Doha Film Institute (DFI) has presented a film series at the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA), featuring a curated selection of works from the acclaimed exhibition 'Your Ghosts Are Mine: Short film programme.’

The evening session's lineup showcased a selection of six short films from around the world, celebrating a dense narrative form that carries powerful messages through intense scenes, allowing viewers to explore a diverse spectrum of human, social, and artistic issues.

Sh'hab (Arabic for meteor) directed by Amal al-Muftah is a young Qatari filmmaker, was the first short drama to be screened. It was about a mischievous 8-year-old girl would do anything to spend time with her father and older brother at sea in the old village of Al Wakrah. In an effort to keep her home and safe, her mother begins to share with her the most elaborate mythological tales about falling stars. But this only stokes the little girl's imagination further, and she sets out to find one at night in an enchanting tale about childlike curiosity and wonder.

Then Al-Sit (Arabic dialect for grandmother) was an interesting short drama directed by Suzannah Mirghani, a Sudanese-Russian writer. It took place in a cotton-farming village in Sudan, where the 15-year-old Nafisa has a crush on Babiker, but her parents have arranged her marriage to Nadir, a young Sudanese businessman living abroad. Nafisa’s grandmother Al-Sit, the powerful village matriarch, has her own plans for Nafisa’s future. But can Nafisa choose for herself? A compassionate story from Sudan about women—both powerless and powerful—exploring both ends of the social chain and how these roles might be changing in a modernizing world.

The other four films were shorter with dramas like in “I am Afraid to Forget Your Face” directed by Cairo born Sameh Alaa, which was about the story of a man battling a great deal of adversity while in search of redemption, reunion and closure.

To be followed by “And Then They Burn the Sea” by Filmmaker Majid Al-Remaihi who ruminates on the experience of witnessing his mother’s gradual and terminal memory loss over the course of many years.

The nine minute long “Don't Get Too Comfortable” is a heartfelt, introspective letter to Shaima al-Tamimi, a Yemeni-East African filmmaker’s deceased grandfather. The letter questions the continuous pattern of movement amongst Yemenis in diaspora.

The closing animation drama “Night” is based on the true story of a mother the filmmaker met in Palestine, it is a haunting and superbly crafted stop-animation about war, bereavement, and unimaginable sorrow.

These screenings align with the Foundation's vision to explore the "power of cinema," not only as an entertainment tool, but also as a means of storytelling, broadening audience horizons, and deepening interconnectedness between communities.