Saudi Arabia’s film AlUla, an ancient city seeking to attract international brands to its vast desert and massive cliffs, is making fashion world connections.
A Belgian-sized film commission for northwest Saudi Arabia, a lush ocean and vast sandstone valleys, is launching an initiative called AlUla Creates, which includes the use of an environmentally friendly studio and the possibility of using development funds. Projects by female directors at the intersection of film and fashion.
From various
AlUla Creates has partnered with the British Fashion Council and Saudi actress Mia Al Zahrani (“The Perfect Candidate”); British filmmaker and creative director Alec Maxwell – founder of the digital platform Kloss Films whose clients include Bulgari, Stella McCartney and Carolina Herrera -; And fashion models Helena Christensen and Eva Herzigova as “ambassadors” to promote the platform, according to the statement.
“Alula provides a platform to support creative female founders in fashion and film, share creative processes and build a global audience that encourages cultural exchange through a female perspective,” Caroline Rush, chief executive of the British Fashion Council, said in a statement.
Charlene DeLeon-Jones, Executive Director of Film Al Oula commented: “More than 70% of the population in Saudi Arabia is under the age of 30, one of the fastest growing cinema audiences in the world. There is a lot of buzz about the screen sector in homes, schools and boardrooms. Spending time in Alula’s beautiful landscape, the streets of Jeddah, or the riads, one cannot help but notice the fashion, wisdom, warmth, elegance, and intelligence of this generation. AlUla Creates is part of this picture, providing opportunities for creative development and collaboration across sectors and boundaries.
Hollywood Productions, which filmed in Alula, directed the upcoming Gerard Butler action-thriller “Kandahar,” directed by Rick Roman Waugh.
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