Next week from Saturday until Tuesday, more than 200,000 students from five universities in the Makkah region will compete against one another to produce the best short film.

The documentary competition in its third year is organized by the Youth Forum in the Makkah region. It will be hosted by the King Abdulaziz University. There will be other ad hoc events on the sidelines, such as, seminars, workshops and lectures hosted by King Abdulaziz University.

The aim of the short film competition is to present social and intellectual issues in a creative form. The organizers are keen on highlighting the performance, anecdotal and directorial abilities of the students. A list of conditions were developed to define student participation in the production, such as more than one student can participate in one movie, and the student should not have previously participated in the production of a film locally or abroad. Two copies of the participating film of high quality on DVDs of MOV, AVL or MBG4 format should be sent to the University one month before the Forum. Each copy should by labeled with the participant’s name, university, and the film title. The number of films allowed from each university is two films.

The participating universities are Umm Al-Qura University, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah College of Technology, Ibn Sina College, and the University of Business and Technology.

Faisal Al-Harbi, student of the media department at King Abdulaziz University, is participating in the competition through his film titled “Image,” which is a six-minute long film. The actors are students of the “Theater Club” at his university. The film highlights the feelings of hatred among some people toward those with mental illness and their stigmatization. Al-Harbi revealed his aspirations for professionalism in the field of directing, as he has produced eight short films and participated in the Filmmakers Festivals of Abu Dhabi and Muscat in 2009.

Al-Harbi said he found plenty of support from his family and relatives, but he is looking for real support from directors and actors in Saudi Arabia, and official and unofficial organizations, in order to expand the film industry in the Kingdom. He noted that YouTube is the only venue that energizes them in the field of documentaries. He expressed great pleasure at the attention given to documentaries in the recent past through constant competitions. He thanked the organizers of the Youth Forum for their interest and for giving them an opportunity to highlight their potential and abilities in the same area.

Ahmed Ali Za-Alnun, a student of King Abdulaziz University — College of Applied Medical Sciences — Department of Physical Therapy, highlighted in his short film the need for public places that can be more accommodative and considerate of special needs individuals.

He said: “The film speaks about a class of society which is almost broken in most cases.” He added that our duty as young people is to spread the culture of philanthropy and strive to serve them, irrespective of their physical, cognitive and visual hearing disabilities. “We should provide this group of people with their rights because they are part of society and we must stand with them.”

Za-Alnun said he found great support from his family, which helped him in submitting ideas dealing with social issues. He said the forum provides youth in Makkah with the opportunity to highlight their potentials and abilities in a useful competitive atmosphere.