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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 >> You know, young people, they go, what do I do to make a movie?
00:35 I said, your camera is capable of taking a movie.
00:37 It's such a quality.
00:38 Don't wait for permission to make a movie.
00:42 Go and do it.
00:43 >> Well, you have to have the right stories to tell.
00:44 >> That's right.
00:45 >> Everybody.
00:46 >> That's right.
00:46 >> You know, and that's what's interesting about here.
00:48 I was talking to a Saudi filmmaker the other day.
00:50 I've been here for the past three years.
00:53 And it's just about seeing how they're getting a hold of how to tell the story.
00:57 >> Yeah. >> Tell it right.
00:58 >> Yeah. >> Can you talk about looking at
00:59 stories over here?
01:00 >> Yeah, yeah I can.
01:01 >> Because sociology is so different from what we.
01:03 >> Yeah, 1,000%.
01:05 And I did my own investigation six months ago.
01:09 I saw enough, I felt enough, I talked to young filmmakers.
01:14 I was convinced that the best thing that we can do in a time when there is so
01:22 much oppression, when we are failed so much by politics,
01:27 that the best thing we can do is help those new emerging voices be heard.
01:32 Now that's a caveat to saying something that's much more informed now.
01:38 I've seen the movies.
01:39 I've been sitting here.
01:40 I've been watching movies from, I call it the region, because it's not just Saudi,
01:44 Pakistan, the Islamic State of Pakistan, all right?
01:49 >> Mm-hm.
01:51 >> Jordan, India, Japan, Asia.
01:56 But specific to this territory and this region, one, I've actually seen a movie
02:04 where the sophistication of the storytelling and the cinematic language is,
02:08 I believe, and I can't say which one, unfortunately, but
02:11 one where we're like, that is something new.
02:13 That blending of a populist form, but
02:17 with a very, very hot button topic, it's really working.
02:23 >> I think the one I knew were the ones you're talking about.
02:24 >> You're right.
02:25 I went, yeah.
02:28 I mean, it's really working, really working.
02:31 And that's one thing.
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03:02 And then what you say about the sociology, there's another underlying thing, and
03:19 I really can't lean into it.
03:21 I can't wait for the festival to be over where I can speak.
03:24 Several of the films from this environment had some of the same plot elements.
03:31 And it led you to, while there are many issues in the territory,
03:37 it led you to this one that's not that present or not that well known.
03:42 I mean, we know about things like the rights of women to drive cars and
03:46 things like that.
03:46 And, but I mean, wow, and what is so
03:51 good is that it proves the dictum that storytelling humanizes.
04:00 And when you see, for example,
04:03 I'll be general because I'm in the middle of the process.
04:07 But when you see, say, a woman who, and
04:11 I can say this because it's in different movies, but has loss.
04:16 And just the amount of, like the unbearable
04:22 lack of rights, you know, unbelievable.
04:28 But done in a way in which the characters are humanized and
04:32 done in a way in which it's also, when I say entertaining, I mean it's good cinema.
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04:48 Film is community.
05:02 That's the thing is that I can come over here and talk to so
05:04 many different people and they know Leo.
05:07 They know, but they also know their own stories.
05:10 Can you talk about film as community?
05:11 Because obviously you're here.
05:12 >> Yeah, I can.
05:14 Okay, so look, just being here, there's a, someone's talking about a film that's
05:18 not in competition, it's a Saudi film, I'm like, I don't care, I wanna see that.
05:21 But more importantly, I can't remember, I think last year with Avatar,
05:25 a local Saudi pitcher pipped it in terms of box office.
05:31 What's mine?
05:32 Look, you're here, I'm here.
05:33 We're walking out here in this cinema.
05:35 I mean, 30 years you couldn't go to the movies.
05:38 Five years ago, Black Panther's there.
05:40 There's a giant poster for Barbie in the foyer here.
05:45 I forget, I am not in any way, by the way, softballing
05:52 that there aren't issues in the territory that need to be addressed.
05:57 But I think it's one thing for outsiders to say something, it's another thing for
06:05 local storytellers, both older but also the young, to address it in storytelling.
06:11 >> I do wanna say one thing on behalf of the jury.
06:15 We had an incredible journey.
06:20 And when we sat together, the one thing we all agreed was that when it comes to
06:24 film, when it comes to art, really at a certain point,
06:29 with different selections of movies,
06:33 you get to a point where you go, great, but one is roast and one is sushi.
06:41 How do you choose?
06:43 >> It's wonderful to see the young, cuz they wanna talk, men and women.
06:46 >> Men and women, yes.
06:47 >> It's about educating the next generation.
06:49 >> Yes, yes.
06:50 When I came, I met with a young female filmmaker.
06:54 And what's kinda interesting is back when you couldn't make movies,
06:58 one of the heroes, Mansoor, she, she, Mansoor,
07:02 she had to direct from within a van, and this is only a few years ago.
07:07 And makes a success, like literally guerrilla,
07:10 guerrilla filmmaking, makes a success.
07:13 So she becomes an icon.
07:15 Now, a kind of a generation, almost a generation later,
07:18 there is, it's really female-led actually.
07:21 There's so many female filmmakers, and because she's a hero.
07:26 I mean, doesn't that just say it?
07:27 And they are, and I think that's why a lot of the movies really focus on
07:32 those issues, and you think you know those issues, but
07:35 it's actually the ones that are under the, the kind of the slightly
07:40 less glamorous, less, less dramatic, less kinda easy to make noise about
07:47 issues where you go, oh, that's just not right.
07:49 >> They're really humanizing.
07:51 >> Humanizing.
07:52 >> You know, I've been, I've been in those chairs, going,
07:56 will you please get on with your speech, I wanna know if I can't, right?
08:00 I'm lost, but there is no winning and losing, and what I do wanna say to you,
08:05 is that it may sound a little rusty, but of all the thousands of films that
08:10 have been made, every person here tonight has had a film selected and embraced.
08:18 >> You know, humanizing, and then, and then the performances, two things.
08:21 The performances, like I'm saying, really just, I mean, you know,
08:25 Meryl Streep level of sophisticated performances.
08:30 And then, the cool thing, the thing I didn't know if I'd see, but
08:37 is actual cinema language that while influenced by other movies,
08:41 like I'm influenced by my heroes and cinematic styles, but
08:46 is nonetheless its own thing.
08:48 That's pretty damned exciting.
08:51 >> Yeah, and you don't find it everywhere.
08:53 >> No. >> Awesome, thank you very much.
08:54 >> Great man.
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