April 24, Thursday, 7:30PM
Experimental Films
by Arab Women Filmmakers

Balagan continues to explore experimental tradition from different parts of the world and welcomes a program of shorts by Arab Women filmmakers. The programs is curated by Hisham Bizri, a Lebanese film and video artist and currently an artist in residence at the Center for the Advanced Visual Studies at MIT. Among the featured filmmakers are Ateyyat El Abnoudy, Marianne Khoury, Viola Shafik.

Sad Song of Touha 16min, video, 1971
The Sandwich 12min, 1975
Director: Ateyyat El Abnoudy (Egypt)

"Sad Song of Touha is a fascinating portrait of Cairo's street performers. In a typically unobtrusive manner, the filmmaker has successfully captured the essence and unique quality of this subculture unified as much by their talents as their marginal social stature. Through the haunting images of tiny child contortionists and seasoned fire-eaters this tightly knit community and its secrets unfold with the cinematic qualities of a dream. It is clear that Sad Song of Touha is an homage to the artistry, showmanship and wonder of Cairo's streets." - Arab Films

"The Sandwich. As children play and help prepare a meal, we witness everyday life in a small rural town that seems to have escaped the passage of time, an illusion that is shattered in the film's final frames." - Arab Films

"Award-winning Egyptian documentarist Attyat El Abnoudy is one of the few film-makers in the Arab world whose work has been consistently acclaimed in the West. She is widely regarded as the finest exponent of documentary cinema in Egypt and one of the finest Arab film directors alive today. She concentrates upon social issues revolving around the Egyptian, Arab and African underclasses, especially upon the lot of women, a choice of subject matter which has limited her popular appeal and frequently invited the displeasure of Arab governments. Trained as a lawyer, Ms. Abnoudy studied film-making at the Egyptian Film Institute and later at the International Film and Television School in England. The 22 films she has made between 1971 and 1996 have won over 30 international awards. A retrospective of her work, "Humble People's Film-Maker", has been shown at the Cinemateque of Hamburg and Auxberg Film Festival in German, at the Cinemateque of Bologna in Italy, the Tempere Film Festival in Finland and at the Los Angeles Film and Video Festival in the United States. Ms El Abnoudy has served on the International Jury of the Manheim Film Festival, and has been head of the International Jury Committees of the Oberhausen Film Festival in Germany, the Klibia Film Festival in Tunisia and as Executive Director of the Second International Documentary Film and Short Subject Festival in Egypt. She was formerly married to Egypt's leading poet Abdel Rahman El Abnoudy." - Women Make Movies

The Lemon Tree 29min, video, 1993
The Planting of Girls 37min, 1999
Director: Viola Shafik (Egypt)

"The Lemon Tree. An adaptation of a sad short story by the poet and former Arab League ambassador, Ibrahim Shokrallah, The Lemon Tree reflects the pessimistic mood of the immediate post Gulf War era." - Arab Films

The Planting of Girls. "Although Female Genital Mutilation (FGM, the removal of the clitoris and often part or whole of the labia minora to ensure a woman's premarital and extra-marital chastity) is forbidden by law in Egypt and banned in public and private hospitals and clinics, official statistics show that nearly 96% of women in Egypt are still circumcised. This controversial-yet-level-headed documentary examines why FGM is practiced, the reactions to it and its medical, historical, cultural and sexual significance – all from women’s perspectives and in women’s voices." - Arab Films (read more at http://www.egyptiancastle.com/community/justice/circumcision/circumcision01.htm)

Viola Shafik was born in Germany in 1961. She studied cinema in Hamburg and currently teaches at the American University in Cairo. She has directed several documentaries including "Iraqi Artists in Germany" (1991), "Mother of Light and her Daughters" (1999), "The Lemon Tree" (1993) and others. The Lemon Tree was awarded a Prize for the best documentary short at the Images of the Arab World Festival in 1993. Ms. Shafik is also the author of the book "Arab Cinema: History and Cultural Identity" (1999).

Zaman Laura 36min, video, 1999
Director: Marianne Khoury (Egypt)

Laura Laurella, an Egyptian Italian, takes us on a journey through time, as she recounts the story of her passion for dance. Founded in 1954, her school still exists today in an Egypt which has seen many changes over the last decades. The camera attempts to recapture the intimate moments of her daily life as well as glimpses of her world through the testimony of the people who knew her. This film is the story of a woman who is ordinary, but has nevertheless left her mark on generations, not only on their ballet apprenticeship but, above all, on the more mundane things in life...

Marianne Khoury was born in Cairo in 1958. She received her BA in Economics and Political Science from the American University in 1958 and then her Master's Degree in Economics at Oxford University in 1982. Since 1984, she is an associate director of Misr International Films Productions and an executive producer for a number of films directed by Youssef Chahine. She has also collaborated with such directors as Yousri Nasrallah, Asma el-Bakri, Radwan al-Kashef and Atef Hetata. In 1999, she directed her first documentary "The Times of Laura". " Women's in the eve of the twenty first century" is her current project. It is a collection of films about pioneer arab women. She is putting the production together and has directed the film about pioneer women in Egyptian Cinema "Ashikat Al-Cinema" ("Women who Loved Cinema") in 2002.