Damascus-SANA
Today, the corridors of the Technical Institute of Applied Arts in Damascus Citadel hosted the opening of the Citadel Student Film Festival in its second session, in cooperation with the General Film Foundation, which will continue until the 15th of this month.
The Citadel Student Film Festival constitutes an important opportunity for Syrian youth studying cinema with its various sciences and specializations, and amateurs to present their films and experiences in front of the public and learn about and benefit from the experiences of others.
40 Arab and foreign films from 21 countries will be shown at the festival, in addition to 12 Syrian films distributed between the productions of the Technical Institute of Applied Arts and the Youth Cinema Support Project sponsored by the Cinema Foundation.
The opening ceremony of the festival included a musical segment performed by a number of students of the Higher Institute of Music, led by musician Osama Abu Saada, after which the Spanish film entitled Al-Barzakh will be shown.
Today’s screenings included the films “Hallos, War Hymns, and Seasons” from Syria, “Stranger Neighbors, and Where Does the Rain Come From” from Spain, “Loungers” from France, “Punishment” from Brazil, and “The Funeral” from Iran.
Director of the Institute of Applied Arts Gandhi Khader said that the idea of the festival came to encourage students interested in the film field to develop their talent and supply it in the right way, in addition to informing them about external experiences through the works participating in the festival, presenting their films and projects to the audience, motivating them and creating a competitive situation among each other.
Murad Shaheen, Director of the Cinema Foundation, pointed out in his speech that the seventh art is the closest and most widespread among people and communication between peoples to form comprehensive knowledge about other societies and the ways and ways of living them, indicating that cinema in Syria reflected to the world the originality of the Syrian people, their customs, traditions, heritage and civilization.
Tariq Al-Sawah, head of the photography and television photography department at the institute and the secretary of the festival, explained in a statement to SANA that a specialized committee has been formed to select the best films that have applied for participation, pointing out that the festival introduces students to other countries’ techniques in directing to develop their abilities for the better, as 6 films will be shown daily in two periods throughout 5 days at the end of which prizes will be distributed to the winners.
In turn, Hossam Wahb, the artistic director of the festival, noted the distinction of this edition of the festival by increasing the number of films and participating countries and improving the quality of films produced within the institute, where 92 foreign films were submitted for participation, and 12 Syrian films were submitted to the festival.
Heba Hawa, the teacher at the institute and the director of a film entitled The Classes, talked about her cooperation with a number of students to make this film and described this experience as rich because it polishes the students' experiences and talents.
Nour Al-Hafiz, an English literature graduate, has translated the foreign films participating from English into Arabic in the two editions of the festival, indicating that the experience was useful for her because the short films carry a lot of intellectual values and fun.
Shatha Hammoud-Mohamed Samir Tahan
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