JEDDAH, 1 July 2007 — Organizers of the Jeddah Visual Shows Festival, as it is called, announced that the 5-day film exposition would kick off on July 17 at the auditorium of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Films will be shown from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. every day.
“We are going to screen around 35 movies that vary from fiction, documentary and animation,” said Mamdouh Salem, director and executive manager of the Ruwaad Media Company.
Salem said 20 Saudi films would be shown, and the rest will be from other Gulf countries, Russia and Japan.
The Japanese movies came late to the organizers who were approached by the Japanese Consulate and an agreement was made to show around eight Japanese movies of which some are documentaries others are animations, said Salem. All The Japanese movies are provided with Arabic subtitles. The Russian films have English subtitles.
Salem said two awards would be given to the best Saudi films: One for the best fiction work and the other for the best documentary.
Saudi movie makers participating at the festival are going to be a mixture of more established directors with experience in films, such as director Abdullah Al-Ayyaf, with his new award wining movie “Frame”, and Haifa Al-Mansuor, with her documentary “Women Without Shadows.”
An animated short by 14-year-old Farah Aaaref will also be shown, as well as a short film titled “Rebellion” by Abdul Aziz Al-Nujaimi, a college student at Imam Saud Islamic University in Riyadh.
To overcome last year’s festival mishaps the organizers decided that this year the festival would be open for both single men and families in the same hall. The entrance is free of charge as part of the JCCI’s organizing role for this year’s summer activities.
