Amman, 21 July 2020

The “Cinema for All” project’s Memorandum of Understanding has been renewed for one year according to the agreement signed, in 2019, between the Royal Film Commission – Jordan (RFC) and the Public Security Directorate (PSD).

The project provides an opportunity for inmates at the Rehabilitation and Correctional Centers to watch Jordanian, Arab and international movies offering them a cultural space with various films tackling social and entertaining issues.

The renewal coincides with the eased restrictions on the activities conducted inside the Rehabilitation and Correctional Centers after over three months of lockdown. The project was suspended in line with the safety and precautionary measures taken by the management of the Centers.

We stayed at our homes for almost three months, during which we realized the importance of culture, and that of cinema in particular, in alleviating the burdens of life while in confinement. In the same context, it is worth mentioning that the RFC has organized- since the beginning of the COVID-19’s pandemic- a special online screening program, which was very well received by the audience.

Renewing the project comes as a continuation of its great success in the past years. The RFC and the Public Security Directorate - represented by the management of the Centers – believe in the importance of this project and its role in providing a cinema hall inside the Centers. Watching movies in groups as well as exchanging opinions after the screening, whenever possible, in addition to the inmates’ interaction with the different worlds they get exposed to contribute to sustaining this project.

Mohannad Al-Bakri, the RFC’s Managing Director, underlined the project’s importance in reaching this special audience inside Centers. He pointed out that:  “Although the Government’s budget and consequently the RFC’s budget has been impacted by the pandemic, we are still keen to give a special attention to this important project which focuses on offering cinema and audio-visual arts to all spectrums of society.”

Al-Bakri, on the other hand, valued the RFC’s cooperation with the Public Security Directorate and its role in facilitating filming across the Kingdom through continuous coordination with the Commission.

Brigadier Dr. Ammar Alqudah, Director of Rehabilitation and Correctional Centers Department, stated that the management has adopted a strategy of reform and rehabilitation instead of sanctions, as it was previously practiced; this goes in line with the necessity to protect human rights. Hence, the management has facilitated the implementation of the project in the Correctional and Rehabilitation Centers leading to an increase in the number of beneficiaries. Alqudah added: “We would like to pursue these cultural activities, based on their positive impact and the inmates’ interaction with the films."

It is worth noting that during the previous edition of the “Cinema for All” project, the RFC has organized 38 film screenings in all the Centers across the Kingdom for approximately 2500 persons. The selection of films took into account the diversity of the audience as well as the required criteria.