Oman student videos win prizes from higher education ministry

Muscat: Stories in a video format about depression, marriage and being a student have all won prizes at a recently held ministry contest.
According to the Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE), “It (the contest) was judged by three Omani artists, and the three winning teams studied in England, Ireland, and the United States, respectively. The winning video was called ‘Azab’ or ‘Single,’ the second one ‘Haqiqat Mubtaath’ or ‘Truth of a Scholar,’ and the third was called ‘The Unveiled Truth- A Story About Depression,’”
“In the first place were Ahmed al Baqlani and Muhammed al Hajri from Coventry University in the United Kingdom,” said MoHE. Their video talked about the potential disasters of rushing into immature marriages.
The statement added, “Monetary prizes of OMR250, OMR200, and OMR150 were on offer for the first three places.”
Amira Al Hamood Al Harthy, a studying Psychology and Broadcasting in the US, tackled the subject of depression with ‘The Unveiled Truth.’ She said, “It is a very stigmatised topic to this day (sadly), particularly in the Middle East; people too often try to avoid being labelled as ‘crazy’ or ‘insane’ and choose to suffer from their illness rather than seek out psychiatric or psychological help.”
“I was a bit scared for selecting this topic for the purpose of this competition, seeing that it could be quite bitter and unappealing,” Al Harthy added.
Jamal Al Shukri, part of the team that won second place with ‘Truth of a Scholar,’ said, “The idea began with Ali al Niyadi. He’s already a YouTuber so when he pitched the idea, all three us got excited.”
“The main idea is to confront students with the questions that they ask about their performance. Maybe they know what problems they may face; maybe they ignore them. Being a student requires discipline. You can’t turn to laziness when you face problems.”
“I and Almunther al Siyabi acted, illustrating the differences between a successful student and one who struggles. Abdulrahman al Rashdi took care of audio and camera work. As for Ali, he handled direction and production. That may have been the largest part.”
The contestants agreed that visual media are a particularly powerful societal tool.
“Visual media are a very powerful method that strike any message seamlessly when executed well,” according to Al Harthy. “Art comes in many different forms, but the common factor that ties them all together is the ability to stir up emotion.”