A desert metropolis with a reputation as an architect’s playground and luxury shopping haven, Dubai’s meteoric rise has made it a destination for extravagance in all its forms. Yet, inland lies the industrial area of Al Quoz, a thriving creative community, set within a web of former factories and warehouses. As an incubator for art and culture, and creativity in all its forms, Dubai’s Al Quoz Creative Zone, launched in April 2021, looks to aggregate the city’s creative energy – building a home for its creators and their businesses, spanning the visual arts, cinema, music, and cultural heritage.

This new initiative manifests Dubai’s ambition to become a global centre for culture, and a bustling talent hub. Historically industrial, in Al Quoz, more affordable rents and large units have attracted art galleries, speciality coffee shops, design studios, and interactive cultural spaces, nestled among the area’s local cafeterias and baqalas. Developing into a unique creative environment that has grown organically over the past few decades, these spaces remain distanced, both physically and philosophically, from the city’s towering skyline – reliant on the ambitions of a small homegrown network, and the gradual influx of international creatives to the city.

Created in partnership with the Dubai Culture & Arts Authority, and the region’s leading youth and contemporary culture platform, Sole, Kais Dahoul directs a short feature spotlighting the voices – past, present, and future – that have helped shape Al Quoz’s identity. The film documents a lesser-seen side to Dubai that fuels its arts and culture sector, collecting stories from the artists and entrepreneurs at its centre. From Crispin Dominic, founder of production company Action Filmz, to artist and community builder Augustine Paredes, and floral designer Gurgen Yeritsyan of Goshá studio, we explore how the district’s emergence, and the supportive infrastructure born from it, has allowed creators of all disciplines creative freedom and expansion in their work.

By capturing fragments of the vast artistic ecosystem of the UAE, Dahoul invites us into a community at odds with the city’s reputation – and the originators contributing to a growing scene in Dubai.