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Modern Masters Screening of ‘No’ will be followed by audience Q&A session with actor Gael Garcia Bernal

Doha Film Institute supported film ‘My Love Awaits Me by the Sea’ screens in New Voices in Cinema strand

Doha, Qatar – 7 March, 2015: On Sunday (March 8, 2015), Qumra, a new event by the Doha Film Institute, will host public screenings of two films in the Modern Masters and New Voices in Cinema sections, highlighting its focus on promoting the appreciation of world cinema and shining the spotlight on new talents from the Arab world. Special guest Gael Garcia Bernal will be in attendance to participate in a question-and-answer session.

A compelling reality drama, No (Chile, USA, France, Mexico; Spanish; 2012) directed by Pablo Larrain, will be presented in the Modern Masters section which is featuring the work of five Qumra Masters over the six day programme.

Part of the remarkable film trilogy by Larrain on Chile, the film is set in Chile in 1988, and outlines the audacious and risky plan by a young ad executive to undermine President Augusto Pinochet’s propaganda machine. Shot in 4:3 television ratio with a 1983 video camera, and incorporating archival news footage and original TV spots, No plunges into actual events with a realism and truthfulness rarely captured on screen. It will screen at 7 PM at the Drama Theatre, Building 16 in Katara Village.

Supported by the Doha Film Institute through its grants programme, My Love Awaits Me by the Sea (Jordan, Germany, Palestine, Lebanon, Qatar; Arabic; 2013) is screening in the New Voices in Cinema section, at 7.30 PM, at the Opera House, Building 16 in Katara Village. Directed by Mais Darwazah, her first feature-length documentary, it had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2013.

My Love Awaits Me by the Sea is a voyage of discovery and reckoning that contemplates the meanings of belonging, nostalgia, affiliation and love. It charts the first journey of Darwazah to her native Palestine to discover the life of Hasan Hourani, a poet and painter, who created a fantastical world in which he was a perpetual child, his freedom not limited by the occupation under which he grew up in Palestine.

Tickets are priced QR35; students have a discounted price of QR25. They can be bought at Qumra Box Office in Building 16 at Katara Village or online at www.dohafilminstitute.com/qumra

To be held until March 11, Qumra hosts more than 100 leading film industry professionals coming together for a series of bespoke mentorship labs, master classes, meetings and film screenings, to nurture regional talent. In all, 29 projects in various stages of production have been chosen to take them to the next stage. Representatives from leading international film festivals, funding bodies, sales, production and distribution companies along with development specialists and script consultants are part of the delegates.