Teta, Alf Marra
Encyclopedia
Teta, Alf Marra is an award-winning documentary
about a feisty Beiruti grandmother.
The 50-minute film was produced in 2010 as a UAE/Qatar/Lebanon co-production with the financial support of the Doha Film Institute and Screen Institute Beirut. The film was produced by Veritas Films
. It was the first film to be released by a company based in Twofour54
, Abu Dhabi
’s media content creation freezone.
Teta Fatima is the 83-year old matriarch of the Kaabour family and the sharp-witted queen bee of an old Beiruti quarter. With great intimacy, the film documents her larger-than-life character as she struggles to cope with the silence of her once-buzzing house and imagines what awaits her beyond death. Meanwhile, her beloved violinist husband (deceased 20 years) is both an essential absence and presence. His features manifest through the face of their filmmaker grandson while his previously unpublished violin improvisations weave through her world and that of the film. Teta, Alf Marra brings together grandfather, grandmother and grandson in a playful documentary that aims to defy a past death and a future one.
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
about a feisty Beiruti grandmother.
The 50-minute film was produced in 2010 as a UAE/Qatar/Lebanon co-production with the financial support of the Doha Film Institute and Screen Institute Beirut. The film was produced by Veritas Films
Veritas Films
Veritas Films is a filmmaking company based in the United Arab Emirates. It creates cultural and corporate non-fiction content, including corporate films, short and feature-length documentaries, TV programming, and virals, in both English and Arabic....
. It was the first film to be released by a company based in Twofour54
Twofour54
Twofour54 is a tax-free media and entertainment free zone based in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates that facilitates the development of Arabic media and entertainment content in the region. The company works with businesses in television, radio, film, publishing, online, mobile, music, gaming and...
, Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi , literally Father of Gazelle, is the capital and the second largest city of the United Arab Emirates in terms of population and the largest of the seven member emirates of the United Arab Emirates. Abu Dhabi lies on a T-shaped island jutting into the Persian Gulf from the central western...
’s media content creation freezone.
Synopsis
The film is a poetic documentary that puts a feisty Beiruti grandmother at the center of brave film exercises designed to commemorate her many worlds before they are erased by the passage of time and her eventual death.Teta Fatima is the 83-year old matriarch of the Kaabour family and the sharp-witted queen bee of an old Beiruti quarter. With great intimacy, the film documents her larger-than-life character as she struggles to cope with the silence of her once-buzzing house and imagines what awaits her beyond death. Meanwhile, her beloved violinist husband (deceased 20 years) is both an essential absence and presence. His features manifest through the face of their filmmaker grandson while his previously unpublished violin improvisations weave through her world and that of the film. Teta, Alf Marra brings together grandfather, grandmother and grandson in a playful documentary that aims to defy a past death and a future one.
Awards
Teta, Alf Marra has won a number of international awards, including:- October 2010: Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Doha TriBeCa Film Festival, Qatar
- October 2010: Special Jury Mention for filmmaker Mahmoud Kaabour at the Doha TriBeCa Film Festival, Qatar
- March 2011: Audience Award for Best International Documentary at Dox Box, Syria
- May 2011: Best Film Award at the London International Documentary Film Festival, UK
- September 2011: Trophy in recognition of its contribution to Lebanese Cinema from Fondation Liban Cinema, Lebanon
- October 2011: Special Jury Mention for filmmaker Mahmoud Kaabour for "an outstanding way of telling a story" at DocsDF Festival, Mexico
- October 2011: Best Film Award in the "Celebrate Age" category at the Mumbai Film Festival, India
Festival Attendance / Screenings
- October 2010: World Premiere at the Doha Tribeca Film FestivalDoha Tribeca Film FestivalThe Doha Tribeca Film Festival is an annual five-day film festival founded in 2009 to promote Arab and international film, and to develop a sustainable film industry in Qatar. The Festival is one of Qatar's largest entertainment events attracting over 50,000 guests in 2010.DTFF is the annual film...
, Qatar - October 2010: African Premiere at Carthage Film FestivalCarthage Film FestivalThe Carthage Film Festival is a biannual October film festival hosted by the government of Tunisia. It alternates with the Damascus International Film Festival....
, Tunisia - December 2010: Teta, Alf Marra screened at the grand opening of Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Arts, Qatar
- January 2011: UAE Premiere in Abu Dhabi at the National Theatre
- January 2011: European Premiere at International Film Festival RotterdamInternational Film Festival RotterdamThe International Film Festival Rotterdam is an annual film festival held in various cinemas in Rotterdam, Netherlands held at the end of January. It is approximately comparable in size to other major European festivals such as Cannes, Venice, Berlin, and Locarno...
, The Netherlands - March 2011: Dox Box International Documentary Film Festival DamascusDOX BOXDOX BOX is an annual independent documentary film festival established in Syria and launched in February 2008.DOX BOX is supported by a wide spectrum of professional international organizations and festivals and organized by a Syrian production company, Proaction Film, as a non-profit, free...
, Syria - April 2011: American Premiere at Tribeca Film FestivalTribeca Film FestivalThe Tribeca Film Festival is a film festival founded in 2002 by Jane Rosenthal, Robert De Niro and Craig Hatkoff in a response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the consequent loss of vitality in the TriBeCa neighborhood in Lower Manhattan.The mission of the festival...
New York, USA with a special screening and panel in the “TriBeCa Talks: After the Movie” series - May 2011: UK Premiere at London International Documentary Film Fest, UK
- May 2011: Polish Premiere at Krakow Film FestivalKraków Film FestivalThe Kraków Film Festival is one of Europe's oldest events dedicated to documentary, animation and other short film forms. It has been organised year after year since 1961....
- May 2011: Festival Cinéma Arabe Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- June 2011: Seattle International Film FestivalSeattle International Film FestivalThe Seattle International Film Festival , held annually in Seattle, Washington since 1976, is among the top film festivals in North America. Audiences have grown steadily; the 2006 festival had 160,000 attendees...
, USA - June 2011: Screening at Royal Film Commission, Amman, Jordan
- June 2011: Arab Film Week at INCAA, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- July 2011: Arab Film Festival, Sydney, Australia
- July 2011: Indianapolis International Film FestivalIndianapolis International Film Festival-Mission & General Information:Founded in 2004, the Indianapolis International Film Festival seeks to create a shared experience by championing films that entertain, challenge and expand perspectives in Indianapolis and beyond...
, USA - August 2011: Santiago International Film Festival, Chile
- August 2011: Montreal World Film FestivalMontreal World Film FestivalThe Montreal World Film Festival , founded in 1977, is one of Canada's oldest international film festivals and the only competitive film festival in North America accredited by the FIAPF...
, Montreal, Canada - September 2011: Screening at Fondation Liban Cinema, Lebanon
- October 2011: Vancouver International Film FestivalVancouver International Film FestivalThe Vancouver International Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada for two weeks in late September and early October...
, Canada - October 2011: DocsDF Festival, Mexico City, Mexico
- October 2011: Arab Film Festival, San Francisco, Berkeley, San Jose, Los Angeles, USA
- October 2011: St. John's International Women's Film FestivalSt. John's International Women's Film FestivalThe St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival is a five-day film festival held in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador during the month of October....
, Canada - October 2011: Calgary Arab Film Festival, Canada
- October 2011: Iihlava International Documentary Film Festival, Czech Republic
- October 2011: XVI International TV Festival Bar, Montenegro
- October 2011: Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, Greece
- November 2011: Cinema Arts Festival Houston, USA
- November 2011: Twin Cities Arab Film Festival, Minneapolis, USA