INDEPENDENT SHORT FILMS AND MEDIA ART ARAB SHORTS: INDEPENDENT SHORT FILMS AND MEDIA ART A VISUAL ARTS INITIATIVE OF THE GOETHE-INSTITUT IN NORTH AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST IMPRESSUM This book is published by Goethe-Institut Kairo. EDITORIAL TEAM Dr. Günther Hasenkamp, Ghada El-Sherbiny, Dr. Antje Klesse Director Goethe-Institut Kairo: Gabriele Becker Artistic director Arab Shorts: Marcel Schwierin Translation and language consultancy: Mostafa Hashish, Isis Hakim, Dr. Manuela Thurner Photography: DayDream Art Production, Mohamed El Maymouny Design and layout: Lisa Maria Kreutzer EDITORIAL NOTE All films from Arab Shorts 2009, 2010 and 2011 have been included in this publication. Apart from the introduction, all texts in this book were taken from www.arabshorts.net and from festival booklets and handouts produced in the project. The editors wish to thank the curators, the filmmakers, the guests, our audiences, our assistants, and our colleagues at the Goethe-Institut head office Munich, in Cairo and in the Middle East and North Africa and all friends and supporters. Special thanks to Fabian Mühlthaler. The initial phase of the project was supported by the “Hiwaruna” program of the German Federal Foreign Office. Goethe-Institut Kairo 5 El Bustan Street P.O. Box, 7 Moh. Farid 11518 Cairo www. goethe.de/kairo www.arabshorts.net © Goethe-Institut 2012 LIST OF CONTENTS THE PROJECT “ARAB SHORTS” – INTRODUCTION 6 INTERVIEW WITH MARCEL SCHWIERIN, 8 ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF ARAB SHORTS PROGRAMS AND FILMS. A COMPLETE OVERVIEW 2009-2011 10 ON ARAB SHORTS 2009 18 Mounes Khammar: Independent Film in Algeria 20 Emad Mabrouk: Independent Film in Egypt 28 Haig Aivazian: Independent Film in the Gulf Region 36 Ala Younis: Independent Film in Jordan 42 Rasha Salti: Independent Film in Lebanon 48 Bouchra Khalili and Hicham Falah: Independent Film in Morocco 54 Lara Khaldi and Yazan Khalili: Independent Film in Palestine 58 Orwa Nyrabia: Independent Film in Syria 64 Ikbal Zalila: Independent Film in Tunisia 70 ON ARAB SHORTS 2010 82 Emad Mabrouk: Egypt – Post-realist Reality 84 Ikbal Zalila: Formalism Beyond Realism 90 Ala Younis: To Know the Arab Terrain: Movements To, From, and Within 96 Toni Serra (aka Abu Ali): Broken Films 104 Abir Boukhari: Once Upon a Time in Arab Countries 110 ON ARAB SHORTS 2011 122 Hala Galal and Ayman Hussein: Personal Freedom – Fiction Within the Truth 124 Nadira Ardjoun: Childhood:Innocence 132 Habiba Djahnine: Transcend the Geographies of Fear 136 Walid Tayaa: Metaphor and Resistance in Tunisian Short Films 142 Ala Younis: Everything Is Alright, Officer 148 Masoud Amralla: Paths to Solitude 156 Maha Maamoun and Sarah Rifky: A State of Fluidity 162 Lara Khaldi and Yazan Khalili: In the Name of the Father 170 AMIRA EL AHL: REALITY RECAPTURED – 178 A NEW CULTURE OF DISCOURSE INDEX I: FILM TITLES A-Z 188 INDEX II: FILMMAKERS A-Z 192 Introduction Arab Shorts INTRODUCTION ARAB SHORTS It all started with an encounter, an idea, and an ex- Cultural exchange, however, is based above all on periment. On December 9, 2009, the Goethe-Institut real meetings between real people. We had merely Kairo opened a “film festival” entitled Arab Shorts. taken a first step and began to think about how to Over three days, eleven Arab curators presented activate a longer-term process of open exchange. nine film programs, showcasing a previously little It seemed worthwhile to expand the Arab Shorts known cultural production: so-called “independent” project. Over the course of three years, curated films from the Arab world that are not feature- programs were developed by new and old contribu- length but develop their themes in the span of tors from almost all Arab countries, who were free three, twenty or forty minutes, using unusual and to choose their thematic focus. Two more “festivals” partly experimental forms. In a single event, the took place in Cairo, individual viewings were held in festival thus brought into focus and made visible Helsinki, Damascus, Berlin and elsewhere, and new a surprisingly large cultural scene that had been components were added. Arab film curators visited little noticed, widely dispersed and working mostly German festivals and film institutions as part of the in isolation. It had been there and yet it was new, Goethe-Institut’s Visitors Program. In turn, German even to arts and culture professionals. festival representatives and film experts traveled to Cairo, where they presented guest programs, The idea for Arab Shorts had been discussed in the talked about their festivals, and, in a project-related months leading up to the festival with a group of “Viewing Lounge” (that took its cue from the film Arab film experts. Marcel Schwierin, a Berlin-based market databases at big festivals), viewed addi- film curator working with the well-known German tional productions from the world of independent festivals in Oberhausen, Halle, and Berlin, had Arab shorts. come to Cairo with an idea. Schwierin was interested in online formats that were just starting to become What began as a tool for filmmakers developed into popular in the film world. His idea – showing films a driver of cultural exchange which spawned a vast not just in movie theaters, but putting them on the number of contacts, visits, events, publications, worldwide web and thus making them accessible and stays. Although the “festivals” in Cairo were to everyone with Internet access – caught on. undeniably modest in terms of aspiration and size, Technological developments had made it possible five-day events with some forty international guests and conceivable to reach an unprecedented number from the world of film and a sold-out audience created of people. The experiment moved in a promising a social space where it was possible to learn from direction: After the close of the festival, more than each other and create something new. sixty films had been uploaded to the new website www.arabshorts.net, with the number of films From the perspective of cultural policy, independent growing to almost 100 by 2011. A newly curious shorts originate in a milieu outside of state structures, audience had been gained, an innovative “tool” had with little or no economic support. What counts become available. most of all is the determination the filmmakers bring to their projects. Working under adverse circum- The next obvious step was to imagine all the new stances, they aim to give aesthetic form to narratives and exciting possibilities that this project opened that are dear to their hearts. That this particular up for the international cultural exchange. In the aesthetic practice also meets a social function can past, European festival curators (filmmakers, film be seen clearly from the 139 films that make up the critics or film aficionados) had to go to great lengths Arab Shorts project. It is a well-worn truism that to get hold of a preview copy, whereas now the globalization creates a tendency to homogenize material was just a mouse click away. cultural production. And yet it is also accompanied 6 Introduction Arab Shorts by a complementary development, pitting the specificity of concrete individual, social, and politi- cal situations against the uniformity of global media images. The films that form part of the Arab Shorts project attest to the poignancy of these efforts, providing images that we normally don’t get to see, capturing a reality that would otherwise be closed to us. Through their thematic and formal breadth, they show us an “Arab world as it really is – humane and diverse” (Süddeutsche Zeitung). It is our hope that these film images make it possible for the viewer to arrive at a more differentiated perspective on “the Arab world” – a perspective that, since 2011, has become more important than ever. One of the most serendipitous consequences of the project is a collaboration with the Berlin-based Arsenal - ‘Institut für Film und Videokunst’ (Institute for Film and Media Art). Starting in summer 2012, a selection of Arab Shorts will be made available through its distribution arm, “arsenal distribution.” Arab Shorts has not only strengthened the cul- tural exchange within the North Africa and Middle East regions, but also between Germany and the Arab world. It would be impossible to list the innumerable en- counters and communications that occurred in the context of the Arab Shorts project over the course of three years. We are grateful to every single person who has contributed to the project, in particular to the 21 Arab curators, the 118 filmmakers, the artistic director Marcel Schwierin, the representa- tives of Arab and German film festivals, and Stefanie Schulte Strathaus from the board of ‘Arsenal.’ Their commitment and friendliness, their openness and enthusiasm have been a huge encouragement and have brought the project a long way. Cairo, spring 2012 Günther Hasenkamp Ghada El-Sherbiny Antje Klesse 7 Interview with Marcel Schwierin ASSEMBLING, FRAMING, COMPOSING INTERVIEW (2010) WITH MARCEL SCHWIERIN, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF ARAB SHORTS Marcel Schwierin is a Berlin-based filmmaker and While studying film at the Braunschweig University of curator. As a filmmaker he has made a name for Arts, I became interested in National Socialist film. himself both in Germany and abroad with his film At the time, these films were hard to come by. My Ewige Schönheit. Vision und Todessehnsucht im professor, Birgit Hein, who, among other things, had Dritten Reich (Eternal Beauty: Vision and Death curated the documenta6, suggested to develop a Wish in the Third Reich) (2003). He co-founded the series of events on National Socialist film aesthetics. Werkleitz Festival in Halle (Saale) and the Internet By chance, we also received external funds, which database cinovid, works as a freelance curator for meant that the event grew quite big: 14 presenta- the transmediale Berlin and curates regularly for the tions spread out across two semesters, open to International Short Film Festival Oberhausen.