HBO boss Len Amato helps Arab filmmakers challenge stereotypes

Len Amato, president of HBO Films Delores Johnson / The National

Hollywood is often accused of misrepresenting Arabs on screen, whether demonising them as villainous thieves in ­Disney's Aladdin, or portraying them as cold-blooded terrorists in TV drama Homeland.

Such negative stereotyping is something HBO's president of film, Len Amato, is aware of. He led HBO to make ­envelope-pushing films ­such as Game Change (about John McCain's 2008 United States presidential election ­campaign) and political-legal drama ­Confirmation (2016).

“There are so many misconceptions about the Middle East,” he says during a recent visit to the UAE.

“People don’t understand the nuances of the different regions – everything gets brushed with a broad stroke. I realise that Hollywood doesn’t even approach the reality of what’s going on.”

Amato is also a board ­member for Film Independent, a US non-profit that promotes ­independent moviemaking, and was joined on his visit to the UAE by its president, Josh Welsh, and artistic director Jennifer ­Kushner.

They were scouting for Middle Eastern moviemaking talent, in collaboration with the US State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Film Independent will pick 14 filmmakers from eight ­Middle Eastern countries and fly them to Los Angeles for a six-week moviemaking fellowship. These mid-level filmmakers will be mentored by some of ­Hollywood’s finest writers,­ ­directors and ­producers.

The Global Media Makers ­Program, as the project is known, was launched last year, with ­filmmakers from Egypt, ­Morocco, Lebanon, ­Turkey and Jordan taking part. This year it is expanding to include the UAE and Tunisia.

Last year's participants ­received help and advice from 93 ­Hollywood directors, writers, producers and distributors, and were closely mentored by Jeremy Podeswa, who has directed episodes of Game of Thrones.

"They were able to direct some of the scenes from their own scripts, on what had been one of the sets for [US TV drama] Mad Men," says Welsh. "Ted Sarandos [Netflix's chief content officer] met them too."

Welsh says the Hollywood professionals were keen to meet the Middle Eastern filmmakers “partly out of curiosity, and ­partly because there’s a real business interest in the film industry in the Middle East”.

“Companies such as HBO, ­Netflix and Amazon are all over the world now, so they want to connect with content creators from all over the world,” he says. “Filmmaking truly has become global. These are exciting times.”

The group from Hollywood met candidates for their programme at Image Nation, twofour54, New York University Abu Dhabi and BrandMoxie, and also held meetings in Dubai.

“The young filmmakers at [­Image Nation’s] Arab Film ­Studio are about to go into ­production on their short films, and they’re incredibly excited and energised,” he says. “But some of the older filmmakers we met, who are trying to make feature films, were more frustrated with the industry, because distribution is a great challenge here.

“We’ve been told independent Arab-language films and films by Emiratis tend to get bumped out of the theatres faster. But this is also a global challenge – independent filmmakers in the US have the same difficulties.”

The filmmakers who took part in last year's programme are still working on the projects they were developing in LA, so it is too early to gauge whether the programme will lead to commercial success. But Welsh is particularly excited about the experience of Amr Salama, from Cairo, who is in post-production with his ­movie, Sheikh Jackson.

“It’s a funny drama about this very devout Egyptian Islamist who is trying to reconcile his faith with his love of Michael Jackson’s music,” he says. “I hear that it’s very good.”

Amato has high hopes for Abu Dhabi's film industry and points out that providing the filming locations for two huge franchise films, Furious 7 and Star Wars: The Force Awakens, was a great start.

“To start right off the bat with Hollywood spectacle-type ­moviemaking, the Emiratis lucky enough to work on those productions could learn great lessons,” he says. “Then they’ve got something to compare it to on all the other movies they work on.”