By Bonnie James

Deputy News Editor

Continuing the quest to carve a niche for itself, Doha Film Institute (DFI) embarks on a new leg of the journey at Katara the Cultural Village  on Tuesday with the debut of the Ajyal Youth Film Festival, a five-day event showcasing 65 films from 30 nations.

It was in April this year that DFI and Tribeca Enterprises announced the ending of their partnership, after four years of the Doha Tribeca Film Festival, which introduced DFI to the world.

DFI has on its shoulders a major responsibility to prove - through the Youth Film Festival and the Qumra Doha Film Festival in March next year - that it is on the right track “to build a dynamic film industry in Qatar that focuses on nurturing regional storytellers while being entirely global in its scope”.

DFI ought to live up to its mission to serve as “an all-encompassing film hub in Doha, as well as a resource for the region and the rest of the world, with culture, community, education and entertainment at its foundation”.

Ajyal is the Arabic word for “generations”. Given that film is a great medium for bringing people together, the new festival is expected to “give youth the opportunity to learn about other cultures, times and places, all the while giving them a space to express their opinions, forge international friendships and drive positive change for the future”.

A salient feature of Ajyal is the prominence given to the popular Japanese art form anime which has a wide following among the region’s youth. The curtains go up on the festival with the Middle East and North Africa premiere of the critically-acclaimed anime film, The Wind Rises, (2013) by  Hayao Miyazaki.

The closing night films, Garden of Words (2013) and Voices of a Distant Star, (2003) both by Makoto Shinkai, and The White Snake Enchantress (1958, Kazuhiko Okabe, Taiji Yabushita), Horus: Prince of the Sun (1968, Isao Takahata), and Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro (1979, Hayao Miyazaki) complete the anime line-up at Ajyal.

Among the highlights of the festival are the Doha Film Experience, Family Weekend, the Otaku Exhibition and The Sandbox, in addition to an array of workshops and screenings.

The Made-in-Qatar segment has 11 films, shining the spotlight on aspiring filmmakers, whereas the Special Screenings will present seven films from across the world.

DFI promises that film education and appreciation is set to take a whole new course with the Doha Film Experience, which will see hundreds of young jurors, from ages 8 to 21, watching 21 short films and eight feature films in three categories, followed by discussions, workshops and Q&A sessions with the directors and talent. The “youth jury” will also vote to award the best films.

“Though DFI has done a lot of homework to bring some of the outstanding films in the segment concerned, a lack of emphasis on teaching the young generation about the history of films, the evolution of the industry and the contributions of classic and legendary filmmakers continue to disappoint,” an observer remarked.

“Film education and appreciation has to be like learning a new language. One has to start with the alphabet. The youth need to be told about the contributions of the Lumiere Brothers, Sir Charles Chaplin, Vsevolod Pudovkin, Sergei Eisenstein, Georges Méliès, Alexander Sokurov, Ingmar Bergman, Akira Kurosawa, Federico Fellini, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Satyajit Ray, Alfred Hitchcock, Andrei Tarkovsky, Andrzej Wajda, Werner Herzog, Stanley Kubrick and other legends,” he suggested.