Private owners, public rights

By Hanan Sabra
It was in 1965 when writer Yehia Haqqi first floated the idea of establishing a national archive for Egyptian cinema. Some 36 years later, the head of the National Cinema Centre since 1999, film director Mohamed El-Qalyoubi, is the first to admit that his institution falls short of Haqqi's dream. "Perhaps we still don't have a proper archive in Egypt," El-Qalyoubi told Al-Ahram Weekly. "The storage and printing laboratories are very poor," he noted, quickly adding, "but it is better than nothing."
In the early '70s, it was made compulsory for producers to provide the National Cinema Centre with a copy of all films. Producers manipulated the law by giving in poor quality copies, in many cases nothing more than a 16mm black-and-white copy, rather than a 35mm colour-corrected version. Such weak copies are a flimsy shadow of the original, explained El-Qalyoubi, "they're useless."
A new draft law, however, could change all this. The law, already approved by the cabinet and currently under debate in parliament, would authorise the Ministry of Culture to collect 35mm colour copies of both old and new Egyptian films for storage. The bill installs severe penalties for damaging negatives or attempting to smuggle them abroad. El-Qalyoubi told the Weekly that the government is planning to build a new archive to replace the centre's musty, poorly equipped facilities. The LE36 million project also includes a cinema library, a museum and a laboratory specialised in the renewal of film negatives.
Such ambitious plans can only be seen as a direct response to the controversial birth of the Arab Holding Company for Arts and Publishing (AHCAP), which has been accused of everything from manipulation to monopolising the cinema industry. El-Qalyoubi vehemently denied any grudges against the AHCAP. Still, he described the company's emergence as a warning bell, calling attention to the slow march to extinction of precious Egyptian films.
With the nationalisation of the cinema industry, a large number of film negatives were lost -- smuggled abroad or spoiled by poor storage facilities. One of the most controversial aspects of the AHCAP's activities is its acquisition of hundreds of original negatives to old films. "We are not against investment [in the cinema industry] or the selling of rights, but these moves need to be regulated," said El-Qalyoubi. He stressed the importance of implementing laws against monopoly.
Ownership rights to film negatives are held by the producer and are often passed on to his or her heirs. Producers, however, are required by law to deposit a postive copy of each of their films at the National Cinema Centre. As a last resort, a negative can be salvaged out of a positive copy, but this can never reproduce the quality of the original. While the centre can work to upgrade its facilities and catalogue its copies more effectively, it can do nothing about the originals. "We can't prevent owners from selling their negatives," added El-Qalyoubi.
"Our only fear is that in the absence of an anti-trust law, this company [AHCAP] will eventually monopolise our cinema heritage," El-Qalyoubi said. "We cannot control how they run their business, but we have a responsibility to safeguard the rights of others, namely, the people who worked on these films -- directors, actors, actresses. Everyone has a right to these films. Most importantly, the Egyptian people have a right to their own history."
This applies, El-Qalyoubi said, not just to the films still in Egypt's charge, but also to those lost some 30 or 40 years back, smuggled out of the country. El-Qalyoubi says that it is imperative that Egypt tries to regain ownership of these treasures. Citing the buying back of Al-Nas wal Nil (People and the Nile) and Gharam fil Sirk (Love at the Circus), as examples, he also pointed out that the film Yaqout (Ruby) was returned by the French government as a gift.
El-Qalyoubi said that AHCAP's owners have said they plan to restore damaged film negatives, but he argues that the methods they use actually exacerbate the damage. "If we consider these films to be part of our heritage, just like monuments, Egypt must stipulate guarantees that will safeguard these films." The company should provide assurances that the films will be properly stored and that they will not end up in foreign hands, he said. Finally, on the issue of a monopoly, it seems that there is only one solution: "More competitors have to enter the business, including Egyptian television."
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