JORDAN’S INDEPENDENT CINEMA EVOLVES

BY HAZIM BITAR

Dalia Alkury’s Made in China (2004, 3 min., video). PHOTO: AMMAN FILMMAKER’S COOPERATIVE.

NOW YOU SEE IT, NOW YOU DON’T: Such is the state of Jordanian cinema since its inception back in the 1950s, when the film Struggle in Jerash was released to a handful of Jordanian theaters and met with reasonable success. Folktales abound of the overwhelming difficulties that members of the production team had to endure: According to Jordanian film critic and historian Najeh Hasan — whose study of the history of Jordanian cinema, Shashaat El-Etmah...Shashaat El-Nour (Dark Screens...Bright Screens), was recently published by the Jordanian Ministry of Culture — the film’s production team included smiths, mechanics and other blue-collar workers who collaborated to build the machinery for the postproduction of Struggle in Jerash from scratch. The film, which featured women in swimming gear and romantic scenes, was initially banned but later approved for theatrical release after the intervention of a highranking government minister, who happened to be a cinema lover. Tales such as these form the mythology of the trials and tribulations of Jordan’s independent cinema.

In his study, Najeh Hasan also points to a cyclical pattern whereby Jordanian cinema historically moves to the forefront only to descend again into a state of hibernation. When asked about the cause of this lack of a sustained presence, pundits offer a wide range of theories from limited official support, career opportunities, and a paucity of capable screen actors and scriptwriters, to a lack of capable educational institutions, poor private sector support, the brain drain factor, and a host of other challenges often encountered in many Third World countries.

GIVE ME DIGITAL VIDEO OR GIVE ME DEATH: The recent digital filmmaking movement has arrived to Jordan, possibly to stay and change the landscape of independent cinema. The tools for digital filmmaking are falling within reach of many middle class Jordanians, and the democratization of filmmaking in the Arab world is now a reality. The ease by which digital films can be produced and distributed has rendered government censorship and controls all but obsolete. The monopoly of institutional video production houses has also been broken. With a compact DV camcorder, personal computer and video editing software, a CD burner and an Internet connection, films can be made in Jordan and screened in any part of the world. The explosion of Arabic satellites and regional film festivals have also offered more opportunities for independent Arab filmmakers to distribute their films.

Still, the legal codes governing film production and distribution in many developing countries in the region do not differentiate between institutional filmmaking and personal filmmaking. Such laws are unduly strict and outdated, with punishments ranging from thousands of dollars in fines to imprisonment, Jordan notwithstanding. These edicts hang over the heads of independent filmmakers, waiting to fall whenever a director or scriptwriter crosses an imaginary line of official tolerance — where this line starts or ends, no one knows for certain. Yet for most Jordanian filmmakers, the risk has been worth taking.

THE WESTERN FACTOR: Cultural trends which start in the West are often mirrored, over time, in the developing world. The recognition of video as an acceptable medium to cut film was a turning point in Europe and, recently, in the Arab world. The impact of this shift was more pronounced in the developing world where the cost of celluloid is prohibitive to the point of keeping it out of reach for most aspiring filmmakers and institutions supporting film production. With the expanding definition of cinema and film to include video, it is no longer a rite of passage to have to expose celluloid to be called a filmmaker. Today, 120 minutes of video can be legitimately called a feature film.

Ammar Quttaineh’s Tough Luck (video, 5 min., 2004).

THINK GLOBALLY, PRODUCE LOCALLY: Over the course of the last two years, Jordan’s cinema intelligentsia had to undergo a transformation, sometimes reluctantly, to embrace the new, more inclusive definition of cinema to include video and short films. This change was dictated by the respectable showing at regional film festivals by the first generation of Jordanian independent filmmakers.

The acceptance of Jordanian shorts in high-profile film festivals in Carthage, Dubai, Ismailyah and Beirut, among others, helped many ambivalent onlookers in Jordan to embrace the new generation of films. Today, despite severe limits in production resources, the short Jordanian film is accorded the recognition it deserves; where before, only an hour-and-a-half worth of projected content would qualify the author as a filmmaker or director.

Governmental and non-governmental entities supporting Jordanian cinema are also continuing to emerge:

The Royal Film Commission has been formed to promote Jordan as a viable location for filming.

The Amman Filmmakers Cooperative, a volunteer cultural initiative which mentors young filmmaking talents, in less than two years has put Jordan back on the regional independent cinema map — with its young filmmakers claiming 70% of Jordan’s film festival credentials.

Jordan’s Cinema Club, a not-for-profit initiative led by the film critic Adnan Madanat, offers cinema education via screenings of independent films not typically released in Jordan’s dozen commercial theaters.

Books@Cafe, a progressive Internet café—along with Darat al Funun and Makan House, both cultural centers — has been active in holding screenings of independent films.

These efforts might seem very modest when compared to, let’s say, Sweden’s cinema culture, but considering the near absence of independent cinema in Jordan a couple of years ago, both on the production and consumption sides of the equation, this is a respectable start.

JACK, FACE THE CHANGES: The newfound respect for independent filmmaking in Jordan and the positive experiences of young Jordanian filmmakers at film festivals have hooked many first-time filmmakers — to the point where a number of them are now pursuing advanced studies in filmmaking or multimedia. Some have changed careers altogether, forfeiting better paying jobs for the promise of making a film that will show off their creative talents to a global audience — and to tell stories they have always dreamed of telling using the language of cinema.

All of the above factors are accelerating the growth of independent Jordanian cinema. In a year or so,if the current trend continues, we expect long-form and feature-length films to make a respectable presence regionally and internationally. There are many reasons to believe this creative energy will persist, unlike Jordan’s past cycles of growth and slumber.