DEDI contributed with financial support to the film festival, and helped organise the participation of the Egyptian film maker Amir Ramsis.
Other financial support was obtained from the Danish Film Institute, Copenhagen.
Two groups were the primary beneficiaries:
A large group of students who worked to arrange the festival, and who took an active part in the whole of the process. These should secure the future of the festival and “the sustainability”.
The audience, which consisted of a mixture of university students (one of the active segments in the city of Aarhus where 10% of the population in some way is engaged at the university as students employees etc.
A diverse group of other people with an interest in films, and the Arab World. What was lacking – if any – was a notable interest/participation from the Arab community in Aarhus. These were most visible as spectators in the cinema at the screening of the classic first film in the “Alexandria-triology” by Youssef Shahin .
Objectives:
The interest and knowledge of films (documentaries/features) from the Middel East has grown.
The concept of the festival “Middle Eastern Film Days” has been taken over by a group of students from Aarhus University and the art cinema, which constituted the venue for the festival. This group is now arranging a similar event for the autumn of 2015. The participating Arab film makers were most supportive of the project and offered to help launching a new festival in 2015. The events and its program got a very fine presentation in the influential “Filmkommentaren”.