Doha: Through his documentaries, aspiring Jordanian filmmaker Obada Yousef Jarbi tells human stories that explore the complexity of human feelings and emotions.
“Documentary is more about human story. It’s about human emotions and feelings, about understanding how mind and heart work,” said Jarbi, while sharing insights on his film The “Fishermen (Al Sayadeen)”, this week’s Doha Film Institute (DFI) featured short film.
The documentary short follows three fishermen who every night set out to sea in a small boat several miles away from Doha to make a living. It depicts their strength, hard work and resilience spending many hours in the middle of the sea to catch as many fish as they can to sell back in the city.
Jarbi cherishes the experience filming the documentary which was out of his comfort zone. “I know nothing about fishing in a small boat. Suddenly I was in a boat with three men who get their money and livelihood through fishing. That experience spending time with three people for eight hours, looking at their relationship from my perspective on the boat was amazing,” he said.
For him, building the characters’ trust is foremost in documentary filmmaking which he achieves by being honest with them. “You try to convince them to take the challenge with you showing them that they have amazing story, that they have amazing life and that they should be proud of their story,” he said.
His latest film was “Woman of Steel (Okht Rjal)” a mother takes to the streets to collect and sell scrap metal to provide for her family due to his husband’s disability.
“My last film was filmed in Jordan and I spent three years with the same characters,” he said adding he felt he achieved something in his career by building his characters’ trust through the process.
With a Bachelor’s Degree in Mass Communication and Broadcast Journalism from Qatar University, Jarbi began his filmmaking career in 2014, when he started filming and producing local films.
He marked his directorial debut with the documentary “Addicted to Alienation” (2016).
“The Fishermen” (2017) was his second short film which he completed through DFI’s documentary workshop and was screened in several international film festivals. In 2016, he started developing his documentary “Okht Rjal” between Jordan and Qatar as he went through the development process at Qumra 2018 and he started filming in 2019 as a part of a documentary workshop with award-winning documentary film director and screenwriter Rithy Panh.
“I started this journey in filmmaking through classes in university and with my classmates. I didn’t know about professional filmmaking before DFI so my journey started with DFI through the labs and workshops. I was lucky to have advice from mentors,” he said.
“The Fishermen” was uploaded on Thursday on DFI’s YouTube channel as part of the second season of the Institute’s Short Film of the Week initiative. Launched in April, the initiative brings the very best of DFI-supported films for film enthusiasts to enjoy in the comfort of their own homes. The initiative aims at encouraging people to stay home amid COVID-19 pandemic, while lending support to Qatari films and Arab cinema.
