Documentary about Expo 2020 Dubai’s development, from concept to completion

The story of Expo 2020 Dubai, from concept to completion, is the subject of a new documentary, Expo 2020: Shaping the Future, made in partnership with the Discovery Channel, that received its premiere in an exclusive screening at the site on Monday (28 January).

Running 40 minutes, the film follows the stories of key people involved in bringing Expo 2020 to life, covering such topics as innovation and sustainability, construction and design, and discovering how organisers responded to the onset of COVID-19, initially delaying the event, and then working to delivering a safe, enjoyable environment. The remote digital experience of Expo 2020 will also be explored.

The premiere took place at the Terra Auditorium in Terra – The Sustainability Pavilion and included speeches by Jacquie Beaumont, Director and Executive Producer at Discovery Channel, and Andrea Kapos, the Producer of the documentary.

Beaumont said: “We thought: How can we show Expo [2020 Dubai] in an interesting and unique way? So we put lots of the people behind the scenes at the front of our storytelling. That’s why we wanted to speak to a lot of the main architects, for example, who built some of the buildings and find out what their vision was, not just in concept but also the challenge in building these buildings – I think that’s a really interesting story.

“I could never possibly know everything about Expo as a filmmaker – I am literally scratching the surface. [There’s] so much to find out; [there’s been] so much achieved here. I think that, for me, coming in from the outside to make the film, I’ve been discovering [Expo 2020 Dubai] like the audience.”