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“Archive: A Living Memory… Cinema Pulsing with Life”
In this segment, and on the occasion of the Jesuit Cultural Center in Alexandria celebrating its 70th anniversary this month, we celebrate the “archive” and the living memory it carries within its contents. When creatively utilized, the archive becomes a vital element in the creative process and in shaping new horizons for the future.
Join us on a journey through memory and how documented memory (the archive) is represented, whether in written text, sound, or recorded images. This rich and inspiring material has been a source of creativity for filmmakers since the early days of cinema in the early 20th century, where the use of the archive was often limited to scattered shots to suggest the realism of an event.
In the 1920s and 1930s, the use of archives became more systematic, especially in early documentaries. The 1960s saw an experimental phase in archive use, particularly in the French New Wave. In the 1990s, filmmakers began reconstructing stories through archives, contributing to the evolution of cinematic storytelling.
In the 21st century, thanks to the internet and the emergence of social media, we now have an enormous amount of archival content from various fields available to the public—not only for use but also for sharing and contribution. This opens the doors to more interaction and creativity in the processes of preservation, retrieval, and the formation of collective memory.
Saturday, November 30, 2024
Film Screening: “I Have a Picture”
With the help of Kamel Al-Hompsani, one of Egypt’s oldest assistant directors, director Mohamed Zidan is making a documentary about Matawa’ Oweis, a man who worked as an extra in about 1,000 films in Egyptian cinema from the 1940s until his death. The power struggle between the assistant director and the director leads to the realization that we all live our lives as additions, lingering in the background, waiting for a chance to become stars.
Awards the film has won:
Crew:
Genre: Documentary
Country of Production: Egypt
Language: Arabic
Year of Production: 2017
Duration: 72 minutes
The film will be followed by an open discussion with the audience, with the presence of the film’s director, Mr. Mohamed Zidan.
About Mohamed Zidan
Mohamed Zidan is a director, editor, and researcher in cinema history. He studied cinema through workshops at the Jesuit Cultural Center in Alexandria. He worked as an assistant director in several short and feature films and is a co-founder of Roovers Film Production Company in Alexandria. His first film, Awdat El-Feran (The Rat Room), co-directed with six other filmmakers, was featured in the official selection at the Dubai International Film Festival, Sao Paulo International Film Festival in Brazil, Luxor African Film Festival, and the Tetouan Film Festival in Morocco in 2014. His documentary I Have a Photo was selected for the Final Cut workshop at the Venice International Film Festival and has been screened at festivals such as El Gouna, where it won the Golden Star Award for Best Documentary, the Tripoli International Film Festival, the Sharjah Documentary Film Festival, and the Egyptian National Film Festival, where it won several awards. He is currently working on his next film, The Cow Thief.
Free admission without prior registration or reservation.
AI generated translation.
