DIRECTOR’S CUT: Amal al-Muftah and the crew filming a narrative.

Amal al-Muftah is a football goal-keeper, scuba-diver, sailor, skydiver, bungee-jumper, wind-surfer and wake-boarder apart from being an award-winning short film director. She tells Aney Mathew she’s game for challenges to break the mould

The old man fights back his tears; his weary, wrinkled face tells the story of his hardship. By his side is a wheel barrow — his means to a meagre income. Clad in a maroon jacket for a uniform, a hamali like Mahmoud Ghasemi may not be a common sight in Qatar. But if you’ve visited Souq Waqif and looked beyond the traditional architecture, artefacts and spices, chances are, you’ve seen one of them.

The hamali — the porter, assists shoppers at Qatar’s most visited souq, hauling their goods in his wheel barrow, while they shop around. Many may not have noticed these old porters or given their plight a second thought, but they caught the eye of Qatar’s young, award winning film-maker Amal al-Muftah, who captured their life and hardship quite poignantly on camera, in a short documentary titled Al Hamali.

“I’ve always felt sorry for these old men and their plight. I wanted people in Qatar to know about their difficulties and bring about awareness, so I decided to make a short film on them. I did not enter this film for any major film festival, as the rules would prevent me from putting it out for public view. However, I did submit it for the THIMUN Qatar North-Western Film festival — which led to the film being put out on YouTube. To my surprise, it literally went viral; in two days there were 45k hits and within less than a week there were 100,000 hits!

My phone was constantly ringing those days as people kept sending me appreciative messages over every form of social media. It took me a quite a while just to respond to all the messages”, she says smiling.

“I am very proud of Al Hamali. It is my favourite production so far. I shot the film, directed and edited it — all in a matter of two mornings, in between my study holidays. I think the film achieved the intended goal to a great extent. It has initiated awareness towards hamalis. I know people started collecting money for them and have become more caring towards them”, she says, contentedly.

Well, the effort certainly paid off. Al Hamali won the much coveted, grand prize — the ‘best movie’ award for the recent THIMUN Qatar North-Western Film Festival; and the award in the ‘People’s Choice’ category, too.

“I was thrilled. In a way, I expected to win and in a way I didn’t. When I heard my name being announced as winner, I froze in my place for a couple of seconds, initially. Then as I heard all the clapping and cheering from my family and friends as I received my prize, I almost teared up. By the way, this is the first time the grand prize has been won by a Qatari”, she says, another huge smile lighting up her face. Amal certainly has more than a reason to be delighted: the grand prize has made her richer by QR10,000!

As a matter of fact, Amal is no stranger to winning the ‘people’s choice’ award, for her work. She has won it for two years in a row, having won it last year for a short documentary on road safety, aptly titled, Split Second, also at the THIMUN festival. The documentary, incidentally Amal’s first formal short film, also won the ‘best national film’ award.

Amal’s interest in directing films was kindled when she took up filmmaking as a course in Qatar Academy, where she is currently a student in the IB system. “The class was full and I had to wait till another student opted out. I started the course late, but once my interest was triggered, I loved what I was doing and by the end of the year, I topped the class. Within a year, I made Split Second, my first personal production.

“That was a significant twist in my life because so many people liked the documentary and many advised me to continue this path. Acting on their recommendations, I decided to start attending workshops at Doha Film Institute (DFI), and North-Western University (NU-Q). I plan to take up film making when I enter University. By the way, I’ve been accepted at NYU in Abu Dhabi as well as North Western University, Qatar” she says with that trademark smile again.

So what does her family think of her choice in taking a path less trodden? “Initially, my family was quite sceptical as filmmaking is not a done thing here. But now after seeing the success I’ve had, they are very supportive.”

Talking about the challenges she has had to face in film making, Amal explains, “With all the support provided from my family and from the Doha Film Institute, I haven’t faced too many challenges. Moreover, our school provides us with the required equipment, my teacher trusts me with them; so that’s been great. However, getting actors to play parts is difficult. Another major challenge is getting permissions for the locations where the shooting is done”.

When asked if she has ever considered acting in a film, Amal answers in the negative. “I don’t like acting. I am very shy in front of the camera, because I’m used to being behind the camera. I’ve never considered acting in my films because I like to take care of just one job. Moreover I am a bad actor”, she explains her face breaking into a grin.

But her acting ability or the lack of it, hasn’t stopped Amal from acting. “I agreed to do a small part in a film being made by a friend — just to help out because of the dearth of actors available. I love watching films, too. I have a varied taste and watch all kinds of films — action, drama, and art house. I enjoy international films as well. They tell a different story and educate you in the process”, she points out.

Besides watching movies and directing them, Amal is involved in conducting cinematography workshops for the Qatar Leadership Conference (QLC). “We work on spreading the word on the THIMUN festival as well as imparting an idea on the nuances of filmmaking, to other students.

When asked about her biggest challenge in life, Amal answers without hesitation. “Being a girl – that’s been my single, biggest challenge. Often there are stereotypes associated with just being a girl. Actually, I am very thankful that I’m a girl, because it imposes even more challenges.”

So how does she work around stereotyped ideas? “I enjoy playing football and am the goal keeper for my team. I love taking part in extreme sports and have unusual hobbies. I am a scuba-diver and go sailing, too. I’ve tried skydiving, bungee jumping, wind-surfing, wake-boarding, and many others. It challenges the stereotypes that are imposed on me because I’m a woman and also builds my confidence and courage.”

“My family is quite supportive, especially my father and brother. Everything I do, my brother has to do with me. My mother, like all mothers is always worried something might go wrong. In fact, last year when we visited Thailand for a holiday, we went skydiving. My father kept the news of our little adventure from my mother until we got back just so she wouldn’t worry too much”, she adds with another big smile.

Besides documentaries, Amal also has a prize winning short narrative in her repertoire. Al Kora is a two-minute film on a little girl wanting to play foot ball. The film which stemmed from her own unfulfilled, childhood desire to play football, won the award for the ‘Made in Qatar category’ at the Ajyal Film Festival, conducted by DFI. It has also been submitted for various other film festivals and the results are yet to come. If recent victories are any indication, there should be more success coming her way.

 


BELOW:

1) EMOTION-PACKED: A video-grab from her award-winning work Al Hamali.

 

2) PRIZE-WINNER: Amal al-Muftah with her award.

 

3) SPORTSWOMAN: Amal enjoys sports like scuba diving and sailing.