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Al-Ahram Weekly 24 - 30 June 1999 Issue No. 435 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 24 - 30 June 1999 Issue No. 435
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Features Interview Travel Sports Time Out Chronicles People Cartoons Letters
illustration: George BahgoryThe man who fought darkness
THIS WEEK in Paris a meeting was held in Salle 12 of UNESCO headquarters to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the death of one of the greatest Egyptian intellectuals of the century -- Taha Hussein. The meeting, chaired by Dr Ahmed El-Sayyad, deputy director-general of UNESCO, was attended by many diplomats, academics and intellectuals. Among those who spoke about various aspects of Taha Hussein's life were Professor Jacques Langad from the Department of Philosophy at Bordeaux University, and Abdel-Rashid El-Mahmoudi, a leading Hussein scholar. Accompanying the event was a photography exhibition based on the Hussein family album and a screening of Atef Salim's Qahir El-Zalam (Conqueror of Darkness) in which Mahmoud Yassin takes the part of Taha Hussein.
Networks of the heart
FOR THOSE interested in the wiles and guiles of independent cultural work in the Arab world, Sherif Street, downtown, was the place to be last Saturday, when the representatives of 22 independent art and culture organisations from Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Tunisia, Morocco, Bahrain and Egypt, gathered in the office of Al-Warsha Theatre Company to exchange information about the purpose of their work and the many obstacles they have had to surmount. As the concluding session of the first arts management course to be hosted in Egypt (a project coordinated by the Arab Arts Project, a cultural institution founded two years ago in Cairo on the initiative of Al-Warsha Theatre Company, Cairo and Al-Fawanees Theatre, Amman), the evening turned out to be a forum for the participants and intellectuals who had not participated in the course to share information and get better acquainted with each other. Among the participating institutions were the Cultural Development Fund and the recently established Shams Theatre of Lebanese director Roger Assaf (actress Hanan Al-Haj Ali, Assaf's wife, coordinated the proceedings).With an emphasis on process and a staunch conviction in the long-term evolution of alternative channels, champions of "the independent" devote their expertise and vitality to engaging in a wide variety of artistic, cultural and social activities, their only common denominator being a determination to avoid both bureaucratic and commercial pressures. But in the Arab world the newly-emerging independent culture scene, if not regarded with suspicion or even outright hostility, has often been dismissed as "alternative" and "experimental" -- almost pejorative terms, considering the way they have been misapplied and abused in recent decades.
Yet the broad range of projects discussed on Saturday evening (including performance arts festivals, music and lighting workshops and programmes for working with children), as well as the unplanned rapport which informed the proceedings, testify to the growing viability of an independent network of collaborators working along similar lines in various fields throughout the Arab world. "Even if we can't bring about concrete changes immediately," a senior participant suggested, "then at least we can lay the foundations for alternative ways of doing things -- ways that make use of the human capacity for imagination, and encourage people to express their emotions -- in the ceaseless attempt to live deeper, more meaningful lives."
8mm (Joel Schumacher, 1999)
OLD WEALTHY and recently widowed, Christian (Myra Carter) hires private detective Tom Welles (Nicolas Cage) to verify whether the girl in the snuff film that her late husband kept in his safe, was actually murdered. The girl turns out to have been Mary-Ann Matthews (Jenny Powell), who had trouble with her step-father and ran away with a boyfriend who soon abandoned her. Welles, a good husband and father of an infant girl himself, sympathises with her mother. Gradually, he finds himself delving into the underworld of pornography and the sado-masochist movie industry. There, the protagonist's guide in the crime inferno is not a Vergilian veteran detective -- as in Seven, scriptwriter Andrew Kevin Walker's previous film -- but an insider, porno shopkeeper Max California (Joaquin Phoenix). Walker's remarkable script -- its characterisations and sub-plots being likely to surprise potential viewers -- Robert Elswit's morbid cinematography, and Mychael Danna's oriental music all contribute to the powerful impact 8mm has on spectators. No wonder it grossed LE75000 four days after its release in only four local movie theaters and despite the censor's scissoring off a total of three minutes from 17 places in the film, a full two hours are still left to see.
8mm is now showing at Renaissance II, Screen 4.
