Monitoring Desk
JEDDAH: The first Saudi independent cinema will open on December 6, Art Jameel announced on Thursday.
The opening of the entertainment center named Hayy Cinema, coincides with the second Red Sea International Film Festival (RSIFF).
Hayy Cinema in Jeddah
Art Jameel said that Hayyentertainment centerin Jeddah will serve as a meeting point to watch, discover, research, learn about films, and exchange knowledge.
Developed in collaboration with the RSIFF, the entertainment center has a 168-seating theatre, a 30-seater community screening room and a multimedia library besides having an educational exhibition space.
The cinema’s founder said it would celebrate and commemorate the legends of the golden age of Arab entertainment center.
The early screening highlights included a retrospective of five newly restored versions of films by Egyptian mastroe Youssef Chahine, one of the Arab world’s most acclaimed film-makers.
The inaugural will also showcase an exhibition aptly highlighting the contribution of well-known photographer Gamal Fahmy to filmmaking in the Arab region.
Art Jameel Director Antonia Carver said that that was Saudi’s first bespoke independent entertainment center which has been developed to nurture the local film scene.
Carver said that the entertainment center will become a social site of convening and opening up a whole new world of story-telling and imagination.
The Art Jameel director said that they believed that cinema’s focus on documenting and presenting the wide breadth of global entertainment center and in tracing the deep history of cinemas and films from the Gulf. This will complement the blockbusters of Saudi’s fast-growing commercial scenes and government-led industry initiatives.
