Nice To Meet You

The "Nice To Meet You" event's flyer

Yesterday was the "Nice To Meet You" event. Me and Karim screened our work. It was not that big event. Only around 25 people arrived so we weren't that nervous :) For me this is the first time to screen any of my work anywhere. It's really weird when u see people watching your films and even weirder when they like any of them. A girl yesterday asked me about my target audience and I simply replied that I make these films for myself which is ridiculously true :) I never really thought about who might watch these films. I guess I should think about this point the next time. Unfortunately I haven't finished the documentary video I'm making about Marseille so I wasn't able to show them anything but unedited rough material which wasn't a good thing at all but that was better than not showing anything at all.

My Work

I have been filming in Marseille during the whole month. I've shot so many videos and I guess it's time now to edit these footage. I'm making a documentary video about the diversity in the city. I haven't decided yet the name or even the sub-theme. Here are some random still shots of some of the videos I shot.

Arabic Documentaries

I went to Alhambra cinema in Marseille to watch two arabic documentaries organized by Les Bancs Publics. The first one was a film by the Syrian filmmaker "Hala Al Abdallah" and called "I am the one who brings flowers to her grave". It a documentary about the filmmaker herself and all the films she wanted to make but couldn't complete.

A screenshot from the film "I'm the one who brings flowers to her grave"

The other film is a Lebanese film made by the German filmmaker "Monika Borgmann". It's called "Massaker" and it's about Sabra and Shatila massacre. It was really very hard to watch as the filmmaker is interviewing six of the mass murderers from Sabra and Shatila. They describe all the crimes they did with a cold blooded attitude while their faces are in black and are not identifiable.

The poster of the film "Massaker"

Arabic Theatre - Clarinet

I missed the second day of the Arabic theatre program because of the light painting workshop but I was able to go in the 3rd day. I watched this very touching play called "Clarinet". 

Director: Akram Al Malki

Actor/Screenwriter: Fadi Al Ghoul

I really fell in love with the actor's performance. Although he acted all the roles in the play he could perform each one so differently in a very easy way. Later I knew also that the play was based on the actor's true life memories about his childhood and the war and "Sabra and Shatila" massacre. It was so sad but beautiful at the same time. I can watch it over and over again.

Light Painting Workshop

I've attended a workshop in ZINC with Fabien. It was about light painting and I really enjoyed it a lot. It was so much fun to have torches and small lights and to try to paint with them. There were also other French people attending the workshop so it was a good opportunity to meet new people and to have fun with them :)

Arabic Theatre - Insihab

There were some arabic plays played in the theatre of La Friche as a part of the Arabic theatre program. The first play I watched called "Insihab" in Arabic or retreating in English. 

Director: Moez Gediri

Screenwriter: Mohamed Al Attar

Cast: Nadia Wally/Skander Zehani

The play was very simple in terms of art direction. There were only the two actors and a bottle of water. I found some difficulty understanding every word although it was in Arabic but it was in Tunisian colloquial and the were speaking so fast but the actors were good in general.

L'Aïd in Marseille

I was planning to go the prayer in the first day of "Eid El Adha" with Karim. We got really lost and finally when we arrived we found that it was over. The prayer was in a very big hall in a place near the stadium.

We were really upset that we missed it as we wanted to pray and to shoot the prayer as well. It's not very often that we spend the feast outside Egypt. I myself thought it was a great idea to make a documentary video about the feast in Marseille and how people spend it. It would have been really interesting for the people here to see an aspect of their city they might not know and also for the people in Egypt. 

I could only shoot with two ladies; one from Algeria and one from Tunisia. They were really friendly and when they knew I was from Egypt they decided to greet the muslims in Egypt for the feast.

The 2 ladies I shot with in a great hall where the prayer took place

Since we missed the prayer we thought we could shoot the sacrifice. We were told to go to a place called "Marche Puces" in a very far place in Marseille. We had to take to metro to go to a place called "Bouganville" and then to have bus number 70. We spent a long time trying to understand this :) and when finally we took the bus we realized that we took it in the opposite direction :) so we had to go all the way back to take the right bus. Everybody was telling us about Mostafa Silmani and we had know what was that until we reached the place and found the big sign with the name to realize that it was only a butcher :)

Mostafa Silmani in marche Puces

It was very cold that day and the district itself was very poor. Everybody was warning us not to walk with the cameras. In Mostafa Silmani there were so many poor people lining up waiting for the free meat. It's a part of the feast to give third of your meat to the poor or even more. We felt it was not that safe to shoot with them because if one of them got angry the rest might hurt us or take the cameras. Also there wasn't any special thing going on but people waiting unlike Egypt for example.

People waiting for the free meat in Mostafa Silmani

After the very long extremely cold day we ended up with nothing and we went back home very disappointed.

Arafat Day

This is the first time for me to spend the eid or the feast outside Egypt. The day just before the feast is called "Arafat Day" or the Day of Arafa. Some people fast in it so they don't eat or drink anything from dawn to sunset. Mohamed Youssef and Karim Shaaban were fasting so we decided to eat all together in the villa. We preferred to cook something instead of eating in a restaurant to have the Egyptian mood of the day. Basically Mohamed did all the cooking and Karim and I just tried to help him. I'm really a very bad cook.. I don't even know the basics  :)

Mohamed Youssef's cooking

Karim tried to make some French fries but they really turned out so bad that we had to throw them at the end. I guess he should have put them in some salty water before cooking them.

Karim trying to make the French fries

Karim's French fries

Paysages Sensibles

I visited "Paysages Sensibles" exhibition in Saint-Jean citadel. I really liked the drawings of "Mathias Poisson" and the photography of "Mélanie Terrier".

© Mathias Poisson Drawing

© Mélanie Terrier Photography

The girls have left :/

By the end of the Instants Video Festival all the three girls in the floor packed their bags to be ready to travel back home in the early morning. There were lots of noise and the place was really live when they were around.

Me with the girls holding the Instant Video Festival brochure

Les Instants Video Festival - Day 4

"Ecritures en extension" is a video audio poetic performance by Giney Ayme with multimedia proposition by Philippe Boisnard. 

It is a very beautiful interactive performance and I was lucky enough to find some of it in vimeo when it took place in somewhere else last April. Of course attending the show is much better than watching some of it in vimeo but I think it's better than nothing :)

Egyptian Icons in Marseille

It's really nice to enter a random book shop in Marseille and then you find the picture of the Noble prize winner and the most famous Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz hung on the wall or to enter a DVD shop and then find the films of Youssef Chahine; the prestigious Egyptian filmmaker who was from Alexandria as well.

Youssef Chahine's films in a DVD shop in Marseille

Naguib Mahfouz's picture in a book shop in Marseille

Notre-Dame de la Garde Church

Finally I went to the Notre-Dame de la Garde church, the most famous place in Marseille as it can be seen almost from anywhere in the city. It's a very beautiful church which is full of tourists. From up above you can have a magical view of the whole city underneath.

Inside the Notre-Dame de la Garde church

Inside the Notre-Dame de la Garde church

A tourist taking a picture in the Notre-Dame de la Garde church

The view of Marseille from the Notre-Dame de la Garde church

Ex_pose

Ex_pose is a breathtaking dancing performance in an interactive video installation. It's made by Skalen who are Michèle Ricozzi for dancing, Jean-Marc Montera for music and Samuel Bester for video. It was shown in the 3rd day of the Instants Video Festivanl and I really liked it a lot.

There is also another video for the same team Skalen called "If I .." which is also very interesting.