In this reflective episode of The Ajyal Show, Qatari filmmaker and artist Majid Al-Remaihi asks the question at the heart of every project: what gives a film its reason to exist? He resists turning his own path into a neat origin story. His relationship with cinema grew gradually, through curiosity, exploring and making, rather than through a single defining moment.

For Majid, what makes a project personal is not necessarily its subject, but the reason a filmmaker feels compelled to make it. Before anything else enters the process, there must be a core that makes sense to them first. Documentary, too, is not one fixed form for him, but an encounter with reality. A commitment to truth that also recognises the maker’s own perspective and responsibility.

He speaks openly about how quickly doubt can creep in. While developing ‘And Then They Burn the Sea’, made under the mentorship of Rithy Panh, he needed just enough conviction to interrupt it and let the film happen. He first approached the subject of his mother at a distance, before recognising that the film was asking him to meet it more directly. Small crews and simple tools, he adds, can bring a filmmaker closer to a subject, making limitation a deliberate choice rather than a compromise.

Preparation, in his view, should leave room for surprise. On ‘Perishable Idol’, an unexpected encounter led him to set aside his script and follow his instinct instead. Above all, Majid returns to urgency, whether personal or rooted in place, history or society, as the reason to keep making, even when the path is uncertain.

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