“Watching films fires my imagination”

— Yousef al-Moadhadi, Qatari filmmakerBy Anand Holla Nearly a year after his crisp 7-minute short dramedy 10%, won the Made in Qatar award at Ajyal Youth Film Festival, Qatari filmmaker Yousef al-Moadhadi is still reaping the fruits of his ingenuity.“When we made the film, the goal wasn’t to win the award but to merely present ourselves as a passionate group of Qatari filmmakers,” says al-Moadhadi, sitting at the Museum of Islamic Art Café, cut off from the buzz of the crowd just metres away at the inaugural Focus on Qatar event, presented by the Doha Film Institute (DFI).“At the same time, we really wanted to bring a smile on people’s faces. The feedback to 10% was amazing and almost everybody in the theatre was laughing. It felt great to just hear that sound,” he says, smiling. The same was the case on Thursday night as a series of short films made by Qatari filmmakers were screened at Focus on Qatar; al-Moadhadi’s 10% leading the way and filling the hall with loud booms of collective laughter. “When I hear people laugh in the dark of the cinema hall, that is enough for me,” he says.Al-Moadhadi is part of a new and dedicated crop of Qatari filmmakers and film production professionals, nearly all of who were present at the three-day event that includes screenings and industry panels designed to put the spotlight on home-grown talent, apart from celebrating the filmmakers who have cast an impact on Qatar’s film culture over the past five years.Winning Ajyal’s USD5,000 award for 10% has played a significant role in paving the way for al-Moadhadi’s greater recognition on the scene. 10% (Ashrah Fi al-Maa’a in Arabic) is a timely satire on a young man’s bad obsession with his cell phone. Perpetually worried about his battery running low, the protagonist finds himself in all sorts of troubles because of his love for his gadget. He loses his job, crashes his car, and even falls into a sewage pit — the last bit proving to present him the much-needed moment of clarity.“The fact that we got to take 10% to Cannes Film Festival’s short film corner and Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival is a reflection of success. I thank God that we got such opportunities,” says al-Moadhadi, “I was happy to be there and it was great to get feedback and suggestions from people there on what I could do better and what more I could learn.”For al-Moadhadi, who is also a seasoned editor and currently works with the DFI in this capacity, there is no question of ego when it comes to improving. “We have just started and we need to learn. We know that we are not perfect; nobody is. Moreover, we don’t have a filmmaking industry in Doha — we are building it now for the coming generations,” he points out, “In the end, as Qatari filmmakers, we want to reflect our culture and our lives to the world. That’s our goal.”Actually, that has been al-Moadhadi’s goal all along. Sometime in 2002, he allowed his imaginations to lead him to look beyond the screen and wonder what happens behind the camera. “We always watch what is in front, and even more so in our region, which doesn’t have a film industry as such. We may have a TV series industry, but cinema is really different and it involves huge production,” he says.When he decided to get into filmmaking, the idea took flight as a hobby. “My friends and I decided to make short films and I figured that I loved this space of filmmaking. It kept me interested,” he recalls, “We had this video camera and we would shoot whatever we wished across Qatar.”Al-Moadhadi’s first digital camera was a Fuji, which his mother gifted him more than a decade ago. “It could shoot 10 seconds of video without voice,” he says, “My first attempt featured shooting my nephews playing in the house, then gathering all the footage I already had and piece them together to create a story from nothing.”It all began with a dream — of getting a camera and doing a film. “I would dream of the many ways I could create certain effects or capture emotions in a movie. I experimented a lot,” he says.In 2007, al-Moadhadi joined Al Jazeera Documentary channel as an editor and worked there for five years. All along, he was working with his friends as a group called Hezawi, which essentially means “old cultural stories.” Today, he and his friends, who started off making corporate ad films a few years ago, make movies under the film production company Hezawi Pictures.“I made my first short film in 2005. I directed it without knowing that I am the director. It had no dialogue or sound. The story compared two boys, one who is doing very well in life and another who is not. It was a very simple movie, but the kids loved it. And they wanted more, so I kept making many more,” he says.After making more than two dozen short films, al-Moadahdi made 10%. “This film was made after I gleaned a lot of knowledge about the craft. When we guys at Hezawi decided to do something for Ajyal’s Made in Qatar, last year, we decided to make a film about something that everybody can relate to and everybody is irritated with.”Told in funny flashbacks, 10% is a clever commentary on the generation’s increasing phone addiction. “It was a challenge to make a comedy film because we all know it’s really hard to make people laugh. But we decided to take it up,” al-Moadahdi says, “I think what made people love this film was that it was simple and it reflected our lives. It showed our dress, our cars, our kind of people; it was like holding a mirror to our society.”Of the many compliments he has fetched for the film, al-Moadahdi regards this one as his favourite. “After watching the film, HE Sheikha Mayassa al-Thani rose up from her seat and came down looking for me. She then told me that she laughed a lot,” al-Moadahdi says, “The film also has a little message in the end, so that the viewer can take something away.”That thought perhaps derives its essence from al-Moadahdi’s processing of the films he watches. “I have never held on to a particular genre or filmmaker as my favourite and get stuck with it. I watch a lot of films and each film has something special, which I try and imbibe. Watching films fires my imagination.”Of course, al-Moadahdi has his favourite films such as The Godfather, which he says inspired him a lot. “The direction, acting, music, lights; everything about it was exceptional,” he says, “Jurassic Park was the first film I watched in a theatre and I was barely 10 then. It was like a dream to watch dinosaurs on the big screen. It threw open new dimensions for the next generation of films.”Onwards and upwards, al-Moadahdi is now working on Hezawi Pictures’ first feature film, which has won the Qatari Film Fund grant, an initiative to support short and feature filmmaking by Qataris. The working title is Kakashi.“It’s about a Japanese man whose girlfriend is in the UK and he must go to the UK if he must take things forward. He is afraid of everything and flies for the first time, but while in transit, he gets lost in Doha,” says al-Moadahdi, “It is very exciting for us. We believe we are on the right track.”