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The first film production in any country -- regardless of its screen duration, the nationality of those involved in its making, or its classification (fiction, documentary, animation) -- is considered the first film in the history of the cinema in that country. On 20 June 2007, Egypt celebrates the production of the first Egyptian film, the short documentary entitled El-Khidiwi Abbas Hilmi El-Thani Yazour Al-Ma'had Al-'Ilmi Al-Tabi' li Masgid Al-Mursi Abul-Abbas in Al-Iskandariya (Kedive Abbas Hilmi II Visits the Scientific Institute Annexed to Al-Mursi Abul-Abbas Mosque in Alexandria), produced by Studio Aziz and Dores.
Every country commemorates the centenary of its cinema with a celebration worthy of the occasion, like the Chinese celebration in 2005. Over several months the cinema committee of the Supreme Council of Culture (SCC) in Cairo put together a complete plan for the celebration of the centenary of Egyptian cinema. The plan was ready in June 2006, and in the same month the minister of culture and head of SCC ordered the drawing up of an executive committee to implement this plan; that committee has yet to convene.
Last November, the non-governmental organisation Cadre (Audio-Visual Development Foundation) announced that it would organise the first Silent Film Festival on 20 June 2007, celebrating the centenary of the cinema. The festival is to become an annual event taking place between 20 and 26 June. Such an event will be the first of its kind in Egypt, the Arab world, Africa and the Middle East. Despite the fact that silent films constitute a third of the production of cinema in the world, there are only a handful of festivals for silent films out of the world's 1,000 some annual festivals.
November 2006 was also when the Bibliotheca Alexandrina formed a committee from three Egyptian film critics and historians to choose the most important 100 films in the history of Egyptian cinema to mark the centenary -- meaning landmarks and turning points irrespective of aesthetic standards. The list of the Bibliotheca was an attempt to represent both the largest number of male and female directors and all the trends and genres in narrative (fiction) feature films, which number over 3,000.
Director Salah Abu Seif came first with eight films, followed by Youssef Chahine, seven, and Henri Barakat, four. Each of Kamal El-Sheikh, Atef Salem, Saïd Marzouq, Atef El-Tayyeb, Khairi Bishara, Dawoud Abdel-Sayyed had three films; while each of Ahmed Badrakhan, Niazi Mustafa, Fateen Abdel-Wahhab, Tawfiq Saleh, Hassan El-Iman, Hussein Kamal, Ali Badrakhan, Raafat El-Mihi and Osama Fawzi had two.
Out of a total of 62 directors, one film by each of the following was selected: Mohamed Karim, Fritz Kramp, Togo Mizrahi, Kamal Selim, Youssef Wahbi, Kamel El-Telmissani, Walieddin Sameh, Ahmed Kamel Morsi, Anwar Wagdi, Helmi Halim, Mahmoud Zulfiqar, Ahmed Diaaeddin, Hassan El-Seifi, Helmi Rafla, Ibrahim Imara, Hussein Fawzi, Ezzeddin Zulfiqar, Hossameddin Mustafa, Khalil Shawqi, Kamal Attiya, Ashraf Fahmi, Mohamed Radi, Shadi Abdel-Salam, Mamdouh Shoukri, Samir Seif, Mohamed Abdel-Aziz, Nader Galal, Ali Abdel-Khaleq, Ahmed Yehia, Mohamed Khan, Hani Lashin, Sherif Arafa, Yousry Nasrallah, Mohamed Kamel El-Qalyoubi, Munir Radi, Inas El-Deghidi, Magdi Ahmed Ali, Sayed Said, Radwan El-Kashef, Mohamed Abu Seif, Atef Hatata, Hani Khalifa, Hala Khalil and Marwan Hamed.
On 20 June, Egyptian Cinema Day, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina publishes a book on the 100 films selected in over 400 pages edited by Ahmed El-Hadari, bringing together articles by a number of critics and historians on the importance of these films. It is thought the Bibliotheca owns copies (VHS or DVD), even though the correct procedure is to produce 35mm prints of the films, but the Bibliotheca does not have access to a 35mm projector.
In 1952 Egypt celebrated the 25th anniversary of the production of its first feature film (1927). It was a huge celebration on both the governmental and popular levels. In 1977, the 50th anniversary was still big, but smaller than the silver one, and similarly the diamond jubilee in 2002 was even smaller than its predecessor. This June the centenary commemoration is bound to be very weak even if Cadre manages to hold the first Silent Film Festival.
Cinema is an expression of modernity, and the decrease in the attention dedicated to the cinema as part of the national Egyptian culture is an indication of the crisis of modernity in Egypt. The size of the celebration of the anniversary or any occasion is no proof of regression, rather that Egypt is the only country in the world which produced over 3,000 feature films, and almost as many short films, yet remains without a cinematheque where at least one copy of each of them can be found, even if such copies will be on VHS or DVD.
The committee head by Ahmed El-Hadari, with the membership of Samir Farid and Kamal Ramzi approved the following list of the most important 100 Egyptian films:
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Great guide for catching up on what I've missed.
Nice that Ice Cream Fi Gleam is one of them. I have some friends starring there. That was my generation growing up. Posts: 8756 | From: Tax-Free Zone | Registered: Jul 2005
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