A congregation of independent cinema lovers in Dubai

Gulf News

A congregation of independent cinema lovers in Dubai. The Scene Club brings together movie buffs and creates awareness about independent films in the UAE.  See more at: http://gulfnews.com/gntv

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00:00Lovers of independent cinema gather every Wednesday night at Vox Cinemas in Mall of

00:11the Emirates to enjoy four movie screenings organized by The Scene Club.

00:15The Scene Club is a private and non-profit film club that showcases the best independent

00:20films and provides a platform for film enthusiasts and the industry to come together and discuss

00:25independent productions.

00:27I really, I mean I'm a big fan of indie films and one of the good things about The Scene

00:31Club is that they do show local talent as well so with the members' evenings they've

00:35been showing some local Emirati films, just shorts, and they've been really interesting

00:40to watch especially kind of from my perspective being new to the country it's a really great

00:45kind of introduction to see more about the local culture.

00:47My friend who was a member before, she asked me to join for a session.

00:52I took part in the free movies and then loved it.

00:57I love this kind of movies, what they're presenting, it's an uncut version and good movies, that's

01:05what I can say more.

01:06I am a big movie fan and any opportunity to watch a new movie, especially an Arabic movie,

01:14I would take it and I heard that The Scene are hosting this movie launch and I thought

01:23it would be interesting to watch it.

01:24Founded in 2007 by award-winning Emirati director Naila Al Khaja, The Scene Club is the first

01:30club in Dubai that shows uncensored independent films in their raw human form, where topics

01:35are both touching and impactful.

01:37For us to select independent films we just keep a watch out on what's happening in the

01:42news and the film festival circuit and we try to get in touch with films that we watch.

01:47We have obviously a programmer who watches the movie, that's his full-time job, he just

01:50watches films.

01:51And then we select films that make sense to our audience as well, because they cannot

01:55be extremely arthouse and they can be too commercial, so we have to find a very fine

02:00balance that kind of is very appealing to a broader audience and there are a lot of

02:04people here who have never watched an independent film and they come and watch one of our films

02:08and they immediately sign up and they become members.

02:11So it's a very nice way, it's a very great way to introduce people who don't watch independent

02:16films to actually become independent film watchers.

02:20The club hosts 24 titles and 12 private food and film events all around the city throughout

02:25the year.

02:26Irish Eden Belieza for Gulf News.

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