Saudi Arabia is slowly inching its way into the 21st century: it is holding its first film festival.
Saudi Arabia is inching toward opening itself up to the film biz with the creation of the conservative kingdom's first official film fest, despite the fact that cinemas have been banned there for three decades.
Five-day fest, as-yet-untitled, is being organized by the government-sponsored Dammam Literary Club along with the Saudi Society of Arts and Culture.
Event will unspool May 20 and include screenings of shorts and docs from around the Gulf. A prize dubbed the Palm will be awarded to best short and doc.
The Dammam Literary Club has been hosting select, private screenings to segregated audiences of men and women in recent months in a sign that the ban's restrictions are being gently eased.
The new fest comes on the back of a number of baby steps introduced in Saudi Arabia to pave the way for the eventual lifting of the cinema ban, initially introduced towards the tail-end of the 1970s following pressure from religious authorities.
In October 2005, the first public screenings of any kind in over 20 years took place when a selection of cartoons were shown in a hotel in Riyadh to a specially invited audience of women and children to celebrate the end of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.
Let's see. Women can't drive there or go out of their houses without being veiled from head to toe and accompanied by a male relative. Celebrating Valentine's Day is against the law. But hey, it's a start.
