Shahd Alhamdan
Saudi Gazette
Historic Jeddah, a new short documentary on the city’s heritage, has been selected to screen at New York’s International Film Festival Manhattan.
The documentary is the work of Filipino filmmaker Jameelah Ros Lineses, and will screen at the Producers Club on Oct. 24. Lineses was born, raised, and currently lives in Jeddah. She and filmed the entire documentary on smartphones and a small point-and-shoot camera.
Her single mother always supported her and Princess Hala bint Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud who funded her studies in USA where she studied Filmmaking Conservatory and took an eight-week workshop in filmmaking at New York Film Academy.
Even though she wanted to continue studying, she preferred to give her scholarship to her younger brother to complete his studies in USA instead.
She returned to Jeddah, to work and support her mother. After submitting Historical Jeddah to one of the festival’s directors, the documentary was accepted as part of the festival’s official selection for 2015.
Lineses described Historic Jeddah as a multi-part documentary and short film that showcases some of the Kingdom’s rich cultural heritage. She said that because the Kingdom doesn’t offer tourist visas, the documentary’s goal is to educate people about Saudi Arabia, as only a handful of people know what it feels like to be in Saudi Arabia and that it has more to offer than just oil.
“I believe that this documentary will contribute to Saudi Arabia’s tourism in the near future,” Lineses said. “This country has so much to offer but it is not widely known to the rest of the world.” The film came about after she found a Facebook group, Arabian Jewel, that was organizing a tour of Old Balad as part of a festival in January this year.
“I discussed it with my mother and we end up going on the tour,” Lineses said. “My mother was my inspiration when I made the film. In fact, she was the one who told me that I should film the tour and bring a spare camera with me.”
This year is not Lineses first at the festival. She previously submitted a short film, ‘Will You Marry Me?’ to the festival during an eight-week filmmaking workshop at the New York Film Academy. The film which was rejected by one of the private production companies in Jeddah, won her the festival’s award for Best Director for a student film.
“The film doesn’t have any dialogue,” Lineses said. “I didn’t think about the concept too hard. I just went with my crew to the location and shot.”
She used fellow classmates to play the film’s various characters, and also to borrow some of their equipment.
The film focuses on a girl walking home one day who realizes she’s being followed by someone, who isn’t revealed until the film’s end. Lineses says the film builds mystery and tension, before the sudden change of mood with the final reveal. The young director holds big aspirations for her career, and said she hopes to one day win an Oscar for Best Director.
“I also wish that someday, this country would formally recognize my efforts and my achievements, as well as representing it in anyway I can and wherever I go, Lineses said. “I am born and raised in Saudi Arabia. I think that it’s just right for me to represent it.”
She is currently working on three more films that she said would be completed in the near future. One of these films is about expats who are born and raised in the Kingdom. All her films are personally funded.
