Highlights Day 4

As we edge closer to our final festival day, Lama and Hend are here to cheer you up and take you through today’s highlights. Friday, or Family Day as it’s known at DTFF, has been a mixture of on screen fun with a boot-wearing cat and a red-haired reporter on a mission and plenty of outdoor activities throughout Katara.

Tweets and Quotes from Day #4

• They came in their hundreds to watch The Adventures of Tintin today at Katara’s Opera House. One of them, @mkamaluddin tweeted his review: “Lucky that I could watch new movie #The AdventuresOfTinTin at #DTF11. Spielberg & Jackson are really genius!!!”

• The filmmaker @MahmoudKaabour, one of our guests this year, told more than 800 followers on Twitter that “Arabic programming at #DTFF11 is pushing cinematic form. “Crayons of Askalon” and especially “The 3 Disappearances of Souad Hosni” are fresh.”

• Euronews wrote a piece wrapping up the first few days of our festival. “The third edition has been a great occasion to see some of the best of what’s new in world cinema, like the latest film from Frenchman Jean-Jacques Annaud – “Black Gold”.”

• After we posted this brilliant photograph of Antonio Banderas’ arrival to Doha, a flurry of comments rolled in like this from Hisham Al-Bakr: “I like this place.”

Banderas Exclusive Interview

Antonio Banderas, the Spanish star Doha has been waiting for, gave DFI an exclusive interview earlier today. He talked about his role in Spy Kids, which screened tonight and as the leading voice in Cat In Boots, which has now made its Qatar debut in 3D. For those that didn’t catch the children’s comedy, Cat in Boots plays again tomorrow (October 29) at 5 pm in Katara’s Opera House.

Please Don’t Stop the Music

Creating music videos is like a training ground for many directors. Take Nadine Labaki as an example, who famously directed Nancy Ajram’s hit Akhasmak Ah. Ashwin Renju, a local artist, joined a music video workshop earlier, which focused on the ins and outs of shooting short videos to capture the essence of a song. Here is the music video for Ashwin’s record, produced by local students who were guided by DFI mentor. It was shot earlier this year.

The Adventures of Tintin at DTFF

No film festival these days could possibly be complete with a 3D treat. There wasn’t a spare seat in the Opera House as The Adventures of Tintin was screened. Hundreds donned their plastic glasses and marvelled at the way this classic comic character has been transformed in this tale, which takes the young reporter to Morocco. Great Snakes!

Earlier, Joe Letteri, a senior visual artist for the film, shared some of his cinematic secrets with a small audience. Letteri, a four time academy award and four time BAFTA winner

DFI Kids Access – 3

Join our four mini reporters as they continue their journey on the red carpet, quizzing filmmakers and meeting actors. This time the presenters, participants in this year’s Giffoni Experience, are all about the emotional story, The Help and Mama Africa, a tale of activism through music.

Giffoni Experience at Doha Tribeca Film Festival

It’s hard work being a film juror. There’s the intensity of concentration during screenings, the research and the reviewing. This young group reveled in the project. Qatar’s local jurors met with their international counterparts as part of the Giffoni experience, and were tasked with judging 99 Unbound.

In Conversation: Antonio Banderas

Antonio Banderas

Antonio Banderas fans packed the Opera House this afternoon to catch the 51 year old Spanish actor as part of our Doha Talks series. We went along to hear what he had to say about his life as an actor, including his latest role as an Emir in “Black Gold”.

Here are some quotes from the star and highlights from the Q and A session.

AB: “I didn’t speak English until I was 31 years old…when I watched a movie (I had acted in) for the first time, in the scenes I wasn’t in, I didn’t understand anything.”

Q – What’s your relationship with social media?
A – My relationship with social media is zero. I bought my first cell phone a year ago..I don’t think it makes life better. I just think it makes it faster.”

Q – How did it feel to wear Arabian clothes in Black Gold?
A – I am pretty sure I have Arab blood. I’m from the South of Spain. Arabs and Muslims ruled Spain for centuries. I’ve been part of the Arab culture, it’s in my heritage. I just loved the costume, I think it’s attractive dramatically and it’s very comfortable.

Q – Did you learn any Arab words?
A – Habibi

“The idea is to see Arab actors in Arab films. It takes time, but I think they’re going to get it…We’ll see the results in 10 or 15 years…In Spain we still have problems making our movies come out of the country.”

“Desperado was made with 4 million dollars.”

“Zorro (was different because) the hero had an accent and he looks Spanish. The bad guy has long blonde hair, and that for the Spanish community, you don’t know how important that was.”

Q – What advice would you give to people who want to be filmmakers?

A – You have to thoroughly love what you do. You have to forget about the parallel lives attached . Your life has to start when they say ‘action’ and it has top stop when they say ‘cut’…there are a lot of distractions…just think deeply about the complexities of what you are doing.

Clowning Around at DTFF

Come and join this group of entertainers today at Katara for family day. They’ve been learning exactly how to clown around at a theatre workshop with Lee Delong this week and have perfected their performance for you!