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00:10 This is Tim Walsh from Fast Track OnStreet TV.
00:28 I'm here in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for the Red Sea International Film Festival.
00:32 >> Well, I think what's interesting that until you actually get to a place,
00:36 you have preconceptions about the visuals and
00:42 how the visuals and the people intersect.
00:47 And what I found most exciting is just the energy of the youthful population here.
00:56 And the fact that the festival itself is celebrating regions
01:02 where the primary populations are youthful, they're under 30.
01:08 And I come from an occidental background where we're just getting older and older.
01:14 >> [APPLAUSE]
01:20 >> What an introduction.
01:21 I feel like I'm deserved.
01:23 I mean, with this suit, you deserve everything you want.
01:27 [MUSIC]
01:31 It's about staying in the game, in the discomfit of the feeling of
01:37 kind of that there is a process to get to success.
01:41 It doesn't just happen.
01:43 >> And having two children who are 18 and 20,
01:49 I feel such guilt about the world we're leaving them.
01:58 And just to see people here, and my own children, so hopeful,
02:02 so energetic, so wanting to tell their own stories.
02:06 And I think it's interesting because you can't judge a book by its cover.
02:11 We talk about when you see the young people here who may still wear an abaya,
02:17 or a hijab, or whatever, but that's just part of a greater cultural conversation.
02:23 And I think making assumptions about who people are, or
02:28 how they're interacting with the world through their appearance is always a
02:33 problem, you should never judge a book by its cover.
02:36 And the dynamism of the programming here, and
02:41 the difficult subjects that have been tackled in the movies,
02:44 are really quite astounding, and have left me with a lot of food for thought.
02:49 [MUSIC]
02:59 I think what's really fascinating is that I think the statistic here is that
03:13 unlike in Australia or Hollywood,
03:17 where female filmmakers are a small proportion, we have, I believe,
03:22 about 50% of directors here in Saudi are actually women.
03:27 Actually hold differing views, and still be able to converse.
03:34 That is, I think, so important.
03:36 And now, everything's about you have to pick a side.
03:40 Well, I think you need to connect and converse.
03:44 [MUSIC]
03:54 It's extremely powerful.
04:09 It can be confronting, it can be joyous.
04:13 But what it does, a film festival brings people from all around the world
04:21 to see stories and to engage on what that story means.
04:27 Good, bad, or indifferent.
04:29 And the more we talk, the more we communicate, the more we have a community.
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