 | This article is an autobiography or has been extensively edited by the subject or by someone connected to the subject.(January 2014) |
Daniel Ferguson is a filmmaker whose credits include Wired to Win: Surviving the Tour de France, Journey to Mecca: In the Footsteps of Ibn Battuta and Last of the Elephant Men . [1]
Ferguson was line producer and script writer for the 2009 IMAX dramatised documentary Journey to Mecca: In the Footsteps of Ibn Battuta, produced by Cosmic Picture and SK Films, [2] which won the Houston International Film Festival award for best short documentary in 2010 and, a year earlier in Paris, Le Prix Du Public Most Popular Film at Le Géode Film Festival. [2] [3] It also won a prize at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City. [2] The film tells the story of Ibn Battuta as he travelled to Mecca in the fourteenth century. Ferguson was co-writer and first assistant director on Wired to Win: Surviving the Tour de France which followed two riders on the hundredth anniversary of the contest and explored how the cyclists’ brains coped with the rigours of the race. [4] [5]
Other film credits include line producer on Roads to Mecca and Lost Worlds: Life in the Balanc, associate producer and line producer on Seducing Maarya , and assistant director on Schmooze. [6] Ferguson was also director, writer and producer for the 3D IMAX film Jerusalem with George Duffield, Taran Davies and the late Jake Eberts. [7] [8] It is narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch and was released in 2013. [9] [10]
Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Battutah, commonly known as Ibn Battuta, was a Maghrebi traveller, explorer and scholar. Over a period of thirty years from 1325 to 1354, Ibn Battuta visited most of North Africa, the Middle East, East Africa, Central Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, China, the Iberian Peninsula, and West Africa. Near the end of his life, he dictated an account of his journeys, titled A Gift to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Travelling, but commonly known as The Rihla.
Riḥla refers to both a journey and the written account of that journey, or travelogue. It constitutes a genre of Arabic literature. Associated with the medieval Islamic notion of "travel in search of knowledge", the riḥla as a genre of medieval and early-modern Arabic literature usually describes a journey taken with the intent of performing the Hajj, but can include an itinerary that vastly exceeds that original route. The classical riḥla in medieval Arabic travel literature, like those written by Ibn Battuta and Ibn Jubayr, includes a description of the "personalities, places, governments, customs, and curiosities" experienced by traveler, and usually within the boundaries of the Muslim world. However, the term rihla can be applied to other Arabic travel narratives describing journeys taken for reasons other than pilgrimage; for instance the 19th century riḥlas of Muhammad as-Saffar and Rifa'a al-Tahtawi both follow conventions of the riḥla genre by recording not only the journey to France from Morocco and Egypt, respectively, but also their experiences and observations.
Roman Kroitor was a Canadian filmmaker who was known as a pioneer of Cinéma vérité, as the co-founder of IMAX, and as the creator of the Sandde hand-drawn stereoscopic 3D animation system. He was also the original inspiration for The Force. His prodigious output garnered numerous awards, including two BAFTA Awards, three Cannes Film Festival awards, and two Oscar nominations.
Sooni Taraporevala is an Indian screenwriter, photographer, and filmmaker who is the screenwriter of Mississippi Masala, The Namesake and Oscar-nominated Salaam Bombay!, all directed by Mira Nair. She also adapted Rohinton Mistry's novel Such A Long Journey and wrote the films Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, her directorial debut Little Zizou, and Yeh Ballet, a Netflix original film that she wrote and directed.
Sam Cardon is a composer whose credits include 15 large-format films: Titans Of The Ice Age, Mummies, Mystic India, Texas, The Big Picture, Forces Of Nature, Lewis and Clark, The Legendary Journeys, Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure, Mysteries of Egypt, Olympic Glory, Whales, Building the Dream at Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California; Treasure of the Gods at Zion National Park, Utah and The Secret of San Francisco at Pier 39.
Charles Henry Ferguson is the founder and president of Representational Pictures, Inc. and American director and producer of No End in Sight (2007) and Inside Job (2010), which won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. Ferguson is also a software entrepreneur, writer and authority in technology policy.
Thomas Linden Neff -, known as Tom Neff, is an American film executive, director and producer, born in Chicago, Illinois. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee.
Tim Mackintosh-Smith is a British, Yemen-based, Oxford-educated Arabist, writer, traveller and lecturer. He has written numerous books on the Middle East, won several awards and has presented a major BBC television series.
The cinema of Saudi Arabia is a fairly small industry that only produces a few feature films and documentaries every year. Theaters were closed after religious activism in the 1980s. With the exception of one IMAX theater in Khobar, there were no cinemas in Saudi Arabia from 1983 to 2018, although there was occasionally talk of opening movie theaters, and in 2008 conference rooms were rented to show the comedy Mennahi. Saudis wishing to watch films have done so via satellite, DVD, or video. Cinemas were banned for 35 years until the first cinema in Saudi Arabia opened on 18 April 2018 in Riyadh. AMC Theatres plans to open up to 40 cinemas in some 15 Saudi cities over the following five years. The government hopes that by 2030, Saudi Arabia will have more than 300 theaters with over 2,000 movie screens. Cinema of Saudi Arabia, whether locally-produced or foreign-sourced, is subject to Saudi censorship.
Journey to Mecca: In the Footsteps of Ibn Battuta is an IMAX dramatised documentary film charting the first real-life journey made by the Islamic scholar Ibn Battuta from his native Morocco to Mecca for the Hajj, in 1325.
Alec Lorimore is a twice Academy Award-nominated film producer and screenwriter who has concentrated his focus in creating giant screen, IMAX documentary films. He is credited as one of the three producers of 1998 IMAX film Everest, which had generated over $140 million in worldwide box office, making it the highest grossing IMAX documentary film of the time.
Taran Davies is a film producer and director best known for his documentary film Afghan Stories (2002), and the IMAX feature documentary Journey to Mecca (2009).
George Duffield is a British marine conservationist, film producer and wildlife photographer. He is best known for the documentary film The End of the Line and is a co-founder of the marine charity, the Blue Marine Foundation and a co-founder of Ocean 14 Capital.
Enlightenment Productions is multi-media entertainment company based in London and founded in partnership between producer Hanan Kattan and writer and director Shamim Sarif in 2001.
A Road to Mecca – The Journey of Muhammad Asad, also known as A Road to Mecca, is a 2008 documentary by Austrian filmmaker Georg Misch. The documentary traces the path of Muslim scholar and political theorist Muhammad Asad, which led to his conversion to Islam.
Jerusalem is a 2013 documentary film about the ancient city of Jerusalem. It was produced by Cosmic Picture and Arcane Pictures and distributed by National Geographic Cinema Ventures in IMAX and giant screen theatres.
Richard Boddington is a British-Canadian film director, writer, editor, cinematographer and television producer, with dual citizenship from the United Kingdom and Canada. Born in Yorkshire, England, he now resides in Ontario, Canada.
Michael Kaczorowski, a nine-time nominated and three-time Emmy Award-winning producer and executive producer, is currently the creative director and producer of Bangkok Swagger. As executive producer, he is responsible for some of Animal Planet and Discovery's biggest and most iconic hits including Carrier: Fortress at Sea, Raising the Mammoth, and Walking with Prehistoric Beasts.
Shirikiana Aina is an American film director, cinematographer, producer, and writer. Shirikiana was born in Detroit, MI. She is a member of the LA Film Rebellion. She founded Mypheduh Films, Inc., a distribution company for independent Pan African Films. The company produced several features from the filmmakers of the LA Film Rebellion. She also co-founded Negod Gwad Productions, a nonprofit film company providing support to indie filmmakers. She has taught courses in script writing and film production at Howard University. She is married to film director Haile Gerima.