Jordywood
I know, uberly cheesy title but whatever.
Variety magazine has published an article (online) titled "Film Business blooms in Jordan" - that title enough grabbed my attention as I saw it on my news feed (facebook) - with the link posted by Laith Majali.
The article is absolutely interesting, with little snippets of short interviews of several people in the film industry in Jordan. Such as, Prince Ali (as chairman of the RFC), Suleiman Bakhit (founder of Aranim), Fadi Sarraf (head of Sandbag Productions) and more.
I don't have much to say, but I strongly recommend you read it and I'm quite happy with such recognition and hopefully we'll be an Arab capital for film making - something we lacked for a long time!
posted by omar @ 1:00 AM
12 Comments
i am trying to get excited about the possibility of Jordan becoming a movie attraction but I am afraid the reality of the situation does not point in that direction. as in past initiatives that failed, we just don't have the right people in charge. here are the facts:
- Morocco and Egypt are far more advanced in terms of their filmmaking infrastructure. Jordan is not even close to competing with those two, or even the smaller Arab countries with more established infrastructure such as Lebanon and Tunis.
- If there is going to be a new rising star, it will be in Dubai. They are already there with their festivals, media city, and upcoming cinema city. They have the money, the political will, and the proper business and political environment.
- Since Lawrence of Arabia the film, and before the RFC, jordan was a regular stop for a number of Hollywood and European movies. it's hard to pin any recent movie project in Jordan on the establishment of the RFC. if any, some complain that the RFC is doing less with more, effectively squandering money on projects with little return, at a time when the Jordanian economy and corruption indicators are not at their best.
- then of course you have the upcoming israeli peace conference. if that works, and the arab world normalizes with Israel, say bye bye to a Jordanian Hollywood and say Hi to Hebrewood. Yup, more countries, Arab and others, will be heading to Zion to shoot their films. the zionists have an advanced cinema infrastructure, know-how, and aggressive marketing. They will trounce Jordan. So to those Jordanians who are desperate for normalization with the zionists, get ready to lose your jobs.
i wish if i were as optimistic as you are. but judging from past attempts in jordan to launch Media City, Internet City, Medical Tourism, Academic Tourism, i am afraid those in charge have fucked up so badly I am not sure they can succeed in establishing a Jordan Cinema City. dude, we just shutdown ATV, jordan's most promising media project ever.
thanks for your thorough comment Gahtan, and of course to all attempts there are failures. But I would somehow disagree with you on a point and another yet I agree with you on most.
Regarding Egypt, we're in NO place to compare ourselves to the largest film making Arab country. They've been doing movies in the 1920's, when in Jordan we didn't have telephones! lol
Yet I think you should have more faith in the matter, and at least wait and most probably they'll rise to the occasion. And I wish, I'll just wish that we don't get a Hebrewood because Arabs have and always had their own film making business largely - and I'm referring to the countries as a whole not just Jordan.
And I agree about ATV, it's deadly sad :/
Anyway, thanks for visiting and commenting :)
omer, we have faith in Jordan and Jordanians. we have seen their miracles everywhere outside of jordan. we have seen their near-miracles in ATV. we have no faith in those who call the shots. they have turned jordan into a 2-star hotel. you pay, you stay. but if you don't, you will quickly find yourself on the sidewalk. that's the extent of our control over jordan's destiny.
did anyone pay attention to the Failed State Index for 2007?
I can proudly announce that the Jordanian regime ranked 82 from 177 with 1 being the worst. our government came between Madagascar and Cameron.
http://www.fundforpeace.org/web/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=229&Itemid=366
there are 4 ranks only. we are one above the lowest.
for those who keep defending the regime, I hope you stop doing so and start defending jordan from disaster. DEMOCRACY NOW!
anonymous
well I do know what happened with ATV is terrible - but moaning about it wouldn't benefit the channel neither myself and just gives headache to everybody. So unless there are official campaigns, petitions or any appropriate course of action going on there - I don't think we'll be going anywhere ourselves :/
Ali
I don't see how is that by any means relevant to discussing Jordan and it's film-making...
failed states can't build viable cinema industries. they can inherit them, like egypt. but they can't make them. so one more reason to be less optimistic about a Jorywood under the present circumstance. but thing may change if the right people are in the right place.
This post has been removed by the author.
I think it is possible for us to grow our film industry - we've got amazing stories that make great material for the screen. It is very hard work and very skilled work and takes some time. I think a fundamental ingredient though is for creatives to maintain independence! To express freely and find new ways of collaboration to raise production value and standards and source funding and distribution.
We shot Captain Abu Raed this summer and it premieres in December in Jordan, then thru the festival circuit. Amin Matalqa with this film is raising the bar http://captainaburaed.com/
Aranim are doing amazing work in comics and films! Their work will blow you away!
Animation efforts like http://frayed-ends.com/ are great and these guys are working on their next already, Rattling in its Cage!
Keep the faith, remain independent, go crazy with your ideas and art and collaborate with amazing like-minded people. We'll be fine. Let's not get caught up in policy or system or the failure projects around us. And let's not forget to keep it fun!
Ok, this is totally unrelated!
It took me some while to realize that your blogs is accessed through www.omernos.com/blog
But this was great since I've got the chance to see your ART work. Man you are talented. Nice stuff. Hath enta tle3et Fnoon Helweh? Kam Jayib bel tawjihi? :D
KeeB it uB
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