Individuals and corporate entities move towards the common goal of Arabic content creation
Eight years ago, I recall going on location with Emirati filmmaker Nayla Al Khaja as she made her first documentary Unveiling Dubai. Fresh out of University, Al Khaja came to Dubai with two of her college mates from Canada to shoot the documentary. Since then, Al Khaja has slowly but steadily forged her own path experimenting with sensitive issues, new technologies and different genres.
She has worked long hours on set and at the editing table; tinkered with different formats be they 16mm, 35mm, HD, DSLR or the RED One cameras; donned different hats on different sets and worked as scriptwriter, director, producer, actor and any other roles that needed to be filled; and more recently, she became the first Emirati to shoot in a foreign country.
This year with her most recent production Mallal, Al Khaja hopes to say good bye to producing short films and believes she is ready to make a feature film. She is also one of the few filmmakers who have moved beyond personal ambition to help other aspiring filmmakers in her country find their feet.
Joining these individual initiatives are the likes of big state-backed entities such as Abu Dhabi-based media content zone twofour54, which has constantly espoused the need to generate good, commercially-viable Arabic content. Twofour54 took the lead last year by joining hands with UAE-based production house Blink Studios to produce a 52-episode children’s series in Arabic. Now, twofour54 has struck a deal with Al Jazeera Children’s Channel to air the series, which is an Arabic adaptation of Driver Dan’s Story Train, on Baraem TV.
BroadcastPro Middle East celebrates the works of individuals like Nayla Al Khaja and organisations such as twofour54 that are laying the foundations for developing commercially-viable Arabic content in this region.