We spoke to BTG Tomorrow filmmaker Rabie Mustapha, about his BTG experience. Based in Northern Ireland, Rabie shares his hopes for his short documentary, The Cities I Live In.
What was it like being involved in BTG?
The Bridging the Gap experience was a very unique one, and one that I am sure will have a longstanding impact on my filmmaking journey. The workshops were great and the input I got there from the trainers, and my fellow trainees were always thought-provoking and eventually helped me a lot while making the film. The grant I received, which was the first ever for me, helped so much, especially in covering the fees of a well-established editing consultant and sound designer.
For me, Bridging the Gap was much more than a development program that I managed to make a film through. It was the deep human connection with people who share my belief in the creative documentary and its potential that was engaging, moving, and sometimes exhausting (in a nice way!). I remember leaving the workshops with the feeling that I have changed deeply, both as an artist and as a human. This was happening even though the sessions were all online!
On the other side, BTG helped me make a lot of connections here in Northern Ireland and has accelerated my entry into the filmmaking industry in the region. I moved to NI less than two years ago and I did not know anyone in the film circles before my project was accepted for BTG, while now I have established good relations with people I met through the program and I feel I am ready to embark on a new film journey here once a story emerges. I hope BTG will be there for a very long time. It is well needed and I can’t recommend it enough.
What gave you the idea for your film?
I started thinking of this film back in 2019. Back then I was living in Beirut, Lebanon and an uprising was taking place in the city, and I wanted to make a film that reflects my feelings about that uprising and about my relation to Beirut in contrast to Damascus where I lived before, and was forced to leave in 2012. Lockdown and a severe end of the uprising distracted me from working on that film, and then the explosion of the port of Beirut in August 2020 entirely changed my perspective. At the moment the explosion happened I was waiting for my UK visa that could bring me to Belfast to join my partner who was at the time pregnant with our twin children. I moved to Belfast as a survivor and the film became centred around that and about the fact all the cities I have lived in since I was ten years old have experienced heavy violence and are not guaranteed to be spared more of that violence. I don’t even mention Libya where I spent the first ten years!
What are your hopes for the year ahead?
I am hoping that the film gets watched widely and in many parts of the world. I was so hesitant to make a film that is this personal but now that I have done it I would love to know what people think of it.
What would you hope the audience takes away from your film?
We live in a world that’s becoming increasingly violent, and many people are being forced out of their life trajectories because of that. I experienced this twice so far and tried to transmit the associated feelings in my film, and my hope is that people who watch it will engage with those feelings and that those who have similar experiences feel a connection and
solace.
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