UAE: Morgan Freeman speaks about the importance of independent Middle Eastern films during his visit to Dubai during the International Film Festival.

Oscar award winning actor Morgan Freeman, during his recent visit to Dubai for the International Film Festival, sat down with Reuters to talk about the film industry's responsibilities and the future of Arab cinema reaching a global scale. Freeman praised the film 'Paradise Now', which opened the Film Festival, as a powerful example of how cinema can reflect and portray different points of view the world. The film explores the reasons behind Palestinian suicide bombings. "I think cinema can close many of the gaps of the human diaspora... Having said that now I'm just gonna make this leap to last night's presentation of Paradise Now and ... Such a stunning film and so effective in giving us an insight that I think many of us haven't had before," he said. "It is essential input. It is necessary to experience these from a visceral point you know, to have some... I mean this is a very sad situation. And to get this perspective, just deepens the sadness." 'Paradise Now' was nominated for a Golden Globe Award on Tuesday (December 13). Freeman also spoke about his vision for independent films: "One of the things that I'm selling is the idea that there is a different way for us to distribute our films, that we could get a global audience and I think that that audience is going to grow because the internet is growing we can get a viable way to distribute films via the internet, then we can," he said. "The Middle East film industry is pretty much an in house situation, you don't get out very far from the Middle East unless there is some one film that maybe gets out and finds an audience. There is a large diaspora, there is a large community I think of Arabic speaking peoples particularly in the Americas. But we don't have to think in terms of just reaching them, we can think in terms of reaching the world audience and to me you can do that." Freeman is this year's Hollywood "In the Spotlight" honouree for the Dubai International Film Festival. The Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) will run through December 17, 2005. ENDS.

ITN Source | December 16, 2005

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