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Thriving on the International Circuit

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with Ruba Nadda

Page 1 of 2 Ruba Nadda is the poster child for how a Canadian filmmaker can thrive on the international film circuit, even after facing rejection at home. Nadda, who has made 13 shorts and three feature films, including the internationally acclaimed 2005 feature Sabah, starring Arsinée Khanjian, has never had a premiere in Canada. I was rejected everywhere, everywhere Originally, she wanted one.  In fact, she turned to the international film festival market in 1997 only after a batch of three early shorts had been turned down at every single festival in Canada. “I was rejected everywhere, everywhere,” she says. Organizers of the Toronto International Film Festival told her that her films were not feminist enough. It only stiffened her resolve. She thought: “I can’t let this happen.” Ruba Nadda Director of Sabah So she went to a bookstore and bought a guide to the film festivals of the world. As well, she did a spate of research on the internet, including on www.filmfestivals.com , and got accepted in September 1997 at the Rotterdam festival with the three shorts that had met with such misery in Canada. Leaping at opportunity In fact, the Rotterdam organizers were so thrilled with the three shorts they saw, that they asked Nadda if she had any others. She said she had ideas for three more. They pressed. She said she would have prints by Christmas. She did. Again, Rotterdam organizers were thrilled. So thrilled, in fact, that they accepted all six for a single screening in January 1998 and called it a retrospective, billing Nadda as their “Canadian discovery.” It was a triumph. The audience loved her. Festival-goers lobbied her for her autograph. Film-lovers in Switzerland made bootleg copies and sold them on the black market. When Nadda got home to Toronto after the Rotterdam festival, she was met with 10 faxes, each of which invited her to another international festival, including those in Germany and Spain. “The trick about international film festivals is that other festival directors go to them,” she says. In all, Do Nothing, her favourite of that first batch of three shorts, has been screened more than 250 times. Continued... Previous Page - Next Page >>

 

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