Young Arab filmmakers use AI and smartphones to bypass traditional media gatekeepers

Young Arab filmmakers are revolutionizing storytelling across the Middle East by using smartphones, free editing apps, and AI tools to bypass traditional media gatekeepers. At this year’s Sharjah International Film Festival for Children and Youth, creators as young as 14 are producing documentaries and digital campaigns that reach global audiences, fundamentally changing who gets to tell stories in the region.

The big picture: Mobile technology and AI have democratized filmmaking in the Arab world, enabling creators to produce professional-quality content without expensive equipment or institutional approval.

• 14-year-old Fajer Saeed Alyileili from Fujairah creates documentaries about pollution and scoliosis using only her iPhone and free apps like CapCut, with ChatGPT serving as her digital mentor for technical guidance.
• Jordanian-Palestinian documentarian Mohannad Abu Rizk built a massive online following after local TV channels rejected his work as “too unconventional,” with his social media projects now reaching millions globally.

Key creative tools: Young filmmakers are leveraging accessible technology to enhance their storytelling capabilities while maintaining creative control.

• AI assistants like ChatGPT help with technical questions about camera angles, editing techniques, and script writing, but creators emphasize that “the ideas are still mine.”
• Workshop programs include Sony’s “Introduction to Content Creation” and Nikon’s “Editing Your Story,” bridging professional tools with youth education.
• Creative sessions like “Put Yourself in a Movie With Waggish” teach students to use AI for transforming movie posters before refining them in Adobe Illustrator.

What they’re saying: Creators express both enthusiasm and caution about AI’s role in storytelling.

• “I don’t need to spend a huge amount of money on professional equipment,” Alyileili remarks. “I can do it with my iPhone right now.”
• 18-year-old Lujain Mohamed Hassan warns: “We risk losing the very essence of human creativity, the ability to think divergently, connect ideas, and create something truly original.”
• “AI is a tool,” notes veteran Moroccan filmmaker Yassir Idrissi. “It can help me reformulate a treatment or design a poster, but it can’t feel what I feel.”

Cultural impact: The shift is enabling previously marginalized voices to share stories that traditional media overlooked.

• Abu Rizk explains: “Before, you had to go through gatekeepers like local television channels, where only the ideas that resonated with decisionmakers would be given space.”
• He now shares “narratives from Gaza, from the Amazigh in Egypt, stories even people in the region didn’t know existed.”
• Hassan’s digital campaigns focused on sexual and reproductive health reach audiences “far beyond what traditional filmmaking could.”

Why this matters: This technological democratization is reshaping Middle Eastern media by removing barriers that historically limited who could create and distribute content.

• The movement represents a generational shift from institutional approval to direct audience connection through social platforms.
• However, creators acknowledge new challenges, with Abu Rizk warning that “social media has its gatekeepers too — the algorithms.”
• The Sharjah festival’s youth programs, including the FANN media academy, are formalizing this grassroots movement through structured mentorship and education.