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In Qatar, theres a small but grow-ing number of people committed to pushing beyond hobby filmmaking. Leading that pack is Innovation Films. bq magazine sits down with its CEO Bassam Yousef Al Ibrahim to understand the institutional, finan-cial and cultural limitations faced by the young crop.

Innovation Films, a spin-off of an eponymous technology com-pany, was started by Khaled Al Jabr, Ahmed Al Baker and Mohammed Al Hammadi. A year and half into setting up the film business, Al Ibra-him joined them as first an execu-tive director and then as its CEO. The team comprises a core of 15 members, and large network draw-ing from the talent pool from local universities including Northwestern University in Qatar (NU-Q) and Vir-ginia Commonwealth University in

Qatar (VCUQatar).At the beginning the company

wanted to make films alone. Thats when the new CEOs business sensibilities kicked in. Making films is good, thats your passion, but we need to keep the business alive, Al Ibrahim told the partners. We needed to sustain ourselves. We cant be living on handouts. To drive the passion and the growth we needed to split the organisa-tional structure to the filmmaking we love; and a division that made corporate films, advertisements and campaigns.

It wasnt quick and took a while to convince people who are creative how to continue to run a business. Over time they accepted that this is the right thing to do. But it has to be done prop-erly. I didnt want to hold their hands behind their back, tie them down.

How do you differentiate your-self while maintaining that bal-ance between the two streams of business? Ours is a purely Qatari company. Which means, its run and owned by Qataris; the talent in front and behind the camera are purely Qatari; or local residents. We try to thrive off these people. The plethora of talent in Qatar is unimaginable. I was shocked by the number of people who came with ideas and the kind of ideas. You get kids, 18 or 19, coming into the office with a script. And its amazing. They really think big.

How do you then run a professional set-up with amateurs?What we tell them is, This is fantas-tic. You need to fix it. Thats pretty much what it is. For me, the people who set up this company the

Qatars film industry finds innovation in limitationsBy Ira Pavaki, Doha

QATAR

IN THE WINGS

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creative concept of it my brother (Mohammed Al Ibrahim) and Ahmed, I didn't want their talent to be lost. Sooner or later they want to move on to bigger projects. So we set up bootcamps. Directing 101, producing 101, scriptwriting 101 They would lead the daily training at these bootcamps.

For the first bootcamp, the participants were handpicked. The intention is to open it up to more people. We want people to do films properly. Its randomly done now, they dont know how to do films properly. We want to share our learnings, our trials and tribulations.

There are those with ideas and passion, but without the knowledge to execute it, so we bring them in and give them that training. For me it is a win-win situation. Each one of the students is to write a film. And everybody takes turns in a different role making that one film. So you have a script idea, then you become my DoP and then the director. Everybody gets a turn at making all the films. And end of the day I get 10 short films that I can release, I can produce, take to film festivals. Last Ajyal, we released one of these films, Qurar (means decision), a zombie film. It was a short film, very well made. The whole team put in a lot of effort into this. We are finalising another four films now. That just needs post-production work.

What you are describing, isnt this what DFI is supposed to do? Why a private entity?The DFI platform is meant to sup-port the local filmmaking industry. And in the past I feel they havent been able to do that. Now they are getting on the right path with new management, new leadership. Especially Qumra, it took a com-pletely new turn. It didn't take the same standard festival process: You premier films, bring international talent, and it becomes a hullabaloo of celebrity. Now its about learning. I had the opportunity to attend a lot of classes.

How did you and others in the industry benefit with Qumra?

This year it was about teaching me how to take care of the business side of things sales and distribu-tion, legal co-production and so on. Industry professionals teaching you the ABCs of the trade. Something informative for me as a business person in a company like this. They also expect you to come to Qumra with a project. Give them the script, synopsis, idea, concept, and then they let you sit down with the experts in the genre. They help you with the script, co-production of the film, they help you with finding the right connections. Now it goes to a different level. You are no longer just a creative individual. You now have a product to sell.

I am hoping DFI would do this and show the local industry that this is how you are supposed to help and set up a local produc-tion companyHow many takers did they have for this kind of activity?Youd be shocked at the number of people who turned up. A lot. I believe this years Qumra was very good. Previously DFI had worked with us on multiple occasions, and they reach the 70 percent mark but they dont hit fruition with us. Unfortunately. And theyve done that to a lot of other young Qatari filmmakers.

What happened to those who didnt have the experience and support like your company did?I think thats what allowed us to flourish a bit more. Filmmakers would go to DFI first, and then often would come to us right after. We would help them out, whether or not we fund their project. Why dont you join us on our next production. Be our DoP. Or be an editor or one of the camera guys. Get them into the experience of making a film, first. Then they handle their own. The ones who are really passion-ate would hang on, and we would make their film. We just made a film with a young Qatari NU-Q gradu-ate Amal Al Muftah. Its a beautiful film. She came in with the idea and is really leading the film. She is hard-core. Those are the kind of people we like to work with and support. For any entrepreneur like myself, its about getting the right people to come in; if they can handle the first obstacles and come through they can handle the rest.

Where do you get your funding from?In the beginning it was purely self-financed. It was all personal invest-ment from the board. After a while, as we split the business in two, we started to make money from our corporate films and advertisements. Thats supporting our business as we go along. Thank God, as a company the films that we make, as soon as theyre complete we let them move

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around the festival circuit. We have won at multiple festivals and we get grant money, grant permissions. Just a few days ago we won the silver award at the Al Reyada entrepre-neurship awards (launched by the Social Development Centre.) A nice cheque to go with it to support some of our films.

Youve diversified film interests for over a year now, how has the market responded?It is very competitive. A lot of the local companies have expatriates in them. They give it an international flavour. The market now doesnt want that, they want a local flavour. That essence of whats truly Qatari. And only Qataris can give that. We

have done projects with HMC, Qatar Museums, Qatar Foundation and we are specifically asked that it has to be done by Qataris. We get the best Qatari directors around. There was a very prestigious project for Qatar National Museum and we hired my brother Mohammed. He was the right person for the role. The documentary is really fantastic. Its about Sadu (traditional Qatari weaving) and will be shown at the museum once its open. Its done in such a way that you know the person behind the camera is Qatari, and that he understands it.Does that mean theres no space for non-Qatari players?Not at all. We are all about

collaboration. We are not trying to take over the market. We are more than happy to work with our com-petitors. Because we dont want the big players to come in and eat up the whole pie.

Do you work with competition?Yes. All the time. We work with Res-olution, Ginger Camel, Filmhouse they are not just people we work with, they are our friends. This is the nice thing if I need a camera I would borrow from them; if they need some Qatari crew we would share ours; its done in such a way, Ive got your back and youve got mine. We support each other. Thats one of the things about this indus-try. With a lot of other industries in

We are more than happy to sit down with QDB or whoever and show that if you invest this money, this is how it would be used, and this what youd get Qatar its massive competition. This? No we have to work together to survive, to be honest. The creative guys are good with this kind of col-laboration. When it gets into busi-ness its different.

Is there a support mechanism for the industry? In terms of infrastructure and

collaterals. You often hear of teams and equipment being brought in from Dubai for instance.In a perfect world, the actual plat-form is DFI. Thats why DFI was created; to support the local film industry. But the local film industry cannot be built overnight. It has to grow over time, blend into the envi-ronment. That doesnt mean I want to create a film industry and hand out money. Take cinemas. Is there a platform to go see short films? It only happens during the film fes-tivals. Why cant this be a regular feature. Even in the existing cinemas its about socialising not about just watching the film. Where as in other parts of the world there is a sepa-rate space for avant-garde films. I

want to be able to watch older films, classics

This is a big money business, do banks and financial institutions get this business?Oh, no.

Whats the biggest challenge?We never pursued a bank actively. The only institution we have approached was Qatar Develop-ment Bank.

We got into a massive project. See, the intention of Innovation Films was to make a full-fledged commercial film. In English, with A-list talent. We had signed on two Hollywood actors, went through

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SAG (Screen Actors Guild) and con-tracts it was a learning experience for all of us. It was written by Ahmed and an American friend. It was titled In Search of Adam. We had a crew from South Africa doing the produc-tion designs. We had a line producer from the UK. We got a lot of external support from our local connections. For finance. We approached QDB and asked them if they would like to be on board with this film. They went, What exactly is it that you are making?Well, we are making a film. How do you quantify that in money?It is content.It has to be something we can touch, feel.

I am sitting there trying to explain this project. And it didnt click. So I thought if QDB, thats supposed to help SMEs didnt get it, I dont think I am going to get far with anyone else. For that project we had some funding, but it didn't go through, and we have put it aside for now. It something we still want to do in the future, hopefully.

Going forward how do you think you are going to educate the finan-cial sector? It would be difficult to take on big projects otherwise.I agree. I am hoping DFI would do this and show the local industry that this is how you are supposed to help and set up a local production company.

DFI doing this would still be a quasi-governmental support. Shouldnt it be more organic, more dynamic?Sure. We havent reached that level yet. We are more than happy to sit down with QDB or whoever and show that if you invest this money, this is how it would be used, and this what youd get.

We had done all that was required for that project, made con-nections with producers abroad. We were there, 95 percent, just needed that 5 percent support. We are already involved in that educational effort. Of course we are doing it on the fly. And thats not enough.

Are you able to have that conversa-tion with DFI?Yes, with the new management. Theyve really done a turn around for us. They love the fact that we are a local team, local talent. Hopefully, in time, this would turn into a more interesting friendship. Ahmed and Mohammed work with them a lot, the relationship is already there.

Not just as a business, even with the community as viewers, local filmmaking is viewed as a hobby not as a career. Thats a problem.Thats true even in our culture unfortunately. Take Ahmed as an example. He went through hell trying to convince his family. He is an engineer by trade and academ-ics. He gave all that up to follow his dream and passion. Same with my brother. I think now they are catch-ing on to the fact that filmmaking is a job; but its also a job where people totally love what they do.

What are the opportunities for someone like you to have this as a day job?For the time being its not possible. This (current job) is my cash cow.

There is a growing vacuum in the region with the hit film industries in Egypt and Syria have taken. Do

you see regional collaboration?I dont think my job here is done yet for me to go regional. We have been approached by Dubai or Abu Dhabi film festivals for grants. We tend to turn them down.

Why?We would prefer our films be funded locally to appreciate the local creative talent they are investing in.

But there are Emirati filmmakers funded by DFI. Why does it matter?Exactly. I am trying to prove a point.

Whats your idea of success for Innovation.Making money off films. Feature films.

Box office sales?Yes.

How far off is that ideal?The only thing thats holding us back is finances.

Three things that would make it less difficult for you?Easy support for businesses.Peoples mindset towards filmmaking.More opportunity to see avant-garde and local films.

A workshop in progress