Women filmmakers under spotlight

It seems that men are dominating the cinema industry not only in Egypt but also worldwide. However, Egyptian women filmmakers have been on the front line for a long time.

Cinema started in Egypt in the 1920s with few short films, but we consider that 1927 was the actual date of the emergence of Egyptian cinema, when producer Aziza Amir set up Heliopolis Studio and produced the first Egyptian feature film Laila, about a young woman who grows up in one of the oases. She meets Raouf who tries to woo her, but her heart for another man, Ahmed.

Soon, Amir was followed by Bahiga Hafez, who was an actress, director, writer, editor and composer. She launched the Fanar Film production company and produced Zahret el-Souq (Flower of the Market) in 1947. 

Influential female filmmakers have continued to appear since then. Among the most prominent of film producers were Asia Dagher, Madiha Yousry and Magda.

Nowadays, we rarely see a female producer or director, even though there are hardworking filmmakers who are struggling to show women’s works and put them under the spotlight. 

Film director Amal Ramsis has always been keen to promote women filmmakers through her annual festival ‘Between Women Filmmakers Caravan’.

This year’s festival was held online from 4-13 November, included 15 documentaries and fiction films, including 7 films shown in the Arab world for the first time. Female directors from 11 countries including Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Algeria, France, Spain, Switzerland, Cuba, Brazil, Iran and Germany participated in the festival. All the films were translated to Arabic.

The fifteen films for this year were selected from 350 films. Among the most prominent was Their Algeria directed by Lina Swailem, A House, Two, Three by Ruba Attia, and the Cuban film Hamsa co-directed by Heidi Hassan and Patricia Perez, and the Brazilian film Binco, Tell Me When I Die by Barbara Bath, which won the Best Documentary Award at the Venice Film Festival.

Launched in 2008, ‘Between Women Filmmakers Caravan’ is considered a pioneer in showing the cinema of female directors. Not only screening films, but the Caravan also organises workshops for women to develop their filmography skills.

“We were the first to highlight the work of female directors, then other festivals showing works by women started to appear,” Ramsis told the Mail in an interview.

“Our movies are not about women’s issues, but they are made by women directors. We want to show the societies and issues through the eyes of women,” she added.

Throughout its 14 years, Between Women Filmmakers has organised 75 workshops for women filmmakers in Egypt, Arab world, Latin American and some European countries.

“We also have recently organised a professional workshop for documentaries. We have trained around 22 for a year. Some of the trainees have filmed their first documentaries and we will screen them online during the festival,” Ramsis said.

While most of the festivals worldwide are returning to live events, the Caravan chose to continue offline.

“We wanted to skip restrictions on offline events and at the same time reach more audiences in different countries,” she said.