The Arab Documentary Series: The Cinema of Hashem El Nahas

In the first screening of a series dedicated to Egyptian and Arab documentary cinema, Zawya will screen five of Hashem El Nahas’s notable documentary films.

El Nahas is a filmmaker and cinema scholar who has been involved in the founding of a number of cinema associations and festivals since the 1960s including Gameyyat Al Film, one of the oldest and most influential of such associations in Egypt, Gamaat Al Cinema Al Gadeda, the guild for Arab documentary filmmakers, The Film Critics Association and The Ismailia International Film Festival for Documentaries and Shorts. His 1972 film Al Nil Arzaq (The Nile is Fortune) continues to be a landmark of documentary cinema today and attests to a flourishing documentary movement in the late 1960s and early 70s in Egypt.

Together with another four of his films, this screening will be a rich introduction to El Nahas’s critical body of work. The screening will be followed by a discussion with Hashem El Nahas, moderated by Nour El Safoury

Films:

Al Nil Arzaq (The Nile is Fortune) (1972)
The Well (1982)
Khiamiah (1983)
Shawa Bahmad (1983)
The People and The Lake (1981) 

About the Arab Documentary Series:
In this series of screenings, discussions and readings we attempt to unpack the rich history of Arab documentary cinema. The series revisits landmark documentaries from the 60s till the present and through discussions looks at how questions around national identity, political struggle and cinematic language has shaped this field of practice. By situating filmmakers and their work within their respective histories and socio-cultural contexts we hope to start a conversation around how cinema, and especially documentary cinema, reflects and influences the greater context in which it is situated.