Monday 30 / September / 2024
Muscat: Only a little over a decade ago, it was hard to find Omani women working as photographers or filmmakers, however, with the recent development and advent of globalisation, women in Oman are now on par with men in almost every field — be it technical or creative.
Not only within the country, but Omani women have also proved themselves internationally, by being recognised at various international events and conferences.
An example of the continuous strides made by women in Oman are three students from the Middle East College (MEC), Hawra Salim Al Fahdi, Aneesa Hamood Al Amri and Hajer Yahya Al Tuwaijri, who have made their college and their country proud by making it to Coventry University’s Middle East Film Festival, a weeklong affair which will see participation of short filmmakers from different parts of the Middle East.
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It is the first time that a team of students from Oman will be taking part in this very interesting and enlightening event. Queen Rania was a guest at last year’s festival and this year will also see some famous people attending and appreciating the participants.
Al Fahdi, Al Amri and Al Tuwaijri were able to rise and shine from among 49 other students of the college, who also placed their best bet to enter the same competition with their short films, but in the final stage, it was this trio of girls who were able to make a mark with a film entitled “Culture of Oman.”
“It took us a while to make this film and we were not expecting to win because there were lots of other teams and many talented students taking part, but we are so glad to have won and now we are excited to be travelling abroad to the Middle East Film Festival in the UK, we hope that it will be a fruitful experience,” said Al Tuwaijri.
All the three girls are professional, award winning photographers, and have been able to display their work at various photo exhibitions inside and outside Oman. Al Amri has the talent of sketching and graphic designing and was able to contribute immensely to the making of the short film.
The three-minute film took three weeks to complete and filming was done at a few locations in Muscat, including the Muttrah Souq (market) and the Muscat Festival’s Heritage Village in Al Amerat Park, where the girls were able to record different scenes from the rich heritage of Oman. They used a Canon camera for filming, and iMovie for editing the video, they also used the Wacom digital drawing pad for the sketches in the video.
The Middle East College offers a strong and comprehensive multimedia course and the theme for this year’s festival was “Culture.” Much to the pride and delight of the three girls is the fact that their film will be shown on the first day of the festival and not just that, their film will also be the first one to be showcased on that day in front of celebrity guests and VIPs.
Spearheading the team of talented girls are responsible staff and faculty members at the Middle East College, who have tried to make sure that their students come out with the best results. Naaz Najeeb, Vikas Rao and Hassan Al Balushi have been constantly supporting the students.
Their parents are proud of them, and these girls are not stopping here, but have big dreams and would like to make a full length feature film and even move to Hollywood. “Short films are nice, especially if you want to convey a short message to people, however I would like to one day make full length feature films, and even enter Hollywood. I am already preparing to take part in another international competition soon and hope to win there,” said Al Fahdi.
