The Department of Audio Visual Arts (DAVA) at Notre Dame University–Louaize (NDU) student, Joy Hallak won third prize for her short movie I.D.E.AL in the “Mentor Arabia Short Movie Competition” in Jordan organized by the Mentor Arabia Foundation and the Royal Health Awareness Society on December 9, 2017.
Mentor Arabia Short Movie Competition is a regional initiative launched in 2017 to inspire and encourage Arab youth to develop short movies discussing the importance of social and developmental work to help prevent children and youth from risky behaviors and others dealing with the current challenges of drug problems at an early stage and help to prevent them progressing into an addiction.
For her part, Hallak said, “As soon as I heard about the competition, I went home and started brainstorming to come up with an idea. I was wondering why not something do new, aiming at raising awareness about social media especially that its usage is mainstream nowadays. After three weeks of preparations and thanks to my team’s efforts, we were able to release the short movie within two months”.
In this first edition, over 100 movies from 12 Arab countries competed in the contest, with only 14 of them making it to the finals. I.D.E.A.L. was chosen among nine other movies from the MENA region and then shortlisted to win the third place.
I.D.E.A.L. focuses on a young woman who tries to find her place in the world by following influencers to become “ideal.”
Hallak added, “I wanted to show how people are perceived by social media influencers who usually try to shape their identities.”
The winners received prizes between US$1,000 and US$4,000, in addition to receiving year-long mentoring by industry experts.