Film Production in the Arabian Gulf: The Industry and Culture

Taking into account the socio-political and economic characteristics of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, the book introduces a set of specialized studies on the concept of national cinema and transnational cinema in the Gulf region, which has witnessed rapid social, cultural and economic developments in the activities of financing, producing, distributing and exhibition of films since 2006. This book comes as an attempt to build bridges of communication between academics in the east and west as well as with public and private cultural and film institutions, film festivals organisers, filmmakers and talents, as well as audiences in the Gulf region. The book focuses on issues related to the film production in the Gulf, such as film profession: how Saudi documentary filmmakers deal with ethical issues for filmmaking in Saudi Arabia, and how local filmmakers deal with government support in the United Arab Emirates. Also, the book focuses on the factors that shaped the models and practices of filmmaking: how globalization and digitization enabled the development of traditional and new models for filmmaking in the Gulf region, and how non-profit organizations in Saudi Arabia contributed to supporting the development of the film industry before and after the Ministerial Decision to license cinemas in 2018, and what role did international film festivals have on the circulation of Saudi independent films.