El Cafeteria

How do you think of cinema in times of political and social transformation? Part of the cultural change in Cairo is the constitution of independent structures for production, presentation, and distribution of film and video, as well as the discovery, display, and analysis of a hidden film history. How can one gather an unwritten film history? How can audiences and filmmakers create their own world of cinema? What does independent really mean? The urgency of these questions is obvious within a revolution, but shouldn’t they be asked everywhere in the world? Four film activists from Cairo talk about their projects, needs, ideas, and their everyday work.

Screening of El Cafeteria (Paul Geday/Attiyat El Abnoudi Egypt 1975, 11’)

"El Cafeteria is a forgotten amateur film with a lost sound track that I shot back in 1975 as part of a workshop, depicting university life in Cairo. Looking back at this may help contextualise our difficult present and help us understand what has really happened." Paul Geday

Panelists from Cairo, Egypt: Tamer El-Said (Zero Productions and Cimatheque), Hala Lotfy (Hassala Productions, Forum 2013), Hala Galal (SEMAT Production), Paul Geday (filmmaker and curator, Forum Expanded 2012 & 2013)

Moderators: Stefanie Schulte Strathaus (Forum Expanded, curator), Marcel Schwierin (Berlin, curator)

Organized with the generous support of the Goethe Institute Cairo.
by Paul Geday Egypt 1975 11’