Art Dubai Film is a programme of video and film by and about artists. Besides artists’ video shown in the gallery booths, our not-for-profit programme includes a cinema space at the fair each March, featuring programmes created by guest curators and collaborators.

In 2012, Art Dubai launched The Hatch, an ordinary stairwell transformed into an intimate space for film, video and artists’ talks. A rolling programme featured archival film curated by Bidoun Projects, artists’ films presented in collaboration with Art Dubai galleries, plus a series of artists’ talks.

The artists’ talks included presentations by artists commissioned by Art Dubai Projects and those who participated in A.i.R Dubai, the residency programme run by Art Dubai, Delfina Foundation, Dubai Culture and Arts Authority and Tashkeel.

The Hatch was supported by AVID Learning, an Essar Group Initiative. AVID fosters creative learning across the fields of culture and heritage, literature and the arts through workshops, lectures and other programs. Currently based in India, AVID launched in the UAE in 2012.

One feature of The Hatch 2012 was the screening of rare films from the modern moment in Iran, re-mastered and presented by the not-for-profit publishing, curatorial, and educational initiative Bidoun Projects.