies. I believe that having supervised public cinemas is something safer than allowing people to watch movies uncensored at home. Children watch movies at home alone without the supervision of their families. Cinemas are like empty containers that we can fill up with whatever we desire.
What cinemas face is no different to the type of objections that other modern inventions such as cell phones, televisions, and the Internet once faced. Ironically, many of those past rejectors are the ones who now use and benefit from these modern developments.
In my opinion, people who object to cinemas in the Kingdom consider the issue from an antagonistic perspective. Films could be adjusted to suit our society and its culture. Having publicly supervised movie theaters is much better than having private locations where teenagers and young boys gather to sell and watch movies, something which is a growing trend in the Kingdom especially in Jeddah.
If we had considered the idea of having cinemas a long time ago that would be managed and administered, then by now there would have been a different trend in the Kingdom. We would have been participating in the making of serious movies with ethical and moral aims to substitute today’s trivial insignificant movies. The cinema is just like any other modern or advanced tool; we mustn’t be afraid of it as long as we can deal with it properly and maturely.
I am writing this article about the movie industry and cinemas although I don’t follow the latest films or movies. I’m only trying to overcome the individualism of this society and admit how a large sector of our population watch movies. It is very important that we make a positive contribution to this field.
