Emirates Film Competition winner, Nawaf Al Janahi, is a guiding light in the murky mists of the Gulf media industry. Rabiah M. turns the lights on him and learns about execs hedging their bets, the problem with TV, and re-making “The Godfather”.

It’s hard to recognise Nawaf Al Janahi at the first glimpse, since he looks different in every photograph. Sitting at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf café at the Sahara Centre, Nawaf and I are having an interesting conversation, about filmmaking in the Gulf. Born on 7th February in Abu Dhabi, this Emirati filmmaker is an all rounder in the media field, not only a director but an actor, photographer and a music composer. “It all started with my father” he tells me, “When I was a kid, he would take me to the studios, on location, and would be busy with shooting, so I learned about movie-making and drama. I got attached to acting in the beginning, when I was 14 or 15 years old, I started realising that studying direction would be much more interesting for me. So I studied cinema in San Francisco.”

While highlighting his experience studying in the US, Nawaf points out how important it was that he choose his own course. Some schools there concentrate only on the film theory, but he chose the more practical aspect.

“You get to work with other people and produce films during the course, this is what I was looking for and was the most important lesson I learned in the U.S.” However, when he got back to UAE, things were very different. Coming back from a place where there were endless film production houses, the UAE might seem somewhat deficient in that respect. Of course there are mass communication courses, but that’s a whole different reel of film, so to speak.

Nawaf believes it’s not only his time in the US that gives him a sharp eye for cinematic details. As he explains “Of course, if you study at any cinema institute, it will be different. And I think here, we are starting to see that kind of institution here, not so much three or four years back, but today, many young people are interested in cinema.”

So, can we expect proper institutions here for cinema then? “Not really” replies Nawaf, “What started to happen couple of years ago, was there were some American institutions who came here to do one-month courses of scriptwriting or film production. This is great but it’s too short to study cinema for one or even two month, you need at least two years.” An exchange programme is another way of bringing in cinematic experience, but you need the establishments and the finances to programme it completely. Nawaf tells me, he can write these proposals for organizations, but no one is really interested in helping with cinema in the UAE. Organizations have thought about it, they are waiting to see what will happen. Hedging their bets to see if it’s worth it or not. He personally believes this sort of attitude is wrong. “You have to push it, it’s art, you can’t neglect art and simply concentrate on buildings and oil and all that. Art is a very important part of your culture. We need more intellectual means for our culture, we have been concentrating more on the oil and the buildings, but nothing towards the intellectual means.”

At the age of six, Nawaf started acting, doing small parts in TV and radio series. After a brief spell in school theatre, his professional career started in the year 2000, upon returning from the US. He worked in the TV Series “Bin Sahtoot”, which his father wrote and recommended him to the director, they did the screen test and he got the part for the titular Bin Sahtoot. As he recalls, “First of all, it wasn’t as I expected, and I probably wouldn’t do it again, because TV is so different. What happened is I had just come back from the US and I wanted to get an idea of the industry in the UAE. I didn’t know much about it before, because when you’re a kid, you just hear things but don’t really get involved, but when I saw what I saw, you realize, especially after studying cinema and then doing TV, you feel wrong.”

With Nawaf’s broad skill base - filmmaking, acting, photography and music - he tends to manage all of it by making sure they don’t take place at the same time. Although sometimes it can’t be helped. Like last year, he shot three films as an assistant director while also doing some photography. However, as a director, he has no time for anything else, since it’s a full time job.

It is interesting to note that when Nawaf started acting, there were only five other Emirati filmmakers, of which, two of them were his age group. The others were a generation older. The earlier generation studied in the US and came back and found the harsh realities in UAE, and forgot about pursuing cinema here, because, 10 years ago, it was so difficult for them to do so. “We are now, very lucky, we have things like the Emirates Film Competition, where you get to show your film, but 10 years ago, you had no place at all to do so. It was simply wasted talent. The situation usually goes like this - you go and study abroad for five years, when you come back here, nobody appreciates that at all, you get no resources, you have nothing at all, and you’re alone. When I came back from US, I felt I was so alone, I was disheartened at first. You say to yourself that you shall make a film but then you think: Where will I show the film? Will I rent a hotel room? Two years later, the EFC came along, and that was fantastic.”

Apart from filmmaking and his various other media dabblings, Nawaf also hopes to offer his assistance free of charge to media students in the UAE. Only through this kind of free exchange of ideas is the community of artisans going to be able to grow. When asked about his favourite films and if he intends to use that as inspiration for his work, he replies “You get affected by many things in a film, one of my favourites is The Godfather. Of course you would love to make The Godfather, but you know you wouldn’t, even if I got the chance to do it now, I wouldn’t, because it would just be imitation.”

One of his most talked about film was On a Road, which won the EFC special jury award and was featured in other film festivals around the world. Despite winning the award, it’s his film Souls (2004), which has been more successful. The film, talks about the Iraq invasion, and also about America’s polarity of either being with them or against them. “It all started from there, I wanted to do something unusual, strong enough to tell people our reality here, how we see things and how we are living.”  But regardless of the fact that everyone prefers Souls, with Nawaf it’s the other way round, “When I did Souls, everybody liked it and told me it’s better than On a Road, but I am attached to On a Road, probably because of the way we shot it, the timing, the way I thought about it, up until now I am very attached to it.”

Among his favourite Arab filmmakers are Walid Al Shahy, Abdullah Hassan Ahmed and Lamya Gargash, especially Lamya Gargash’s Wet Tiles. He hopes she continues making films, because she’s very talented. There are many Emirati women who are into producing films but most are limited to college level. This is pretty disheartening, Nawaf  says, “They do good work when they are studying, because they come out of media and higher technology and American universities. After they graduate though, they stop making films for many reasons. Until today, there are only two girls who have kept working in the media field after graduation.” The main reason for not progressing to produce films is probably because of the tradition and society. The biggest drawback to higher technology colleges is the way they spoon-feed students, by not allowing them to go out and initiate contact with media professionals, when dealing with their individual college projects. Everything is provided from A-Z, this handicaps the students, thus decreasing their confidence for the real world.  For guys, it’s comparatively easier than girls, because once girls finish graduation, they feel satisfied. However, getting a degree or a diploma in media shouldn’t be the end of the road, says Nawaf, it should include how to survive after school as well.

Hoping that one day the Arab society appreciates art, Nawaf thinks it’s high time to break traditional norms. Instead of working for the police or the government or in oilfields, one should try and get into the media field. Some people consider art as a hobby, but for Nawaf, it’s about art being an integral part of the society, the Arab culture needs it. The Gulf region needs more talented filmmakers, the UAE and Saudi Arabia are probably the only two states producing filmmakers, albeit at a slower pace. These include: Haifaa Al Mansour, Hany Al Shaibany (renowned for Hilm (Dream), and Nawaf Al Janahi, to name a few. However, he sees a ray of light in the younger generation, hoping they would pursue into media dreams.