Open ended
Filmmaker Raafat El-Mihi tells Mohamed El-Assyouti about his latest brainchild, the Academy for Cinema Arts and Sciences
Raafat El-Mihi -- director, scriptwriter, producer and auteur of unconventional films -- this year established a new institution with the intention of paving the way before young talented people, to whose artistic development he is committed. His professed aim is to produce "better" film craftsmen than those working in the industry today. The Academy for Cinema Arts and Sciences offers a two-year programme of evening classes in four specialisations: scriptwriting, directing, graphic design and acting. El-Mihi has recruited professionals currently in the business as teachers in order to keep the students in touch with the industry. Among the staff members are directors Hussein El-Wakil, Magdi Ahmed Ali, Sherif Arafa, Osama Fawzi, Mohamed Abu Seif and Said Hamed. El-Mihi himself is in charge of scriptwriting, while actor Amr Waked oversees the actors' workshop. El-Mihi was interviewed this week at Studio Galal, the headquarters of his new academy.
"This academy is the realisation of a dream I've had all my life. I realised that over the years Egyptian cinema began to lose its principal and perhaps only asset, in a word -- craftsmanship. Even in mainstream films you find many technical errors, where scriptwriters fail to connect scenes and directors fail to connect shots. So I decided to try to contribute to countering this phenomenon. For two years I studied the programmes offered by filmmaking schools, such as the New York Film Academy. When it was finally time to launch this academy, I insisted that all the teachers should be skilled as craftsmen and working in the field. It is an attempt to preserve what we used to be distinguished by as an industry -- something reflected in the fact that the first-year classes are named after major Egyptian filmmakers like Said El-Sheikh, Abdel- Aziz Fahmi and Ezzeddin Zulfuqar.
"When I interview an applicant I tell him, 'You want fame, I have none to offer you. You want a job, I have none to offer you. All I have to offer is the craft that will enable you to be better than the average filmmaker working in the job market today. Whether you are talented or not is a different story.' Thus we teach a student how to make a table from bits of wood or cardboard and glue, for example. If he wants to make a Louis XIV chair and he has the talent for it, he will have acquired the necessary craftsman's skill. This is the basis for the academy, which started off as a kind of adventure. It soon turned out that Egyptian society had a thirst, a terrible thirst for this kind of education. Most of my students are university graduates: doctors, engineers, everything. Even when they are very high, their thanawiya amma grades forced them to enroll in a prestigious university course, which placed them on a career path they didn't really want, and they still want to learn about what they like best -- cinema.
"The academy is not under the supervision of the Ministry of Higher Education. It does not offer the certificate everyone is after, does not reduce the required term of military conscription, does not guarantee a job or position. We prepare, train, teach. Almost all the students already have a university degree, so they don't need another certificate, but they want to understand this art and know how to handle it. Placing the academy under the ministry is still an idea to consider. So far we have not had bureaucratic problems because we operate outside the government. By law, since we are a company -- Studio 13 -- we have the right to open training centres. I am also considering establishing an affiliation with a film institute abroad, so that we would be authorised to award a certificate bearing that institute's name, and send our students for training there. We agreed with Pro Helvetia, the Swiss Cultural Centre, to host workshops supervised by Swiss filmmakers and have the top students travel to Switzerland to receive further training.
"I asked the Cultural Development Fund to donate equipment for the academy's graphic design lab, but Salah Shaqwir, head of the Fund, refused. 'You are a rival of the Culture Ministry, and we can't give you anything,' he said. But on the other hand Gaber Asfour, head of the Supreme Council for Culture, responded to my request for certain books by donating many copies to the academy. Therefore, the problem in my view is not so much the government as the mentality of the government official in charge. Bureaucracy is a double-edged weapon: it can preserve order, and it can be an excuse for complicating matters and paralysing you. The capital for running the academy and the studio comes from bank loans, which I've been losing sleep over. The Democlean sword of bankruptcy hangs constantly over my head. But I can't stop working out of fear. This kind of contribution to our society is unprecedented, and there has to be a price for it. This academy is one of a kind in the entire Arab world. It is only an attempt. For many, many people who want to realise their cinematic dreams irrespective of the support of others, it's the only choice. The pace of progress is slow due to collapse of the economy, but that is a general problem.
"Last Thursday we organised a conference, hosting novelist Sonallah Ibrahim, in support of his position -- his refusal to accept the Second Arab Novelist's Conference award. Our aim was to allow the students to get in touch with what is happening on the cultural scene, not to mention publicity for the academy. The conference drew media attention and Dream TV said the academy was the first cultural institution to host Ibrahim. We intend to organise many more cultural events. In my modest opinion, the Media Production City, which operates under the ministry and offers a degree, may well be competing with the Higher Film Institute. But the academy is not competing with anybody. I enjoy this work and I am happy that we do not have anyone from outside interfering with our teaching methodology or with the curriculum we teach. I'm not directing the academy, I'm just a consultant. No doubt I interfere occasionally, to get it back on track, because it is inevitable to be getting sidetracked at this stage, but I'm only here as director of the studio and scriptwriting programme. I'm what you call 'the shopowner'.
"Three years ago, financial difficulties forced me to stop filming in the middle of the film I was working on, but I hope to complete it in the near future. I had to make one of two choices either to bring this studio back to life and start the academy or to stay at home. Society would not have benefited had I stayed at home. I'm not wasting my time here. I like to write and direct but since the present circumstances make it impossible to create films I can do something else. I don't like to be idle. I'd rather realise my dreams, which may happen to coincide with the dreams of society, within the prescribed limits. To some extent I can be useful to society, and while fighting depression this can be a kind of release. I think young people who come here to learn and work are benefiting from this project in a similar way. There is a very interesting concept in Islam, zakat al- ilm (alms of knowledge), which stipulates that whoever possesses knowledge should pass it on to those who do not. All my teachers here are paid next to nothing, but it is a kind of zakat al-ilm for them.
"From what I've seen of the exercises of academy students I think they are excellent. We take it all very seriously. Every semester so far we have a substantial number of dropouts and students who fail. Some students complain that the academy is underequipped, but this is only our third semester. They only have to wait until the fifth semester, because by then we will have gathered all equipment necessary for second year projects. Many of our students are overenthusiastic and they want to make their films immediately. They need to slow down a little, I think -- calm. Some students are excellent, others are still terrible. In the past Cinema Institute students would criticise the films of Salah Abu Seif, and they would refuse to work as assistants, believing there was no one they could learn from. But once they started working in the industry they realised how serious Abu Seif's work was. I don't want our students to be like this. They should not look to the Egyptian film industry with contempt, because it is still rich. They have to be modest. Also they have to accept that they come from various backgrounds and that's why they should not look down on colleagues who are not at the same level.
"There are no moulds in filmmaking; some directors know more about editing, others about sound or scriptwriting. This is a place of knowledge. The fact that it is not yet well- known does not bother me. We don't advertise more because we are not like the Performing and Visual Arts Department at AUC, where they receive substantial funding, nor are we backed by the Ministry of Culture like other art schools, or by a private business corporation. I believe that our pace of development is the correct one. We do not need a higher admissions rate."
