ANHAR Annual Meeting - Amman Jordan - Arab Film Network

The 5th ANHAR Annual Meeting was hosted by Ma3mal 612 Think Factory within Karama Human Rights Film Festival on the 7^th and 8^th of December 2019.

ANHAR – Arab Network for Human Rights Films & Festivals

ANHAR, the Arab Network for Human Rights Films and Festivals is a regional project with members from eleven Arab countries. Five years into its creation, ANHAR continues to be an evolving network that aims at connecting activists, filmmakers, festival directors and spaces for screening human rights films. With the aim of building bridges and encouraging the exchange of expertise through events, co-productions and advocacy campaigns.

The network supports its member’s film festivals with unique film packages ready to screen, and diverse capacity building programs for its teams. Namely, the members are Human Screen Festival- Tunis, Bidayyat for Audio Visual Arts-Syria, Sudan Independent Film Festival-Sudan, The White Nights Film Festival-Morocco, Karama Human Rights Film Festival-Jordan, SEMAT Production Egypt, Karama Mauretania international Human Rights Film Festival, Karama Beirut Human Rights Film Festival and Red Carpet Festival Karama Gaza- Palestine. Furthermore, UMAM for Documentation and Research Lebanon and Erato Libya and Yemen will Triumph, Karama Yemen are guest members of the ANHAR Network.

This year Ma3mal612 and Karama HRFF hosted the 5th annual meeting of ANHAR, a special screening event ANHAR, Window on Karama Yemen, a spotlight on Moroccan cinema as well as the ANHAR Award dedicated to the best human rights film for the year from among films nominated by the network members.

Preparations

From September till December the Board Members of ANHAR and main organizers from Ma3mal 612 have been planning for the ANAHR annual meeting. There has been intense exchange and discussions about the meeting, its agenda and necessary topics. The key points and the main programme objectives decided on were the following:

evaluation and shared experiences
Browsing the calendar of the next year’s activities, ANHAR’s as a project, and members’ activities in their countries
Setting an updated strategy of communication
Re-assessing the current needs of each member in accordance to their current status and the particularities of their countries
Tackle the issues faced by ANHAR members in Gaza, Libya, and Yemen
Discussing new membership applications like Algeria, and new members from Cairo
Discussing and validate MOUs between ANHAR and ANHAR members (Guidelines for logo and branding)

The main point in need to be discussed were identified as the following:

The 3 year timeline of ANHAR
Re-read the manifesto and discuss it: why do we have a network, definition of our network, issues to be addressed, re-discuss grand aims and objectives and re write it to be developed and sign it again, address protocol rules
Website: New tools – old tools – challenges and data base/ Film suggestions from all members, Biography of all members
Communication: How do we communicate with each other and what are the obstacles; What are each members’ obligations; sharing info and sending news and photos that are well edited; regular Skype meetings are a must; each member needs to inform formally about its upcoming events, to avoid last minute circular

Next to the necessary content, also the preparations for printing materials like the agenda, posters and rollups took place in that time period.

Attendees

ANHAR Members

Achraf Laamar (ACTIF Association – Human Screen – Tunisia)
Naceur al Sardi (ACTIF Association – Tunisia)
Haytham Chamas (Director of Karama Beirut Human Rights Film Festival – Lebanon)
Elaf Alkenzi (Manager of Sudan Film Factory – Sudan)
Najwa Kondakji (Program Manager of Karama Beirut HRFF – Lebanon)
Ayman Bardawil (ANHAR Project Director)
Fadoua Maroub (Director of the Association of Mediterranean Meetings of Cinema and Human Rights – Morocco)
Rym Ben Mansour (Director of ACTIF Association – Tunisia)
Nasser AlMang (Yemen Will Triumph – Director of Karama Yemen HRFF)
Hala Galal (Director, Producer, SEMAT Productions – Egypt)
Ali Atassi (Director of Bidayyat for Audiovisual Arts – Syria)

Members who couldn’t attend the meeting:

Anwar Sleiman Milad (Erato Human Rights Film Festival – Libya)
AbdelRahman Lahy (Karama Mauritania – La Maison des cinéastes – Mauritania) (couldn’t attend because visa was not obtained)

Special Intervention Guests

Julie Nederkoorn (Movies That Matter Film Festival – Netherlands)
Azza Elhosseiny (Director of Luxor Africa Film Festival – Egypt)
Salim Abu Jabal (Director of Golan Films – Director, Producer – Palestine)