Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime feature a plethora of Arab films which have been accessible to viewers in the US for some time now, but another streaming platform has just come up with a new concept dedicated to the promotion of Arab film. The streaming platform, Telescope, which boasts a database of over 450,000 international films, has just partnered up with the Arab Cinema Center with a plan to launch a microsite dedicated to movies from the Arab world.
This isn’t a fresh venture for Telescope who have previously partnered with German Films and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, to curate and market foreign films to American viewers. Founder and chief executive of Telescope Film, Justine Barda, said in a statement, “The Arab world has produced some of the great masters of world cinema, as well as some of the most exciting directors working today. We believe their work should be better known in the US and want to help make that happen.”
Check out the trailblazing films from the region representing Arab cinema at Cannes, including @KeyrouzJimmy's Broken Keys and @AytenAmin's Souad.https://t.co/cHEVM9RiZA
— About Her (@AboutHerOFCL) June 10, 2020
The Arab films being curated for the site include a variety of categories such as documentaries, short films, comedies, fiction and more. Just like the other streaming competitors, the site will also feature a trailer, synopsis, and critical feedback on each film so that viewers can have an easy and enjoyable viewing experience.
Director of the Arab Cinema Centre, Abdallah Al Shami, told the National, “In order for us to get all this data and give it to Justine and her team to plug it into the website, [there] has been manual labour because this information doesn’t exist. It’s critical for us to do this because we need to expand our reach in terms of the stories that are coming out of the Arab world,” meaning that this microsite is the first of its kind across any streaming platform.
