Saudi Music Commission launches Oud House in Riyadh

Saudi Music Commission launches Oud House in Riyadh
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Oud House has been set up as a training center for musicians under the guidance and supervision of maestro Naseer Shamma and will offer lectures and workshops. (Supplied)
Saudi Music Commission launches Oud House in Riyadh
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Oud House has been set up as a training center for musicians under the guidance and supervision of maestro Naseer Shamma and will offer lectures and workshops. (Supplied)
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Updated 23 August 2023
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Saudi Music Commission launches Oud House in Riyadh

Saudi Music Commission launches Oud House in Riyadh
  • Project aims to empower local talent, promote Arab culture
  • Oud House curriculum will include lessons led by musical experts on playing instruments such as the flute, bezek, cello, and violin

RIYADH: The Saudi Music Commission recently inaugurated its Oud House project in Riyadh and has invited applications from people interested in learning how to play Arabic musical instruments.

Traditional instruments such as the oud, duf, rebab, and mizmar, commonly played at celebrations in the Kingdom, are a key part of the country’s musical culture.

Oud House has been set up as a training center for musicians under the guidance and supervision of maestro Naseer Shamma and will offer lectures and workshops.

The oud, which dates back more than 3,000 years, is one of the oldest and most important stringed instruments in the Arab world’s musical heritage and has played a significant role through history.

The Oud House curriculum will include lessons led by musical experts on playing instruments such as the flute, bezek, cello, and violin.

The project aims to promote Arabic culture, raise awareness about the significance of the oud, and foster a global community of professional oud players.

After undergoing a period of training and rehearsals, students will have the opportunity to participate in concerts.

The establishment of Oud House forms part of the Music Commission’s work to enhance the music industry in Saudi Arabia, encourage its growth, and provide training and empowerment opportunities for local talent.

The commission aims to develop the institute to be a globally recognized center, spread awareness about Arabic musical instruments, specifically the oud, and preserve the heritage of Arabic music.

Registration is open until Sept. 21 via https://engage.moc.gov.sa/reg_form/tracks/2853/new.


Oscar-nominated director Kaouther Ben Hania on challenges faced filming ‘Four Daughters’

Oscar-nominated director Kaouther Ben Hania on challenges faced filming ‘Four Daughters’
Updated 26 min 20 sec ago
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Oscar-nominated director Kaouther Ben Hania on challenges faced filming ‘Four Daughters’

Oscar-nominated director Kaouther Ben Hania on challenges faced filming ‘Four Daughters’

DUBAI: After winning the L’Oeil d’or award for best documentary following its premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania’s movie “Four Daughters” will now screen at Jeddah’s Red Sea International Film Festival.

Ben Hania is no stranger to critical acclaim and saw her 2020 feature "The Man Who Sold His Skin" nominated at the Academy Awards in the best international feature film category. Tunisia has now submitted her latest film in the same category for the 2024 Oscars, with the nominations yet to be announced. 

She spoke to Arab News about the challenges involved in filming the flick.

 

 

She said: “It’s not about one scene or another. It’s about how to translate all the complexity of this story, all the layers of this story, because it’s a movie about motherhood.

“It’s a movie about transmission between generations, transmission of trauma also. It’s a movie about Tunisia. All those themes were very important to me.”

The film tells the true story of Olfa Hamrouni, a heart-broken Tunisian mother of four daughters. The two eldest, aged 15 and 16, disappear in 2015 after being radicalized by extremists.

Ben Hania started working on “Four Daughters” in 2016, when she first heard the story on the news in Tunisia.

“I started thinking about making a documentary about it. But when I met Olfa and her daughters, I thought that I could do a fly-on-the-wall documentary. It took me some years to come up with the actual form of the movie,” she added.

Professional actresses filled in for the missing sisters, while renowned Egyptian actress Hend Sabri replaced Hamrouni as memories started to weigh heavy on the mom. This created a unique hybrid of fiction and documentary in the co-production between Tunisia, France, Germany, and Saudi Arabia.  

Ben Hania said: “I needed actresses in the movie directed by the real character so we could summon the past and have access to their trauma.

“It’s Olfa who gave me the idea because she’s a huge fan of Hend Sabri, so I thought it would be very interesting to ask Hend to play Olfa and be directed by her.

“The shooting was very intense because it’s a real story. It’s not an easy life. So, it was very intense, but also it was funny, because they are really funny.

“Their way to cope with this tragedy is to laugh about it, which was really amazing, so we were laughing and crying,” she added.


Saudi Arabia showcases crafts, culture at Milan exhibition

Saudi Arabia has previously participated in Milan’s Artigiano in Fiera exhibition and offered cultural experience workshops.
Saudi Arabia has previously participated in Milan’s Artigiano in Fiera exhibition and offered cultural experience workshops.
Updated 02 December 2023
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Saudi Arabia showcases crafts, culture at Milan exhibition

Saudi Arabia has previously participated in Milan’s Artigiano in Fiera exhibition and offered cultural experience workshops.
  • The Saudi Company for Crafts and Handicrafts will display its most notable craftwork, while the Royal Institute of Traditional Arts will exhibit work from 12 of its students

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia is participating in the Artigiano in Fiera exhibition in Milan, Italy, which runs from Dec. 2-10. The Saudi pavilion, overseen by the Ministry of Culture, will showcase various aspects of the country’s culture and rich national heritage.

According to a report by the Saudi Press Agency, participating organizations include the Saudi Heritage Commission, the Culinary Arts Commission, the Theater and Performing Arts Commission, the Royal Institute of Traditional Arts, and the Saudi Handicrafts Company.

The pavilion will also highlight Arabic poetry’s relationship to Italian culture. A selection of Arabic verses will be translated into Italian and hung on murals at the entrance.

Saudi Arabia has previously participated in Milan’s Artigiano in Fiera exhibition and offered cultural experience workshops. (Ministry of Culture)

The Heritage Commission will showcase the creative ingenuity of 25 artisans and the traditional handicrafts and crafts that have long been a source of pride for the nation.

The Saudi Company for Crafts and Handicrafts will display its most notable craftwork, while the Royal Institute of Traditional Arts will exhibit work from 12 of its students.

Twelve chefs from the Culinary Arts Commission will be on hand to provide the public with a live cooking demonstration of popular delicacies from across Saudi Arabia. A traditional restaurant will offer coffee and traditional produce, too.  

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The Royal Institute of Traditional Arts will exhibit work from 12 of its students at Artigiano in Fiera exhibition in Milan, Italy, until Dec. 10.

The Theater and Performing Arts Commission, meanwhile, will present shows involving 13 traditional performing arts.

Saudi Arabia’s participation in Artigiano in Fiera is a component of the Ministry of Culture’s efforts, in cooperation with other cultural organizations, to represent the Kingdom in international forums in line with Saudi Vision 2030’s aims is to promote worldwide cultural exchange.

As part of the 2023 Year of Arabic Poetry project, the ministry is focusing on the Kingdom’s interest in “intangible cultural heritage,” such as the relationship between Arabic poetry and Italian culture.

 


Film AlUla, Stampede Ventures reveal films to be shot in Saudi Arabia under 10-project deal

Film AlUla, Stampede Ventures reveal films to be shot in Saudi Arabia under 10-project deal
Updated 03 December 2023
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Film AlUla, Stampede Ventures reveal films to be shot in Saudi Arabia under 10-project deal

Film AlUla, Stampede Ventures reveal films to be shot in Saudi Arabia under 10-project deal

JEDDAH: Hollywood movies “Fourth Wall” and “Chasing Red” are set to be filmed in Saudi Arabia’s AlUla in 2024 as part of a 10-project deal between Film AlUla — the Royal Commission for AlUla’s film agency — and global media company Stampede Ventures.

The announcement was made at the Red Sea International Film Festival on Saturday. Stampede Ventures CEO Greg Silverman and executive director of Film AlUla Charlene Deleon-Jones gave further details of the three-year deal, which also includes the previously announced dramatic comedy “K-Pops!”

“Fourth Wall” follows a former child star from a popular TV sitcom who is kidnapped and wakes up in a complete recreation of the show’s set with the rest of the cast, where she must work through her trauma and recreate iconic moments from the series to stay alive and find a way out.

The announcement was made at the Red Sea International Film Festival on Saturday. (AN/ Huda Bashatah) 

Meanwhile, “Chasing Red” is a romance centered around straight-A student Veronica and wealthy playboy Caleb. It is an adaptation of a book by Filipino-Canadian author Isabelle Ronin and is being directed by Jessika Borsiczky, who told Arab News that the story attracted her because “romance is so universal, especially first love, and especially stories about women finding who they are and then finding who they are in relation to the world.”

Stampede Ventures will be among the first to use Film AlUla’s production facility, which includes a 30,000-square-foot soundstage, backlot, production support buildings, workshops, warehouses, recording studio and training and rehearsal space.

Jessika Borsiczky told Arab News that the story attracted her because “romance is so universal.”  (AN/ Huda Bashatah) 

There will be emphasis on using Saudi talent during the production process, Deleon-Jones said, adding: “One of the most significant parts of what we’re doing is the training and development, because this gives us an opportunity to really develop below-the-line crew in somewhere like AlUla, where traditionally the main careers open to you would have been agriculture. We have a young working population who are vibrant and digitally engaged somewhere which is seen as one of the more remote places, (and now) you have this whole new exciting career path.”

The key, she said, was to prove to talent in Saudi Arabia that the film industry is a “sustainable” career choice. Silverman echoed that, saying the deal was “designed specifically so that people can come in and get a chance to prove (themselves) and then there’s another movie coming in the next month that they can be pulled into.”

Silverman is an entertainment industry veteran known for his track record at Warner Bros. where he shepherded over 125 films to more than $38 billion in worldwide box office, most notably the “Harry Potter” series, Christopher Nolan’s “Batman” trilogy, Zack Snyder’s “300,” Todd Phillips’ iconic “Hangover” trilogy, and “Joker.”

Previous Hollywood productions shot in AlUla include the Gerard Butler-led action-thriller “Kandahar,” directed by Ric Roman Waugh, and “Cherry,” starring Tom Holland and directed by Anthony and Joe Russo.


The Weeknd donates $2.5m to Gaza

The Weeknd donates $2.5m to Gaza
Updated 02 December 2023
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The Weeknd donates $2.5m to Gaza

The Weeknd donates $2.5m to Gaza

DUBAI: The UN World Food Programme this week announced that its goodwill ambassador, Canadian singer The Weeknd — whose birth name is Abel Tesfaye — has donated $2.5 million from his XO Humanitarian Fund to aid WFP’s humanitarian response in Gaza.

The donation, which equates to 4 million emergency meals, will fund 820 tons of food parcels that could feed more than 173,000 Palestinians for two weeks, the organization said.

“This conflict has unleashed a humanitarian catastrophe beyond reckoning. WFP is working round the clock to provide aid in Gaza but a major scale up is needed to address the desperate level of hunger we are seeing,” Corinne Fleischer, WFP’s director for the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe, said in a statement.

“We thank Abel for this valuable contribution towards the people of Palestine. We hope others will follow Abel’s example and support our efforts.”

The multi-platinum global recording artist was appointed a goodwill ambassador in October 2021.


Johnny Depp walks the red carpet at ‘Jeanne Du Barry’ Red Sea Film Fest premiere 

Johnny Depp walks the red carpet at ‘Jeanne Du Barry’ Red Sea Film Fest premiere 
Updated 01 December 2023
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Johnny Depp walks the red carpet at ‘Jeanne Du Barry’ Red Sea Film Fest premiere 

Johnny Depp walks the red carpet at ‘Jeanne Du Barry’ Red Sea Film Fest premiere 

JEDDAH : Hollywood superstar Johnny Depp on Friday walked the red carpet at the Red Sea International Film Festival for the regional premiere of his film “Jeanne Du Barry.”

The actor wore a black suit as he posed for pictures on the red carpet. 

French director Maïwenn’s period drama features the director as the titular 18th Century courtesan Madame du Barry opposite Depp, who plays King Louis XV. The director also hit the carpet at the Red Sea Mall.

Mohammed Al-Turki and Johnny Depp. (Huda Bashatah)

RSIFF provided post-production support for the period drama, marking the first time the foundation co-produced a French movie. The film had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May. 

On Thursday, Depp attended the opening night of the festival alongside US star Will Smith, US actress Michelle Williams, German actress Diane Kruger, Lebanese songstress Maya Diab, Brazilian model Alessandra Ambrosio, Saudi singer Aseel Omran — among many more — it was an affair to remember.

The glittering event kicked off with a gala screening of Dubai-based Iraqi director Yasir Al-Yasiri’s “HWJN,” which is based on a YA novel by Saudi writer Ibraheem Abbas. Set in modern-day Jeddah, “HWJN” follows the story of a kind-hearted jinn — an invisible entity in Islamic tradition — as he discovers the truth about his royal lineage.

French director Maïwenn’s period drama features the director as the titular 18th Century courtesan Madame du Barry opposite Depp, who plays King Louis XV. (Huda Bashatah)

This year’s celebrity-studded festival jury is presided over by director Baz Luhrmann, joined by Swedish-American actor Joel Kinnaman (“Suicide Squad”); Freida Pinto (“Slumdog Millionaire”); Egyptian actor Amina Khalil (“Grand Hotel”) and Spain’s Paz Vega (“Sex and Lucía,” “The OA”). 

The Red Sea International Film Festival runs from Nov. 30 to Dec. 9 and boasts 11 categories of films: Special Screenings; Red Sea: Competition; Red Sea: Shorts Competition; Festival Favorites; Arab Spectacular; International Spectacular; New Saudi/ New Cinema: Shorts; Red Sea: New Vision; Red Sea: Families and Children; Red Sea: Series and Red Sea: Treasures. 

The theme of year’s festival is “Your Story, Your Festival.”