Sana al-Ansari, a seventeen year old high school student at Raba’a Adawiya Girls’ Independent School  decided enough was enough and thought long and hard on how to stop or decrease these deaths associated with road accident. “It’s not fair for everyone. It affects the mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, friends and acquaintances of the of the accident victims”  she said. 

Sana recently finished her film, titled “If They Only Knew,”  a short film about the devastion of family and friends of accident victims which was entered in Northwestern Film Festival’s Thimun Festival, to be held April 2-4, 2015 and has been nominated for three awards—Best National Film, Best Editing and Best Sound. 

Sana commended Doha Film Institute for working diligently with her to develop the script, shoot and edit the film, saying “Any Qatari youth interested in film should contact Doha Film Institute and they will help them develop and film their ideas. They are a great group of people to work with and I couldn’t have done it without them,”

Sana was recently invited to debut her film at Reach Out to Asia (Rota)’s Empower Conference held on March 12 - 14 with more than 500 young participants at the event watched the film, which encouraged the youth to drive safely.

She will be going to Washington, DC in the US in early April to  screen her film and take part in a conference as part of Qatar Foundation’s international programme to encourage youth to “change the world”. 

Sana hopes to enter her film for the annual Ajyal Film Festival in Doha this fall, as well as the Giffoni Film Festival in Italy in summer.

If you are interested in seeing “If They Only Knew,” contact Sana Al-Ansari through Doha Film Institute, at +974 4420-0505 or visit  the DFI website at www.dohafilminstitute.com, to arrange for a screening.