Last Friday, filmmaker Atiyat Al-Abnoudi passed away at the age of 79. Born as Atiyat Awad Khalil, she was better known by the name of her former husband, the late vernacular poet Abdel-Rahman Al-Abnoudi; she kept the name even after their divorce. She was born in 1939 in Daqahliya governorate, graduated from the Faculty of Law at the Cairo University in 1963 and continued from the High Cinema Institute in 1972. She also studied film in Britain. She became one of the most important names in the field of documentary filmmaking in Egypt, so much so that she was called the Ambassador of Documentary Cinema. She also founded a production company, Abnoud, to help sustain her work. Her documentaries such as Kanto Market, Possible Dreams or Days of Democracy tackle the challenges and achievements of the working class and the dispossessed. She received the Best Co-Production Award at the Valencia International Film Festival for her film Life's Rhythm in 1990, the Egyptian Cinema Critics' Association Award for her film Who Sold and Who Bought in 1992 as well as a lifetime achievement award at the National Film Festival in 1998.
