The brief was simple: tell a story about the city of Abu Dhabi in three minutes. Eight participants in the New Voices Documentary Programme, a scheme run by the Abu Dhabi Film Commission (ADFC) for emerging filmmakers, screened the results at the Abu Dhabi Film Centre on Sunday. The three-minute documentaries had been made as part of a three-week intensive mentoring programme led by a group of documentary filmmakers from the UK, who guided their students through the processes of storytelling, camera work, production and editing, before their final task: to produce a documentary in four days.
Over the course of the screening, there were stories of a 17-year-old Emirati break-dancer, a team of Pakistani barbers, a group of young Emirati men who love to speed race and an Ethiopian woman who cleans toilets while studying for her high school diploma. These were all recognisable facets of life here, represented, for the most part, as thoughtful, funny and moving accounts. Particularly impressive was Rola Shamas's Of Fish and Men, a portrayal of the gregarious fishermen at the Abu Dhabi Fish Market, who start their day before dawn and for whom plans for a shopping mall threaten their existence. "The fish market is going to go," says Shamas from Lebanon, "but I tried not to make it a grim ending because he's hoping, as we all do, that if we move on it's to something better."
Some, such as Olga Sapozhnikova's Abu Dhabi Beauty, which looked at the city's burgeoning beauty industry, and Sameer al Jaberi's account of "Breakstein", the young Emirati break-dancer who hones his skills on the city's Corniche, were light-hearted takes on contemporary society. While others, such as Alya al Habashi's Eda'aaas! provided a more pointed commentary, in this case on young Emirati men's predilection for speed. "I didn't want to make it preachy," she said of her piece, which contrasted those men who speed for a living - the V8 Supercars competitors who raced at Yas Marina Circuit last month - with the young men who choose to do it on the city's streets. "I just wanted to take it from both sides and it's up to the viewer to decide."
Perhaps the most moving was Doaa Agrama's In the Ladies Room, the story of an Ethiopian woman, a good student who, after the death of her mother, dropped out of school early and moved to Abu Dhabi, where she was only qualified to clean the toilets. "This lady was working in the bathroom at the National Theatre, where we used to take her classes," says Agrama, from Egypt, who has previously worked as an assistant director as well as made two short documentaries. "Many people just came and went and didn't notice her, but she caught my eye because she was studying. I wanted to make the point that just because someone is working a simple job, we are not necessarily better than them. They could have done well, but something happened to them."
All the programme's participants agreed that the skills they learnt during the course were invaluable. "I have been in broadcast media for seven years," says Amna Ehtesham from Pakistan, whose Touch Wood told the story of a Pakistani carpenter who arrived in Abu Dhabi 35 years ago, "but was learning through experience. There was no formal training for people like me. It has been a complete reincarnation. It was a billion-dollar training that we got purely on merit."
The three-minute documentaries are far from the end of the road, though. The group have all since pitched ideas for a 30-minute documentary, four of which, by Farazdak al Kaabi, Amna Ehtesham Shahid, Shamas and Natalie al Shami, have been picked for production. They will work in pairs and be mentored by practising filmmakers.
"We're trying to bring them up to a standard of production so that they can make connections in the industry, have a broadcast credit and then hopefully stay in the UAE and do more production here," says Gregory Unrau, the head of production and training at ADFC.
The programme is in partnership with Bainuna, a new television channel, to be broadcast in both English and Arabic, that will be launched by Adach later this year. "We aim to link new filmmakers into that new future employer," says David Shepheard, the director of ADFC, "by teaching people how to be filmmakers, increasing their experience and giving them broadcast credits. If you want to call yourself a filmmaker in the future, then this the life you have to go through."
A selection of the New Voices three-minute documentaries are available to view at www.film.gov.ae
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
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Rating: 3/5
The specs
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UAE v Gibraltar
What: International friendly
When: 7pm kick off
Where: Rugby Park, Dubai Sports City
Admission: Free
Online: The match will be broadcast live on Dubai Exiles’ Facebook page
UAE squad: Lucas Waddington (Dubai Exiles), Gio Fourie (Exiles), Craig Nutt (Abu Dhabi Harlequins), Phil Brady (Harlequins), Daniel Perry (Dubai Hurricanes), Esekaia Dranibota (Harlequins), Matt Mills (Exiles), Jaen Botes (Exiles), Kristian Stinson (Exiles), Murray Reason (Abu Dhabi Saracens), Dave Knight (Hurricanes), Ross Samson (Jebel Ali Dragons), DuRandt Gerber (Exiles), Saki Naisau (Dragons), Andrew Powell (Hurricanes), Emosi Vacanau (Harlequins), Niko Volavola (Dragons), Matt Richards (Dragons), Luke Stevenson (Harlequins), Josh Ives (Dubai Sports City Eagles), Sean Stevens (Saracens), Thinus Steyn (Exiles)
