The third Ajyal Youth Film Festival is marking today the first of its kind inclusive cinema experience in the Gulf region on the occasion of the UN International Day of Persons with Disabilities.
At 6pm, at Katara Drama Theatre, the festival will mark the screening of Hero and the Message, directed by Pawel Borrowski, which can be experienced by visually-impaired people through sound alone. The film’s audio description transmits not only through dialogue but also the visual elements that cannot be understood through dialogue, music or sound effects.
Deaf and hard of hearing viewers as well as those who have difficulty understanding speech will benefit from subtitles enriched with extra information about sound effects and music. The ‘transadapted’ version has been developed with the support of the Ministry of Youth and Sports  and through a collaboration between the Doha Film Institute and the Translation and Interpreting Institute at Hamad Bin Khalifa University.
The animated short film was produced by Al Rayyan Productions to celebrate Qatar National Day in 2012, and tells the fantastical tale of a Qatari brother and sister, who travel back in time on the prototype of a futuristic train to witness the founding events of Qatar.
The festival will screen in 3D, Academy Award winner Jean-Jacques Annaud’s Wolf at 8pm at Katara Drama Theatre. The film functions as a modern cautionary tale that warns against meddling with the environment – all set against the magnificence of the steppes of Inner Mongolia.
Seven international short films, in the festivals’ Bader in-competition section, will be screened at 8.30pm at Katara 12, Theatre A.
For lovers of international cinema, director Anna Muylaert’s film, The Second Mother, will screen at 7pm at Katara Opera House. A testament to the enduring bond between mothers and their children, it is a tightly written movie that cleverly releases its tension with moments of wry humour.
Written and directed by Naomi Kawase, An will screen at 9.15pm at Katara 12 – Theatre B. It is a delicate story of two wounded souls who come together and inspire one another to let go of the past.
The talent associated with The Second Mother and An would attend the screenings and address a Q&A session with the audience following the screenings.
A deeply moving Tagalog film Scarecrow will screen at 10pm at Katara Opera House. Directed by Zig Madamba Dulay, it explores the complicated relationship of social injustice, privilege and familial expectations through the eyes of Belyn, who is widowed, illiterate and terribly poor.