ARABSHORTS.NET is a web-based project showcasing nine online, curated film programmes by nine curators from the Middle East and North Africa. The project makes use of the vast potential of the Internet as a powerful and alternative platform for the presentation and circulation of independent films beyond the festival circuit and beyond conventional distribution networks. For the first time, viewers can have unlimited access to a large pool of films, and information that they would otherwise not have had the chance to peruse.

Bringing together more than sixty short fictional films, documentaries, animations, video art, experimental films and everything in between, ARABSHORTS.NET presents a multiplicity of perspectives on independent filmmaking featured from the point of view of each curator. Moreover, the curators themselves wear multiple hats, from actors, directors and producers to critics and artists.

Each film programme limits itself to the productions and co-productions of one country, with the exception of the Arabian Gulf region. Film programmes are composed of a selection of four to ten short films (less than sixty minutes) predominantly produced in the last ten years.

The films are accompanied by newly commissioned texts by the curators, curatorial statements, films synopses and biographies of filmmakers and curators. The discursive layer of the project is an integral component in an attempt to present a nuanced account of each scene, and to delve deeper into its historical, economic, social, political and cultural specificities.

Collectively, this exciting and novel compilation raises pertinent questions about a broad range of topics and issues such as the definition of independent production, censorship, migration and mobility, national identities, gender politics, urban trajectories and post-war conditions. ARABSHORTS.NET provides a provisional map of independent film production in this complex region.

Curators

Ala Younis (Jordan) - Bouchra Khalili and Hicham Falah - (Morocco) - Emad Mabrouk (Egypt) - Haig Aivazian (Gulf Region) - Ikbal Zalila (Tunisia) - Lara Khaldi and Yazan Khalili (Palestine) - Mounes Khammar (Algeria) - Orwa Nyrabia (Syria) - Rasha Salti (Lebanon)

Filmmakers

Abdallah Kawash (Jordan) - Abdel Ghani Raoui (Algeria) - Abdelabar Mahmoud (Tunisia) - Abu Ali (Morocco) - Ahmad Ghossien (Lebanon) - Ala Eddine Slim (Tunisia) - Anggi Makki (Saudi Arabia) - Ali Cherri (Lebanon) - Amer Al Ruwass (Oman) - Amr Salama (Egypt) - Annemarie Jacir (Palestine) - Ayten Amin (Egypt) - Bahïa Bencheikh El-Fegoun (Algeria) - Basma Al-Sharif (Palestine) - Diana El Jeiroudi (Syria) - Erik Sandoval (Kuwait) - Eyad Hamam (Jordan) - Fadi Dabaja (Lebanon) - Firas Taybeh (Jordan) - Ghada Terawi (Palestine) - Gilles Tarazi (Lebanon) - Hadeel Nazmy (Egypt) - Hassen Ferhani (Algeria) - Hazem Hamwi (Syria) - Ihab Jadallah (Palestine) - Joud Said (Syria) - Joude Gorani (Syria) - Jumana Emil Abboud (Palestine) - Kamal El Mahouti (Morocco) - Kamila Abu Zikry (Egypt) - Karim Moussaoui (Algeria) - Khaled Chiheb (Algeria) - Laila Marafie (Kuwait) - Lassaad Weslati (Tunisia) - Mahdi Fleifel (Palestine) - Malik Amara (Tunisia) - Mohamad Al Tamimi (Saudi Arabia) - Mohamed Kais Zaied (Tunisia) - Mohamed Mamdouh (Egypt) - Mohamed Mohsen (Egypt) - Mohammad Alloh (Jordan) - Mohammed Hammad (Egypt) - Monira Al Qadiri (Kuwait) - Nadia Touijer (Tunisia) - Nadine Khan (Egypt) - Oraib Toukan (Jordan) - Pamela Ghanimeh (Lebanon) - Rami Farah (Syria) - Rami Hanna (Syria) - Sabrina Draoui (Algeria) - Saeed S. Al Murry (UAE) - Sandra Madi (Jordan) - Sarmad Louis (Lebanon) - Sherif El Bendary (Egypt) - Simohammed Fettaka (Morocco) - Tala Hadid (Morocco) - Walid Mattar (Tunisia) - Walid Tayaa (Tunisia) - Yacine Belhadj (Algeria) - Yahia Mouzahem (Algeria) - Yanis Koussim (Algeria) - Yasmine Chouikh (Algeria)

ARABSHORTS.NET is a project by the Goethe-Institut Cairo (German cultural institute), the concept was developed by the German film curator Marcel Schwierin.