(MENAFN- Arab Times) The Mohamed S. Farsi Foundation and the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television are opening up a new avenue for Arab woman filmmakers with a partnership and fund that will include three new four-year full-ride graduate scholarships for UCLA TFT's Master of Fine Arts in Directing.
Designed "to give voice to the unique perspective of Arab women," as a statement put it, the Hani Farsi Graduate Scholarship Fund will start in the fall 2015. London-based Saudi philanthropist, entrepreneur and film producer Hani Farsi has long been producing and distributing films with sociopolitical undertones such as Elia Suleiman's "The Time That Remains" and Mira Nair's "The Reluctant Fundamentalist." He is also co-owner of French distribution and sales company Le Pacte, which have eight films at Cannes this year, including Nanni Moretti's "My Mother" and Palestinian dramedy "Degrade" by Arab and Tarzan Abu Nasser.
While a number of Arab female directors have come to the fore in recent years - such as Saudi Arabia's Haifa Al-Mansour ("Wadjda"), who is on the Un Certain Regard jury in Cannes, and Lebanon's Nadine Labaki ("Where Do We Go Now") - Arab women certainly face more barriers to becoming filmmakers than their male counterparts in the region.
"We want these scholarships to be a catalyst, to capture the imaginations of future filmmakers, and to inspire them to reach their goals," said Farsi.
"This partnership with the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television represents the first step in a call to action, which we hope will lead to a positive change for women in the film industry and in my part of the world."
Despite ongoing turbulence in the country and region, Lebanese government organizations are moving to boost the country's film and TV industries with several initiatives, including introduction of incentives for both local and international productions.
The Foundation Liban Cinema has expanded its role as a local-industry driver in several ways, including an agreement with the Investment Development Authority of Lebanon (IDAL) to introduce tax incentives to support production and post-production of projects that invest at least $200,000 in the country and employ at least 25 locals. Specifics on the incentives are still sketchy.
The agreement is backed by the Central Bank of Lebanon. Though the Lebanese film industry has deep roots, recent international feature film shoots are scarce, with one notable exception being French director Olivier Assayas' "Carlos," which was partly shot there. Commercials shoots in Lebanon are more frequent.
Lebanese feature films are absent from the Cannes official selection this year. But a Lebanese animated short, "Waves '98," above, by young director Ely Dagher, made the cut for the shorts competition. It's an exploration of Dagher's current relationship with his home country, told through the story of a teenager disillusioned with his life in the segregated suburbs of Beirut.
"Saint Laurent" helmer Bertrand Bonello is set to make a radical turn with "Paris Is Happening," a action-packed drama about ordinary young people coming from all social classes who riot and drift into senseless terrorism.
"Paris" is produced by Edouard Weil and Alice Girard for Rectangle Prods. Wild Bunch has taken international sales rights. The film will star Vincent Rottiers (who headlines Jacques Audiard's Palme d'Or contender "Dheepan") and Finnegan Oldfield (who toplines Thomas Bidegain's "Les Cowboys," which played at Directors Fortnight). The rest of the cast is almost entirely made up of non-pros aged between 17 and 22.
"After directing two costume movies - 'House of Tolerance' and 'Saint Laurent' - I really had the urge the direct a movie that's extremely grounded in contemporary society," said Bonello, whose "Saint Laurent" played in competition at Cannes last year. The film starts out right into an action scene with no prelude or explanation.
"The treatment of the film is closer to that of an action movie than a political film. The subject matter is there but it remains in the background," said Bonello, who spent six months casting the film and started developing the project way before the Charlie Hebdo tragedy.
Bonello started thinking about the project after learning of the Birmingham riots in 2005. "In contrast with projects that deal with similar themes, Bonello's movie will show young folks who orchestrate devastating attacks across Paris but are neither driven by religion or politics," said Girard. Germany's Pandora, Belgium's Scope Pictures and Franco-German network Arte are co-producing the film. The film will start shooting in June.
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