The Doha Film Institute has announced the lineup of expert speakers who will lead the Qumra Talks, a series of insightful discussions on new and emerging trends in film, media and the creative industry, held as part of Qumra, the institute's annual film industry event.
The Qumra Talks will put the spotlight on photography, storytelling through emerging media, virtual reality and new media trends.
As a series of specially curated discussions that aim to elevate the power of visual storytelling, the Qumra Talks are now in their second edition, having generated positive engagement and considerable feedback from participants last year. At the fourth session of Qumra this year, to be held from March 9 to March 14 at Souq Waqif and the Museum of Islamic Art, members of the public and Qumra Pass holders can attend the discussions. Each Qumra Talk session is held from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the Museum of Islamic Art Auditorium and will conclude with an audience question and answer session.
The first Qumra Talk, On Photography with Brigitte Lacombe, will be held on March 11. Acclaimed French photographer Brigitte Lacombe will share stories of her illustrious career through a series of iconic photographs. Lacombe and her sister, renowned documentary filmmaker Marian Lacombe, will also discuss their work on two projects in Qatar, "I am Film" and "Hey'ya."
Brigitte Lacombe's career spans over 40 years and includes work on the sets of Martin Scorsese, Spike Jonze and Quentin Tarantino. She has also contributed to Vanity Fair, the New Yorker, Harper's Bazaar and New York Magazine among other publications. The session will be moderated by Emma Pritchard Jones, who has worked across BBC News as an arts and culture reporter, reporting live from global events such as the Oscars and the Cannes Film Festival.
On March 12, trans-media artist Simon Wilkinson will discuss Storytelling through Emerging Media: Virtual Reality. The talk will cover the journey Wilkinson has taken in VR, his career in film, audience trends of the past 10 years and the lessons learned through developing 17 VR and augmented reality installations. He made his first virtual reality story in 2010, bringing together techniques from his background in interactive cinema and artists moving image to make an experience that put audience members at the heart of the narrative in the role of the main character.
Alongside, he will also conclude an installation of 'The Third Day' on HTC VIVE at Qumra for people to experience VR. In its first public showcase ever, "The Third Day" presents a story in eight chapters in which each is an interactive environment. Simon will complete the first chapter, "The Engineer." "The Third Day" narrates the story of a group of people who wake up one day in a strange place with no idea of how and why they got to be there. For his discussion about the installation, Wilkinson will cover the conceptualization of immersive technologies as tools in a trans-media toolkit, enabling artists to create work that engages audiences for protracted periods of time.
The final Qumra Talk on March 13 will discuss Content for a Fragmented Media Universe, led by Jon Kamen, CEO of RadicalMedia. He will share his thoughts on emerging trends in media and how businesses are producing content for a fragmented media universe with social media and smart devices having disrupted traditional models of consumption.
The Qumra 2018 industry events include workshops and meetings for first- and second-time filmmakers with international film industry experts in tailored mentorship labs; the Qumra Master classes led by acclaimed filmmakers, Qumra Screenings of feature films presented by the Qumra masters and recipients of funding from the institute followed by question and answer sessions and the Qumra Talks.