Mahmovies at The Jam Jar

Recognizing the sparse distribution of International Cinema and the subsequent frustrations of film aficionados in Dubai, award-winning filmmaker Mahmoud Kaabour ("Being Osama") and The Jam Jar are proud to host an eclectic 6-week long series of international Art house films that will provoke, enrich and entertain!

Mahmovies! is an old personal tradition for filmmaker Mahmoud Kaabour, his close friends often squatting in his residence for long nights to watch obscure titles and international hits that he's acquired through travel, film festivals, and filmmaker friends. With the crowd getting too big for his few sofas, Mr. Kaabour is happy to bring this tradition to The Jam Jar, where Dubai's film community can join in experiencing films that truly honor the art of Filmmaking. Screenings will start at 7:30pm and will be preceded by a brief introduction by Mr. Kaabour.

Week 1 – Feb 18th 2008

The Kid Stays in the Picture - Nanette Burstein and Brett Morgan (2002)
The Kid is a riveting documentary about the life of Robert Evans, the CEO of Paramount Pictures, during the years when "The Godfather" and "Rosemary's Baby" were made. Unlike the usually boring biography pieces, this one is told without a single filmed bit! The whole documentary is 3-D treatments of photos from Evans' life, gorgeously playing out to his own voice as he tells the story, which covers illuminating and entertaining gossip about all that took place in the backstage of some of Hollywood's Classics.

Week 2 – Feb 25th 2008

Intacto – Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (2001)
Intacto is a uniquely conceptual Spanish film, where a number of random accident survivors discover their "luck" and decide to put it to use in creative and grim "gambling" competitions where the luckiest is victorious. The gambling community brings together Tomas, a young thief and the sole survivor of a horrific plane crash; Federico, who survived a massive earthquake and discovered he has the power to rob those around him of their good fortune with a touch; Sam, a casino owner who is the ultimate survivor after losing everything but his own life in the terrible conflagration that enveloped Europe during the Second World War; and Sara, a policewoman who walked away from a car crash that killed her family and becomes obsessed with uncovering the truth behind the clandestine gambling ring where death and luck intermingle.

Week 3 - March 3rd -2008

American Splendour – Shari Springer Burman and Robert Pulcini (2003)
American Splendour is a vastly entertaining and comic film about Harvey Pekar, the hospital filing clerk who was able to turn his mundane life into a popular monthly comic book. The film alternates storytelling techniques between fiction and documentary, featuring Pekar himself as he reflects on his life as it plays out into a deeply human performance by actor Paul Giamatti.

Week 4 – March 10th - 2008

My Best Fiend – Werner Herzog (1999)
This documentary will change the minds of many who thought that Scorsese and deNiro had the most special director/actor relationship in cinema history. Werner Herzog, the legendary German director, made five award-winning films with actor Klaus Kinski while always wearing a gun in his belt to shoot his actor if he ever went mad all the way! Kinski was always an ego-maniacal live-wire, demanding attention and appeasement, even while production crews suffered and often died during the gruesome circumstances in which Herzog made his films in the Amazon jungles. In this personal documentary, Herzog retells the minutest details of his relationship with Kinski that exhibit a mad passion for cinema that often cost lives and sanity, before producing masterpieces.

No Screening on March 17th - 2008

Week 5 - March 24th

Falling from Earth – Chadi Zeneddine (2007) (Director present at screening)
A cinematic poem that caters to the senses and strongly provokes memory, Falling From Earth is a new and powerful Lebanese independent film that is currently touring film festivals around the world. Told with a sharp auteur approach, the film makes of every recent Lebanese war a chapter. In each, a character's life plays out in a world where words are few but grand sentiments are expressed in special relationships to personal spaces, which gradually transcend into playgrounds for hopes and fears.
From abandoned buildings, charming Beiruti alleys, to public toilets, Zenneddine's film becomes an intimate artistic study of the Lebanese's subjection to war, creatively told with elaborate camera movements and punchy colors, free from any war movie clichés of shelling and torn bodies.
The film is currently touring the international film festival. Its director will be present at the screening.

Week 6 – March 31st

TV Iraqi Style – Christian Trumble (2005)
For 20 years Saddam Hussein was omnipresent in Iraq not least on television, which was dominated by his image. But with Saddam out of the picture, TV audiences in Iraq are being treated to a veritable feast of viewing choices.
TV Iraqi Style is a documentary that provides a unique insight into post-Saddam Iraqi society through its television programming that ranges from reality shows to singing competitions that are always tinged with the horrors of the ensuing circumstances of a torn country.