As well as showcasing films and providing fun for the community, the Doha Tribeca Film Festival (DTFF) 2011 will also highlight some of the work Doha Film Institute (DFI) has been doing to educate and enable Qatari and expatriate students throughout the year. A series of public performances and workshops, running parallel to DTFF from October 25 to 29, mark the culmination of education initiatives that have run throughout the year.Special screenings really provide something for everyone – from sports lovers to those with an interest in politics. They include David Fine’s Salaam Dunk, an Iraqi women’s basketball film; Asif Kapadia’s critically-acclaimed F1 documentary Senna; Gareth Huw Evans’ action flick The Raid, Sarah Palin - You Betcha!, a documentary feature exploring the life and politics of Republican politician and ex-hockey mum Sarah Palin, which also recently premiered at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival.Arab films to be screened at DTFF showcase the strength and quality of films produced throughout the Middle Eastern and North African region in the past year. The Arab Film Competition supports and promotes Arab films by providing an important recognition to emerging and established film-makers to gain exposure and distribution opportunities outside of the Arab World, which remains a fundamental issue within the regional industry. The number of Arab films submitted has increased and this year’s line-up also sees more representation of films from female directors, as well as an increase in films from all over North Africa in the year of the Arab Spring. The diverse and wide ranging line-up, including seven narrative films and seven documentaries including the latest work from such film-makers as Nadine Labaki (Where Do We Go Now?), Khaled El Hagar (El Shooq), Lina Alabed (Yearning) and Latifa Robbana Doghri and Salem Trabelsi (Boxing With Her).The competition, in its second year, has been expanded and split into two juried segments of narrative and documentary films, with a set of new awards up for grabs including: Best Arab Narrative Feature; Best Arab Narrative Director; Best Narrative Performance Award; Best Arab Documentary Feature; and Best Arab Documentary Director. Leading the five-member Narrative Film Competition Jury will be award-winning Syrian director Mohamed Malas, a film-making auteur widely recognised across the Arab World for his critical and socially engaging cinema.There will also be an exploration of Qatari and regional film-making talent. Local film-making Qatari filmmaker Ahmed al-baker (The Package Vol.1) will participate in the panel alongside actors Haifa Hussain and Haya Abdulsalam, producer Talal al-Muhanna and film-makers Abdullah al-Kaabi and Nawaf Al Janahi, whose latest film Sea Shadow premiered on October 20 in Abu Dhabi. Moderated by Kuwaiti actor, comedian and TV presenter Dawood Hussain, the discussion will focus on how audiences beyond the local are increasingly developing an appetite for Gulf storylines – from the online sphere to the big screen, and how regional talents can meet such demands whilst retaining their artistic and cultural authenticity.The opening night’s world premiere, Black Gold, is a unique and authentic insight into the region and one of the biggest cinematic projects ever undertaken in the Arab world which highlights home-grown talent featuring Qatari talent both in front of and behind the camera and also a real celebration of the very landscape of Qatar itself showcasing the country as a filming location. The film’s dramatic battle scenes were filmed for nearly four weeks in Qatar at the desert dunes of Mesaieed. It also gave DFI a unique opportunity to utilise the production abilities of Qatar and bring together the individual creative industries of Qatar who were involved in the project. Production involved over 200 residents and locals from Doha serving various roles in front of and behind the camera. Black Gold also provided Qatar’s service industries and its strong regional infrastructure with high-level experience on a large scale film production which is the first time a film of this size has ever shot in Qatar. Young aspirant Qatari filmmakers were also involved in Black Gold including three DFI students interned on the project including the third assistant director Mohamed al-Ibrahim.The budding film-maker said film has been a passion since he was 15 or 16. Al-Ibrahim originally started off working in banking in human resources but in 2009 he got the opportunity to participate in a DFI workshop and got to direct a one minute film which screened at the festival in 2009. “The experience led to me gaining a full time job in the education department at DFI where I had the opportunity to continue to develop my skills as a film-maker but also to participate and produce workshops for other film-makers, which meant I got to share my experience and have the chance to mentor others. “Via the DFI Education programme, I was invited to become involved in Black Gold and had the chance to go to Tunisia and work onset during the production. “I started off as a runner on the film and ended up working my way up to become the third assistant director on the Tunisian crew. Al-Ibrahim recalled that the experience was something he will always value and has allowed him to fulfil his lifelong dream of pursuing a career as a filmmaker, continuing to learn and develop his production and storytelling skills having made two more short films while also having the chance to help others learn and become part of a local film industry being nurtured in Qatar.In another unprecedented move Qatari talent - vocalist, Fahad al-Kubaisi, recorded Black Gold’s opening track and recorded another of the film’s tracks, a traditional Bedouin song, with Qatari composer Abdulla al-Mannai after being connected to film legend and Black Gold score composer James Horner through DFI.The entire project was also supported from its very early development by DFI and the many Qataris who form 20% of the DFI’s year-round staff who are working to establish Qatar as a cultural and educational hub with a sustainable film industry. At least 20 DFI staff (production, content, new media) were onset during production, day in, day out.Black Gold, co-produced by DFI and Tarak Ben Ammar’s Quinta Communications, is directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud and stars Antonio Banderas, Freida Pinto, Tahar Rahim, Mark Strong and Liya Kebede, amongst others. Film-music legend, James Horner (Titanic, Troy, Avatar), composed the film’s score.Set in 1930’s Arabia, Black Gold is a quintessential Arab tale, telling the story of two warring Emirs, who make a truce that binds them through family and mutual respect of a no man’s land that lies between their desert kingdoms. However, after oil is discovered in the barren sand of the ‘Yellow Belt’, the stage is set for control of the area and the riches it promises to yield. The film, shot jointly in Qatar and Tunisia, during the Tunisian revolutions, is both timely and relevant, poignantly charting the relationship between oil and Islam in Arabia, and the clash between culture, identity, modernity and tradition which continues to shape the region even today.