Canon Middle East (CME) and Canon Central and North Africa (CCNA) announced today, 11th November 2021, their upcoming thought-provoking panel discussion dubbed, ‘Women in Filmmaking: In the spotlight and studying landscape of Cinema and Media today in Middle-East and Africa’.
The event will be held at Women’s Pavilion, Dubai Expo 2020. As part of the company’s endeavor to celebrate women change-makers in the creative industries, a noteworthy panel consisting of women filmmakers from the Middle-East and Africa will be brought together on 18th November 2021.
The panel discussion is envisioned to celebrate the creative efforts of women filmmakers who make an immeasurable contribution to the enrichment of the industry and to discuss how the industry can re-invent itself to reduce gender disparity.
The Expo 2020 Dubai Women’s Pavilion, is also dedicated to celebrate the efforts of women in creative industries in order to reaffirm Expo’s commitment to gender equality and women empowerment. The Women’s pavilion is a platform that celebrates the significant parts that women, known and unknown, have played throughout history and continue to play in the present day, based on the principle that when women thrive, humanity thrives.
Cinema, a Social Catalyst
According to a statement by Canon Central and North Africa (CCNA), cinema has long been revered as a powerful and transformative tool to create awareness and change in the society. It noted that while the film-industry acts as a catalyst of global change, it still remains heavily male-dominated with vast discrepancy between the numbers of male and female workers.
CCNA went on to state that the under-representation of women in an industry that stands as a stimulant for social change, growth, progress and development, is a critical issue that needs to be addressed at global events such as the Dubai Expo 2020. Therefore, in an effort to shed more light on this matter, Canon’s panel discussion will involve women from the film industry who shattered the glass ceiling across Middle-East and Africa.
These women include UAE’s first female Film Director/Producer and CEO of Nayla Al Khaja Films and Motivational Speaker – Nayla Al Khaja from Dubai, Sara Shazli from Egypt who directed the critically acclaimed movie ‘Back Home’ and Chioma Ude from Nigeria – the Executive Director of Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF).
According to the statement, the discussion “will delve deep into gender representation issues across the industry, hindrances that are keeping women from entering this billion-dollar industry”. It will also “celebrate the victories of women trail-blazers taking a leaf from their books for aspiring women film-makers, whilst exploring newer opportunities arising as a result of the pandemic”.
According to a new UNESCO report, about 5 million people currently work in the film sector in Africa and that contributes 5 billion dollars to the continent’s GDP. The report highlights that Africa’s film industry is booming and has the potential to create 20 million jobs and generate 20 billion dollars in revenues annually. However, women are largely under-represented in the creative roles across the continent particularly in the Central African region where the estimated share of women in films is less than 10 percent. Thus, highlighting the hindrances faced by women to breakthrough in the industry as well as challenging the patriarchal structures that rule the film-industry are crucial for the progress of women and society at large.
Canon’s panel discussion to be held at Women’s Pavilion at Dubai Expo 2020 will highlight all these issues and will be moderated by Vijaya Cherian.
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