December 2008

1. THE ONE MAN VILLAGE  wins in Dubai
2. mec film services
3. last minute x-mass shopping

1. THE ONE MAN VILLAGE wins in Dubai
The Jury under presidency of Sundance Film Festival director Geoffrey Gilmore awarded Simon El Habre for his documentary THE ONE MAN VILLAGE (Semaan bil Day’ia) with the Special Jury Award at Dubai International Film Festival last week. The film is a Beirut DC production in association with mec film. After three years of production we are proud of this start into the festival releases.

Content
Semaan is leading a quiet life on his farm in the small village Ain el-Halazoun in the Lebanese mountains. The hamlet was completely emptied and destroyed in combats during the civil war in Lebanon between 1975 and 1990. Today, many years after an official reconciliation, its inhabitants which are all from one family regularly go back to the village to cultivate their plots of land or visit their houses and always leave before sunset.
In his comforting and humorous film Simon El Habre observes the life in his quasi ghost village and tries to reflect on the collective and individual memory in a country that seems to live in a collective amnesia and is vulnerable to a new civil war.
Simon El Habre, Lebanon 2008, 86 min, HDCAM, Arabic with English subtitles
Images oft the film or a our site.
World Sales: mec film
------------------------

2. mec film services
Since mid-2008 mec film offers services in Production and Distribution Consultancy

A Solid Basis for your Film
More and more film-makers from the Middle East finance their films with European money - some look for European co-production partners others apply for the funds for so called World Cinema. Competition is high. Under the pressure to find the best possible way to promote the project, people often get stuck with a bulk of confusing questions like: Do I have to explain my culture? What do Europeans want to hear or read? How can I protect my story? What are my rights in my film? How do I make a budget? What is the financing plan, and how can I know at this stage who will support me in the end? Why is the length of the film important? What is the difference between the one page synopsis and the treatment? And why do I need so many different texts for my application at all?
I believe that a project is strong when you remain faithful to your ideas. If you are clear about your strategy and if you have solid knowledge about the system in which you are going to produce, you provide a solid basis for your film. If you know where you stand and what you are looking for, you can negotiate on eye-level and keep control. This is the best way to protect your project and keep the energy and courage to go through the difficult process of making a film.
mec film services accompany you with this process and beyond. Irit Neidhardt offers consultancy for single projects and conducts workshops on related subjects.
learn more
------------------------

3.last minute x-mass shopping
We did not make it to open our new DVD-shop in time. Yet you can still do last minute x-mass shopping.  If you order via email tonight (info [@] mecfilm.de) the DVD will be sent by tomorrow. Browse our shop and order tonight. By early 200 we will open our new online store which makes shopping at mec film more comfortable.