WHO WE ARE

Ma3mal is a collaborative pool of thinkers and workers from different backgrounds and disciplines who innovate projects that are considered a priority for our region. It is designed to produce and enhance the production of films, documentaries, video art, installations, and other visual and artistic projects that have an Avant-Garde nature and have the ability to make an impact and create change in civil societies, in our region, and across the globe.

  • We defend freedom of expression and freedom of creation.
  • We encourage collective work, exchange of expertise and passing on knowledge.
  • We promote the exchange of roles to complement each other’s projects with passion and transparency.
  • We assert that Arts and Culture should be at the very heart of local sustainable development and the emancipation of populations.
  • We believe that biodiversity, cultural diversity, and democratic pluralism are key to humanity’s shared global agenda.

In a global context where many conflicts are provoked by cultural divides, Ma3mal 612 considers that enhancing intercultural dialogue is key to the resolution of these conflicts, and to the successful implementation of universal human rights. We support reasoned and meaningful initiatives led by dedicated civil society actors and consider the dialogue between artists and cultural operators as a collective process of learning, a shared investment for our common future that contributes to stability and justice. 

Essence (origin)

The essence of our organization lies in a collective and genuine wish to capitalize on informal discussions between friends, to make the most of lively debates between thinkers, to capture and spread innovative ideas shared between artists and professionals of various disciplines. With a common philosophical and artistic approach, Ma3mal 612 was thus created as a platform for like-minded thinkers to collectively work towards positive societal change. In addition, Ma3mal 612 capitalized on a previous creative and production house called Mir’at Art Productions. For fifteen years since its establishment in 1995, Mir’at Art Productions paved the way for avant-garde projects at the intersection between humanitarian and artistic themes that could interest the priorities of the Arab region, with a global outlook. Through the production of TV programs, documentary series, films, and theatre, Mir’at extensively worked on awareness campaigns that could be presented artistically to society. Ma3mal 612-Think Factory as it exists today was first envisioned in 2008 and later established in 2010, simultaneously with the first edition of the Karama Human Rights Film Festival.
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Vision & Values

Since the Arab World is experiencing vast changes, Ma3mal 612-Think Factory seeks to combine film as a medium to address issues of political, social, and economic rights by creating a cultural platform for artists and citizens. The platform aims to stimulate dialogue, debate, and awareness of human rights and development issues in the Arab world. The arts, by definition, are individual or group creations that cater to a public; a heterogeneous public whose relationship with art is based on varying modes of discourse, analysis, and interpretation. Ma3mal is a collaborative pool of thinkers and workers from different backgrounds and disciplines who innovate projects that are considered a priority for our region. The word Al-Ma3mal means the “Factory’ (in English). It is designed to produce and enhance the production of films, documentaries, video art, installations, and other visual and artistic projects of an avant-garde nature, that have the ability to make an impact and create change in civil societies, both in our region and across the globe. Ma3mal 612 is backed up by a think tank comprised of practitioners and thinkers from various fields; artists, social scientists, architects, designers, writers, politicians, philanthropists, technicians, and others from around the Arab world. Ma3mal 612 believes in a collective approach in which all stakeholders are appreciated as main and independent actors, in order for them to reach a high sense of ownership and passion for their various projects. In this foundation, and given that it is a Factory, Ma3mal 612 attracts visual art workers, filmmakers, musicians, designers, and heterogenous profiles to work under a common theme agreed upon by the collective working team. Each specific project starts by designating its raw material, its research elements, and the findings of the think tank. The team members then alternate roles to engage and contribute to each other’s projects, including their contribution to the project’s production line process.

Partners and donors