Speech delivered at the Rotary Club of Adliya on 19 Jan 2009 as a featured speaker:

Thank you very much for having me here today.

Honestly I am very excited to talk about the cinema with you, to tell you why, let me show you some trailers from my films so who doesn’t know about the cinema in Bahrain will have an idea.

Let us watch for 7 minutes if you don’t mind.

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Why I am excited about the cinema?

It all starts in 1966 when I was 6 years old, my father was fascinated with the camera, he have this small camera to register all my mother’s moments and keep them in an album, and of cores me and my brothers we shared these moments with her, but on day I toke the camera from my father to try and take a picture, so he showed me how to look in the view finder, and I was amazed when I found out that when you look to the view finder you don’t see in front of you but you see the person who was in the right side instead, and I loved that, it means that I can take photos for my brothers without them knowing.

After that my mother toke me with her to visit her friend in Saudi Arabia, I found there a lot of ladies with their kids, after a while the lady start showing an Arabic movie on 16mm projector, and that was my first movie I watched in my life, I use to see films on Aramco TV, but not on a big screen, I couldn’t sleep that night thinking about the big screen and the moving images.

And from there I was hooked with the camera, so my career starts from the early years of my life.

• George Melies – David Worth Griffith
• Edwin Stanton Porter Director of The Great Train Robbery in 1903, he invented the close up shot
• The first cinema theater in Bahrain was opened by Mahmood Al Sa’ati in 1922, but the first prober show was the Egyptian film “Wedad” starring Um Kalthoom in 1937 and that was the opening for Bahrain Theater in that year.
• In Bahrain it starts with Mahmood Al-Sa’ati in 1922 who recorded in the 30’s all the famous Bahraini singers in Bagdad, after that Charles Belgrave gave the green light for some Bahraini’s to invest in the cinema in the 30’s
• In 1969 RICHARD H. LYFORD shot a film titled Hamad and the Pirates for WALT DISNEY PRODUCTIONS; it was for TV from 2 episodes, I loved that movie but before that I saw “Enough Sea” “Bass Ya Bahar” for the Kuwaiti director Khalid Al Sedik in the old Al JazeeraCinema in RAF in Muharraq,

All this history I was not aware of during my dreams to do films in Bahrain in the 70’s, I just wanted to see a moving pictures that I did on the wall and show them proudly to my family and my neighbors, in 1975 a young man Called Ebrahim Janahistars shooting his first movie called “The Hunched back” but unfortunately he didn’t finished it because of his brother Abdulaziz death during the shooting, Abdulaziz was my teacher in Isa Town school at that time.

In 1975 I use to work as an office boy in the public relations in Ministry of Interior, at that time there was an add in the newspaper saying thatt “who buys a Lancer car will get a 8mm camera, projector, and a screen “ one of the employees bought that car and he got what the add says so I ran to him and offered him to buy the camera from him, he agrees to sell me everything he got with the car for 60 BD, which it was two months’ salary for me, but I agree and got my first movie camera, I shot the first film with it for my family and the second film was my first movie “The Loyalty” which it was silent 12 minutes long.

In 1978 I went to Cairo to study cinema direction and production.

Biography
Bassam Mohammed Al Thawadi was born in Bahrain on December 13th, 1960. He grew up in Al-Qudaibiah (in the capital Manama) from 1962 until 1969. His father had a job in Saudi Arabia, during those years he started his hobby of photography. From 1974 to 1978 he made his own series of short films on 8mm – in 1979 he went to Cairo to study film direction and Graduated from the Higher Institute of Cinema (Cairo) in 1982. During his study he directed a short drama film, Al Qina’a (The Mask) shot on 16mm – Cairo – 1981 and his graduation project was a Short drama, Malaekat Al Ardh (Angels of the Earth) on 16mm – Cairo – 1982.

He joined Bahrain TV on May 4th, 1985, made a lot of Variety programmes for the local TV. He also produced Programmes which were broadcast in all Arab countries which are members of the Arab States Broadcasting Union (ASBU). During that Al Thawadi has also directed and produced a number of commercials, educational and cultural programmes. In 1990 he produced and directed Long feature film Hajiz, al- (1990) (The Barrier), considered the first feature film produced in Bahrain, the film has been entered into several regional and international film festivals. After 14 years from the first feature film, he directed co-produced _Visitor (2004)_ in 2003, considered the second feature film produced in Bahrain and first Dolby sound system in the Gulf, produced by Bahrain Cinema Company and Mr. Al Thawadi. Between those two films he directed many documentary films.

He also directed a lot of Bahrain TV drama productions and acted in a drama production for local TV. In theatre he performed in many plays

His other activities include holding a solo photography show in Cairo in 1980, being selected as a member of the judging committee of the Baghdad International Television and Film Festival in 1988, selected as a member of the judging committee of the Abu Dhabi Cultural Complex Video Film Festival in 1991, selected as the chairman of the judging committee in Al Sawari Video Festival of 1994 and many similar selections. He organised the New Egyptian Cinema Days Festival in Bahrain in co-operation with the Information Ministry and the Bahrain Cinema Club in 1993. He was General organizer and director of the Fifth Arab Music Festival which was held in Bahrain in November 1996. Founder and general director of the First Arab Cinema Festival in Bahrain in 2000 Organised a number of lectures and seminars dealing with cinema in the Gulf and Bahrain.

Currently he works as drama and documentary section head at the Bahrain Radio and Television Corporation (BRTC).

IMDb Mini Biography By: Fareed Ramadan