Mahd! for it

Mahmovies! returns this month, with free screenings Discuss this article

1

© ITP Images

View slideshow

• 
• Picture 1 of 2
• 

Mahmovies! is back, and we’re excited. And if you don’t know what we’re talking about, it’s high time you did. Now in its third season, the last Mahmovies! outing, ‘Music For The Eyes’, showed a documentary about music every week for five weeks. There was the one about the orchestra that brought Jewish and Arab musicians together; the film showing Icelandic band Sigur Rós returning to their home country to play shows in strange places (tea rooms, a mountain); and the hilarious portrait of iconic metal band Metallica going through group therapy to become a better band.

The screenings, at thejamjar gallery in Al Quoz, are absolutely free and open to anyone. ‘Music For The Eyes’ proved immensely popular, with hundreds of film fans cramming into thejamjar each week to catch the screenings (when the bean bags ran out, folks were happy to stand at the back). So we’re expecting this next series, ‘Black And White Glory’, to be just as popular – as does its curator, the man behind the Mah, Mahmoud Kaabour. The award-winning filmmaker from Beirut, best known for his short documentary Being Osama, managed to squeeze Time Out in for a chat before rushing off to the dentist.

‘It’s always been about the movies, but something else started happening at “Music For The Eyes”,’ says Kaabour over an early-morning coffee at Jumeirah’s Lime Tree Café. ‘The screenings are becoming a public space. In the way that a park or a square would work in another city, Mahmovies! is now a place where people meet, loosen their ties and talk to one another.’ But does he have proof? ‘I know people who fell in love through Mahmovies!,’ he smiles. ‘I have a ton of friends that I met at the screenings, and now they come over for barbecues and stuff. Up to that point, the only place that brought people so close together in Dubai was Carrefour.’

The ‘Black And White Glory’ series celebrates achievements in black-and-white cinematography. Here, Kaabour tells us why it’s not to be missed.

Why did you choose black-and-white movies for this series?
I’ve noticed that [when choosing a movie] people look for a director’s name. What we’re trying to do here is train people’s eyes to look for other things. I’m hoping people will be introduced to the works of directors of photography, as opposed to film directors. At the beginning of each screening, I’ll say, ‘There’s a very special technique in this film – watch out for it.’ We thought black and white would be a great way to start because people tend to think of these movies as being old or romantic, and that’s not the case with the films we’re showing. There is no Casablanca, there is no Buster Keaton. Those are great cinematic achievements, but we’re trying to show different things.

So you’re aiming to change the way people perceive black-and-white films?
That has been a factor in my choice of films. All the films were made at least 30 years after the invention of colour, so they’re shooting in black and white because they’re hoping to achieve a certain effect. That in itself should prove interesting.

But they’re good stories too, right?
The stories range from straightforward narratives to more experimental pieces, but we’re not going to ask people to watch two hours’ worth of screenings where there’s no story!

‘Music For The Eyes’ was amazingly popular. Do you think there’s a big appetite for independent cinema in Dubai?
That’s what I thought up until last season. Now I think there’s a very, very big hunger that surpasses that, and that’s the hunger for public spaces. We need to be able to rub against each other’s shoulders once in a while. To me, watching cinema can be one of the most unifying experiences for people. You sit next to one another and watch a whole movie and there’s this feeling of having met and shared that experience without necessarily having to exchange names or phone numbers. And yet, when the same people find themselves again at Mahmovies!, they are likely to talk to one another.

So it’s about creating a casual, relaxed feel?
Yes, and let’s face it, not many places here offer that. Even art galleries, exhibition openings – the lights are blaring, everyone’s looking at everyone, it’s about each other rather than about art. Here, people get to be in the background for a change.

I hear you’re planning another ‘Music For The Eyes’ season. Is Mahmovies! a long-term project?
Totally. I can’t see why not. But I promise you, it hasn’t been easy – we always chip in out of our own pockets. We never show the film from DVD, we get clearances for all the films we show. You don’t want to know how much money we paid clearing rights for a film like La Jetée, which is internationally renowned. Sometimes you get compassionate distributors who tell you to show it for free, but that’s not been the case with the ‘Black And White Glory’ series. But we believe we need to keep this going. It’s the one thing we do all year without thinking of money.

Black And White Glory, every Monday from November 2-30, 7.30pm. Free. At thejamjar, Al Quoz. See www.thejamjardubai.com for a location map or call 04 341 7303.