Logically if one where to attempt this project, starting with the host country might seem like a natural choice, given that one would already know that they were taking part in the event and that there would be no ‘qualification grief’ associated with the corresponding selection. Unfortunately things didn’t quite work out that way in this particular instance. I have to be honest, Qatar was the most difficult country when it came to finding a decent selection to watch. While I may not have been particularly thorough in my research, based on all the time that I spent at the Doha Film Institute website and elsewhere I currently know of maybe … 3? feature length films that would satisfy my criteria as a Qatari film. And as for accessing any of these films in order to watch them, … HA!
This selection was a film that the Doha Film Institute (DFI) had uploaded to various sites including YouTube and Vimeo. At a running time of 44 minutes I realize that there may be some debate as to whether or not this should count as a ‘feature length’ film, but regardless of this, my attitude was simply to watch and critique it, just so that I could say that I did something. Leaving Qatar completely absent from this project was not an option for me.
The film itself came together in a rather strange way. The DFI solicited short personal videos from the residents of Qatar that would offer glimpses of what life is like in the country. The end result was a collage of content that came from a large number of independently produced sources that didn’t necessarily conform to a singular artistic vision. Although given the prevalence of short films in Qatar’s cinema culture, it’s an interesting concept in order to capture a broader, more diverse view of the country.
Despite the fact that the film was constructed with what was mostly ‘amateur’ submissions I was actually quite surprised by the quality of its cinematography. Early on the viewer was treated to well staged shots that captured the natural beauty of the country’s desert landscapes. During the “Falconer” segment, the montage of desert perspectives looked like they were pulled from a National Geographic documentary. Beyond this the drone shot of the falconer riding a horse looked fantastic, as did all of the film’s aerial shots which offered some wonderful imagery to the film. The most fascinating of such shots easily came from the window washers due to the faux sense of danger that their helmet mounted cameras would convey. Overall there was a very discernible competency with the basic elements of film-making. The use of motion was often excellent whether it was the graceful pan shots seen in the shopping mall, or the exciting swiftly moving underwater shots taken by the pearl divers. The framing and staging of the shots as seen during the “Free Water Guy” or the “Oil Rig Worker” segments displayed a professional grade quality. Also one encountered familiar documentary touches like people providing narration over shots of them in action, or a couple of segments where questions got asked from behind the camera. The use of such tactics did make me question whether or not there was a more definitive creative hand at play behind some of the film’s content. Granted this was not something that I constantly pondered. Early in the film a short segment involving a man about to cook a night time meal on the first day of Ramadan displayed the crude, ‘social media style’ nuance that I expected to see more of in this film. The final product displayed a cinematographic style that blended both classic and modern approaches into something that was for the most part effective and compelling.
While the film’s credits listed both a director and an editor, my personal inclination is to regard the editing team as the true auteurs of such a project. According to the information provided at beginning of the film there were over 10,000 submissions to the Dari Qatar project and the notion of perusing all of this content in order to arrive at an efficient yet comprehensive final product came across as excessively daunting.
The editing in the film was often fast-paced and hypnotic offering a view of Qatar that took the viewer on a whirlwind journey. I actually like this attribute and thought it was the most appropriate tone to set given the anarchistic nature of the project. The editing teams though should get some credit for attempting to arrange the segments with some semblance of thematic continuity. For instance there was a portion of the film that dealt with the country’s cultural pursuits with consecutive segments that featured choir singers, an aspiring pianist, a sculptor, and an artist. Later in the film there appeared to be an aquatic theme with shots of kayakers, fishermen, and pearl divers that gracefully lead to the segment with the physically disabled swimmer. Beyond this the short interviews with the football coach and the female golfer naturally segued into the interview with the World Cup committee member. However achieving this level of cohesion throughout the entire film proved too difficult. There were plenty of transitions that were made in a rather jarring fashion. The interview with the news anchor for instance was immediately followed by the short narrative on the oil rig worker. Furthermore, a quick segment with a watch maker lead to the segment with the window cleaners. Such drastic shifts in content were probably unavoidable given the independent nature of how the individual submissions were crafted, although to some degree this may have allowed the film to better reflect the diversity of the country. Still though the film often suffered from a lack of focus in what it was trying to convey. In the first half of the film one saw a short segment from a Westerner talking about how Qataris were willing to share their culture with others, and yet there was hardly anything in the film that really built upon this notion. In fact the issue of how local Qataris and foreigners interacted with each other was rarely breached during the film. This Westerner quip felt inserted into the film in a rather random and haphazard manner. At times the film could have benefited from someone with a central vision on how the project should be conceived and executed.
Structurally the filmmakers also tried to deal with the incompatibility of the personal submissions by buffering them with, what might be called, ‘slice of life’ montages of people in and around Doha. Such montages clearly showed the influence of the Qatar Tourism Authority on the film. At times it’s hard not to think of Dari Qatar as one long tourist advert for the country. My biggest problem with such montages was that I thought the film was at its best when it was committed to showing the individual personal narratives. Here the people of Qatar got an opportunity to speak for themselves and offer a more intimate perspective on the country. The segment of the old man who paid a visit to his old dilapidated village was easily the most compelling of all the submissions that got shown, and this entire segment was wonderfully shot and constructed. What made the ‘Old Man” and the preceding “Moving Lady” segments especially intriguing were the very subtle and yet completely unspoken tinges of contempt for the direction of the country in its embrace of global modernity. Such nuances though represented the fullest extent of any negative criticism of Qatar.
For most people who watch this film the lack of depth in the information that it expressed will be the biggest issue. For instance in the interview with the World Cup committee member, there was absolutely no discussion of any of the controversy that surrounded the selection of Qatar as the host, or of their process of preparing the country for the event. For one, I would have liked to have hear from Qataris themselves on such issues, and this film could have offered such an opportunity. Second, if one is going to compile a 40 minute film from thousands of personal submissions, criticizing the film for what it chose not to include is inescapable. In fact I generally thought about how different this film would have been with a longer running time. For instance it could have taken some of the more interesting personal narratives, like the old man in the village, or the tale of Tariq Husseini who got called for duty into the Qatar National Service, and told deeper, more expansive stories while balancing the exposition with a broader view of the country. This might have resulted in something akin to Up the Yangtze, and would have been a stronger film. This is not to say that I necessarily hate Dari Qatar for what it is, nor do I hate the fact that it was executed. The film did enough to remind me that countries are very complex entities. They are far more than their most admirable qualities and far more than their most disgraceful ones. Granted I would have preferred a film that embraced these notions a bit more.