The birth of the seventh art in Alexandria

BIB00060

Note

The birth of the seventh art in Alexandria

Collection title

The seventh art

BIB00060

Source

Bibliotheca Alexandrina (EG)

First broadcast date

07/31/2007

Production year

2007

Abstract

Dr Mohamed Aouadh, Director of the Alexandria and the Mediterranean Research Center, presented the achievements the seventh art project and launched the website containing many valuable information about the history of egyptian cinema. One can watch clips of rare films made by Badr Lama, Stephane Rusty and others, know about the full biography the pioneers of the egyptian cinema and enjoy the photos of: Fawzi Al Djazairly, hassan Fayeq, Zinet Sadqi, Stephane Rusty and Fatima Rashdy. The website also introduces those who worked behind the cameras, including producers, directors, cameramen and others. It presents the old and new cinema halls in Alexandria and the studios that used to be in the city before they were moved to the capital, as well as the production and distribution companies that first appeared in Egypt, in El Thaghr, by foreigners.

Type

video

Production companies

Library of Alexandria - Own production

Broadcaster

Bibliotheca Alexandrina

Audiovisual form

Conference

Personalities

Aouadh Mohamed

Primary theme

Art, Culture and Knowledge

Credits / Cast

Aouadh Mohamed - Participant

Period of events

2007

Map locations

Egypt - Lower Egypt - Alexandria

Original language

Arabic

Media running time

4m31

Additional information

Context

The Birth of the Seventh Art at Alexandria

Cyril Isnart

This is an extract from a lecture given by Professor Mohamed Aouadh, director of Alexandria and Mediterranean Research Center (Alex-Med) of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (Egypt), which presents an interdisciplinary program of research on the cinema’s history in Alexandria. It displays the main result, the database posted on Alexcinema website which comprises hundreds of records on directors, actors, producers, screenwriters and technicians in Egypt and Alexandria.

The city was indeed the first among all Egyptian cities to host a film screening of Lumière brothers in 1896 and to witness the installation of the first Egyptian film studio. Alexandria, cosmopolitan city eager to modernity at the turn of the twentieth century, quickly took hold of the cinema after Westerners, local photographers such as Aziz and Dores have initiated their first film in 1907. The Local productions followed one another in the early twentieth century, often in association with the French or the Italians, whereas the first industrial company of SITCIA was founded in 1917. However, the capital attraction tends to extinguish the Alexandrian creation of the Egyptian cinema in 1934, whereas Cairo acquired better studios and a wider public.

Funded by the European Commission, this historical research program is an example of surveys conducted in the new Bibliotheca Alexandrina. The latter is considered as a scientific actor and an essential cultural operator in Egypt and the Arab world. In fact, the history of the cinema in Egypt constitutes a significant researches’ material in the field of cultural and colonial history, demonstrating how the circulation of new media dates to ancient times in the Mediterranean, as it highlights the dynamic interactions and exchanges between metropolitan societies and local companies, highlighting the role of elites in the rapidly changing contexts of regional media.

The website of the research program : http://www.bibalex.org/alexcinema/index.html

Wassef M. (ed.), 1995, Egypt: 100 years of Cinema, Paris, Institute of the Arab world, 1995.

Shafik V. 1998. Arab Cinema: History and Cultural Identity, Cairo, AUC Press.