NEW YORK // One winner of the movie-making competition described it as the freedom to express one's opinion. Another likened it to a fruit smoothie. But for the UAE-based artist Rodin Hamidi, it is the loftiest goal of modern society. The award winners come from all over the world, and their short films sought to encapsulate the meaning of one word democracy as part of a contest organised by the US state department.
Hamidi, 26, an iconoclast Iranian photographer who has lived in Dubai for almost four years, joined five fellow winners for a screening of his three-minute short The Path, an allegorical film shot in Dubai, in midtown Manhattan on Tuesday. The first Democracy Video Challenge attracted more than 900 entries from 95 countries. The winners, from Africa, the Middle East, Asia and South America, were selected by online voting.
Hamidi, who has exhibited at Bastakiya's XVA gallery, is a native of Tehran who lives in Umm Suqeim. He lauded the efforts of pro-democracy campaigners following Iran's contested elections. jreinl@thenational.ae
