‘We’re going to rock it’

We take a behind-the-scenes look at the work going on as this year’s edition of DIFF gets underway today

By Adam Zacharias

Published: Thu 11 Dec 2008, 8:46 PM

Last updated: Fri 17 Nov 2023, 11:04 AM

“IT’S ALL SET – we’re ready to rock tomorrow and believe me we’re going to rock it.”

So says DIFF office manager Kanwal Fatima, speaking from the Madinat Jumeirah as finishing touches were being applied to the festival yesterday.

After months of intensive preparation involving thousands of people, Dubai can finally roll out the red carpet and kick off its eight-day celebration of cinema today. A bevy of top international celebrities including Nicholas Cage and Salma Hayek are on their way to the city to enjoy a programme showing a diverse selection of films from across the world.

But what about the hundreds of people ferreting around behind the scenes to ensure the event runs smoothly?

Kanwal’s role involves handling the financial aspect of the festival, as well as dealing with suppliers.

“I’ve been with the festival for the past four years, and as it grows it gets more hectic, she said. “But it isn’t stressful, it’s exciting. Every year, every month and every day, I’m learning so much.”

Box office manager Keerthi Paikera has worked at the Toronto International Film Festival for more than 10 years. She has been flown in from Canada especially to help co-ordinate all ticketing for DIFF, for industry people as well as the public.

“I really like the energy and the enthusiasm in Dubai,” she said, “it’s on a different scale to Toronto.”

“There are different procedures and I’m just getting used to how thing are co-ordinated. The whole process is just fascinating and I’m extremely impressed with the organisation involved. The communication has been incredible.”

Keerthi added that she and her team had been working till “the wee hours of the morning” – 4 or 5am – for the last two weeks to ensure they were ready for the start of DIFF.

Ramee Indrarajan, assistant manager of theatre operations, has been working full-time with DIFF since August, dealing with all theatre requirements. For each film, there will be a rep present at the venue to make sure the public are catered for and that screenings start on time and pass without a glitch.

“As long as you have a plan in place, everything’s great,” she said. “At the moment, I’m just troubleshooting anything that comes up. Of course it gets hectic – we’re showing hundreds of screenings – but I love my job.”

One DIFF worker with a slightly less taxing pre-festival task is Shawn Fernandes, co-ordinator of the People’s Choice Award.

Shawn has designed ballot papers, which will be handed out at every screening to ascertain the most popular movie in the whole of this year’s DIFF. The ballots will be weighted according to the size of each venue and how many screenings there are to level the playing field.

“So far it’s pretty easy,” said Shawn. “The balloting hasn’t started as yet so there isn’t a lot of work right now. But once the festival starts we’ll be swamped. It’s a good experience, you get to see a lot of celebs and it’s been fun so far.”