In the fading grandeur of downtown Cairo, Khalid, a 35-year-old filmmaker is struggling to make a film that captures the pulse of his city at a moment when all around him dreams as much as buildings are disintegrating. With the help of his friends who send him footage from their lives in Beirut,...
That old theatrical war-horse Bella Donna (previously filmed in America by Alla Nazimova) was resurrected by Britain's Twickenham Studios in 1934. Conrad Veidt stars as sinister Egyptian Mahmoud Baroundi, who even before the film gets under way has left a long trail of ruined women behind him. His...
In 1960s Egypt, a humble flower seller from Alexandria is drawn into a journalist's social experiment: to impersonate a millionaire’s daughter and spend a week living among Cairo’s elite, exposing the stark divide between classes in a rapidly modernizing society.
Maverick underground American/Lebanese musician and ethnomusicologist Alan Bishop (Sun City Girls and Sublime Frequencies), lands as a stranger in Cairo, soon after the 2011 uprisings, and teams up with three young Egyptian musicians for the translation of his old songs into Arabic. Under...
A documentary that explores the life of one of the world's most populated cities from its streets. Shot in 2009-2012 (before and during the Egyptian revolution, and ending with the most recent presidential elections), the film explores the country's collective identity, inherent struggles, and the...
An Egyptian living and working in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, reflects on his new surroundings through a series of images and observations. The resulting montage is a poignant cinematic postcard that explores the contradictory nature of the immigrant experience: at once lonely, frightening, and...
In Rod El Farag, one of the poorest residential areas in Cairo, obtaining meat, fruit and daily bread is a constant struggle. But the sense of community shared by the inhabitants there helps them to some extent overcome their hardships through a social practice known as ‘al Gami’ya’, or...
Amid the tumult of the Arab Spring in Cairo, vendors in a small souk observe the political upheaval while seeking to preserve an ancient tradition of fabric making.
On a hot summer day, a taciturn teen boy makes his way through the hustle of Cairo — with a baby in tow. His arrival at a hospital reveals the turmoil beneath his muted expression, in this stark and compassionate examination of trauma.
Exclusively utilizing footage from other Egyptian films that use the pyramids as backdrop, Domestic Tourism II explores the ways in which these iconic historical monuments can be reappropriated from the “timelessness” of the tourist postcard and reinscribed into the complex political, social,...
Ahmed (Ahmed T. Ragheb), an Egyptian-American aspiring actor, anxiously awaiting news of his latest film audition, gives in to his superstitions and sets off on a journey across Pittsburgh, trying to force the hands of fate. Lily (Grace Cooper), a photography student, meanwhile, criss-crosses the...
