Said in Cairo
EDWARD Said, American University in Cairo (AUC) officials announced, is to give two lectures at the AUC on 16 and 19 March. The occasion, they added, was the university's ongoing Year of Palestine, a programme of which Mahmoud Darwish's appearance towards the end of last year was part.Not unexpectedly, the two lectures are to deal with human rights from a global perspective, and the role of the intellectual in contemporary world politics. Said will stop at AUC on his way to Alexandria to attend the upcoming African Literature Conference (19- 23 March), entitled "Lighthouses and Libraries: Resurrecting History", in which his seminal Orientalism will be celebrated.
Rallying unity...
KULLENA Benkammel Ba'd (We All Complete Each Other), a new operetta to be performed at the Opera House Main Hall on Friday, features 14 well-known singers from around the Arab world, including Mohamed El-Helw, Nadia Mustafa, Arkan Fouad, Abdalla Al-Ruwaished, Arwa and Hanin.Composed by Helmi Bakr, with lyrics by the well-known vernacular poet Sayed Hegab, the operetta is intended as a musical affirmation of Arab unity in the face of current turmoils. Initially filmed on video, to be broadcast on television networks, this will be the operetta's first live performance.
Little screens
THE 13TH CAIRO Festival for Children's Film opened today at the Cairo Opera House Main Hall, in the presence of Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni.The event, festival director Fawzi Fahmi announced at a press conference on Tuesday, features some 200 contributions from 32 countries, including animation films and television shows as well as features. Arab countries, he added, contribute 85 films, one of which represents Palestine. For programme see Listings
Canal sounds
AN OPERA House Festival opened at the Suez Canal University Campus in Ismailia on Tuesday, in the presence of Fouad Saadeddin, governor of Ismailia, and Samir Farag, Opera House director. Featuring a photographic exhibition entitled "Images of Jerusalem", the festival also provides for seminars and evening performances, the latter held at the Ismailia Cultural Palace Theatre.
History's children
AL-DARB Al-Ahmar, a popular neighbourhood with a wealth of historic buildings, has been the subject of a school children's workshop organised by the Friends of Historical Cairo Association in collaboration with the Agha Khan Foundation. The workshop, in which numerous children from the neighbourhood are participating, provides for field trips to the surrounding historical sites as well as art, history and archaeology classes and training programmes in singing and acting.The first few weeks' work was showcased at the association headquarters in Al-Darb Al-Ahmar last week, in an event that featured an exhibition opening, two stage performances and a general knowledge competition.
Outstanding students were given awards.
Mafia rules
THE EGYPTIAN Oscar competition results were announced last week by the head of the Egyptian Association for the Art of Cinema, Abdel-Moneim Saad.Sherif Arafa's Mafia topped the list, receiving six awards including best director, best music (Omar Khairat) and best script (Medhat El-Adl).
Other winners include Nadia El-Guindi, who received the best actress award for her role in Al-Raghba (Desire), Mahmoud Abdel-Aziz (best actor) for his role in the late filmmaker Radwan El-Kashef's Al-Saher (The Magician) and the rising comedy star Mohamed Saad, who received the so-called audience award.
Haqqi celebrated
YEHIA HAQQI was at the centre of a two- day Supreme Council for Culture conference on Saturday, organised by the Fiction Department. Speakers at the opening session included Youssef El-Sharouni, the department coordinator, as well as the author's daughter Noha Haqqi and Gaber Asfour. The session also featured a documentary on Haqqi, on which Ahmed Rashed commented.Many authors and critics, including Soliman Fayyad and Abdel-Moneim Teliema, contributed to subsequent sessions.
Protest theatre
AN ANTI-WAR Theatre Festival opened last week with Al-Harb Al-Horreya (War, Freedom), a play written by Atef El-Ghamri and directed by Hanaa Abdel-Fattah, at the Supreme Council for Culture.Organised by Alfred Farag, coordinator of the council's Theatre Department, the event features 43 plays all of which directly or indirectly depict the impending war against Iraq, adopting an anti-war stance.
...and laughter
FILMMAKER Nader Galal's Awez Haqqi (I Want My Dues), a new comedy featuring Hani Ramzi in the company of older comedians like Wahid Seif and Abdel-Moneim Madbouli, is currently being filmed at Studio Ahmus, in Haram. An unrealistic take on several social issues, the film also features the rising Tunisian star Hind Sabri. The crew reportedly did not celebrate the commencement of shooting, as is the convention, due to the recent death of the young comedian Alaa Waleieddin.
Late return
IRAQI novelist Fouad Al-Takarli, who lives permanently in Tunisia, returned briefly to Baghdad last week for the first time in 15 years.Invited by the Centre for Strategic Studies and Research, Al-Takarli presided over a seminar in which critics Shuja' Al-Eryan, Muhannad Younis, Batoul Qasem Naser and Nadia Al-Ezzawi discussed his last two novels, Khatam Al-Raml (Sand Ring) and Al- Massarat wal-Awjaa (Pleasures and Pains).
On his way to Iraq Al-Takarli visited Damascus to mark the occasion of Dar Al- Mada's publication of his complete works a week before.
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : 13 - 19 March 2003 (Issue No. 629)
Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/629/cu6.htm