Digital filmmaking, independent cinema and the 23rd Alexandria International Film Festival (7-11 September): Nahed Nassr keeps her hopes up At the ladies' a whole group are busy applying makeup, fixing their hair and chatting loudly when the entry of a man suddenly cuts them short. Looking up, their eyes meet his, but he can't see them because he has been transported to a sort of nightclub where they are dancing around him. Then, coming to, he leaves looking as astonished as the ladies. Yafa Goweili's seven- minute "Going out is not the same" (a reference to a proverb that would read, literally, "Going into the bathroom is not the same as going out of it") is one of many entries in the Alexandria Film Festival first-of- its-kind digital filmmaking competition, three winners of which have been awarded LE16,000 in total. The idea is to encourage this "medium of the future", but for Goweli, its importance is that it signals "recognition of independent cinema". Goweili is among a group of very young, very ambitious filmmakers who, over the last six years, have managed to carve a niche for films made with digital cameras away from the predominant production mechanisms, participating in festivals worldwide and collaborating with the NGO scene on such projects as the Cairo Independent Film Festival, held last December at the same time as the Cairo International Film Festival and making their way into establishment events like the National Film Festival for Egyptian Cinema (22-30 April) - of the 110 films the latter included, many of which were independent digital productions - as well as the one official event dedicated to short and documentary films, the Ismailia International Film Festival. Rather than "experimental" or "obscure", it is "digital" that increasingly defines independent filmmaking in this country, prompting a closer look at both. In this group, Tamer El-Said must be among the most successful. His short film, "Just take me", produced by Al-Jazeera, won the 2004 Ismailia Film Festival Prize, and he has since made "", a 2005 National Film Festival prize winner. For El-Said, there is more to independence than the digital technique or a low budget: the manner in which artistic decisions are made, rather, defines independence. "Cinema is both art and commerce, but when artistic considerations are sacrificed for the sake of profit, and when the producer overtakes the creative process, it can no longer be independent cinema." He doesn't care where support comes from - the government, the private sector - so long as it's not conditional: "In the end all [young, independent] filmmakers are in the same boat, undertaking the same experiment; it's very difficult to judge what will come out of it now." He takes issue, rather, with the censorial mentality not only of the official censor but of a society that is "intolerant, narrow-minded and conservative", explaining that even NGOs have rejected film proposals on "moral" grounds. Mona Makram, a young filmmaker particularly concerned with woman's issues, agrees: "My first film, "A world apart", about prostitutes, did not have much opportunity to be screened." Her latest, "The Journey", produced out of her own pocket and winner of the French Cultural Centre award, has been luckier. Lack of funding remains her greatest obstacle, and she cites not only the dearth of institutions offering support but the rising costs of the process itself: "If only we had the tools, we'd be able to work on more and better films. The few institutions and initiatives that do exist are no match for our potential." Still, as Goweili's story of how she made her first film demonstrates, films will not stop being made for lack of financial support: "My first film cost LE150. I borrowed the car from my father, the camera from a friend, both production and post production were contributions of the crew. The film got a prize at the Ismailia Film festival." It all started with a workshop Goweili attended, an initiative of the independent film institution SEMAT (acronym for "Independent Filmmakers for Production and Distribution" in Arabic). By now, together with other colleagues, she has formed the Warsha Media, another film making institution that aims to provide pre- and post-production services, including distribution, to both commercial and independent filmmakers. It is their belief that such institutional developments, away from the predominant big companies, are necessary for young filmmakers: "Most independent filmmakers have no reliable financial resources, and in the absence of institutions they are forced to work hard on some other, non-creative task in order to save money for their own projects whereas an artist should be able to devote himself to his art." It was on this exact premise that, together with his friends, Omar Khaled founded "With my friends' and my money", a sort of production group whereby they collaborate on making each other's documentaries and short films: "One of us will be making his own film, so we all gather around pooling resources to make it happen, and we've managed to participate in several film festivals with the result." Khaled's own Kaako made it to the Alexandria Film Festival's digital competition - proof that the filmmaker is able to "have his say" after all: "We only have two distribution companies in Egypt, together with a handful of production companies that dominate the industry, so unlike the US, for example, where independent films compete with commercial films, it is next to impossible to reach an audience unless you become a commercial filmmaker. Still, digital technology makes that a possible on some kind of scale. It may not be as professional as it should be, but it's a way of democratising the arts and it makes the means to self expression available to everyone who wants it." It makes independent cinema possible against the odds. For Ahmed El-Louzy - a student of social science at the American University in Cairo who has studied and worked in cinema, mainly as assistant director - the greatest obstacle is distribution: "When it comes to independent films, the audience is made up mostly of filmmakers eager to promote their own films." Selling films to private television channels like OVT is essential, he says, not only to make producing them meaningful but because "many independent films reflect social reality and focussing on issues that matter in the everyday lives of people. I really believe there would be an audience for independent cinema if it could only be shown." Others like Haby Soud, another filmmaker who entered the world of cinema after taking a course organised by SEMAT, says the course not only taught him but introduced him to filmmakers; another course, at the Modern Photography Centre, culminated in his documentary "A woman worth 100 men". He too feels that some filmmakers who never worked in digital and produced their work from within the establishment - Daoud Abdel-Sayed or Khairy Beshara, for example - could be thought of as independent nonetheless. More than money or distribution, he is concerned about obtaining permission to shoot on the street - not always forthcoming where independent filmmakers are concerned - without which "you could be arrested or interrogated, something that really disrupted me shooting". Relatively at ease is filmmaker Hala Galal, founding member of SEMAT, whose documentary "Women's chitchat" won the silver award at the 2004 Rotterdam Arab Film Festival. It is founding SEMAT that still defines her, however: she had just come back from a fellowship in Switzerland and, together with fellow filmmakers, was keen on expanding the space available for independent production. "We wanted to produce as many films as we could and to give this opportunity to as many filmmakers as possible. First we bought a camera, then we registered the institution as a company..." SEMAT has since established itself by, among other things, organising the Egyptian programme of the Caravan of the Euro-Arab Cinema on an EU fund in March 2006 - a valuable cross-Mediterranean opportunity. Even the Ministry of Culture is joining in the independent race, with LE16 million set aside for supporting nine feature films - an initiative the milieu has responded to positively, sensing an opportunity to improve the conditions of the industry, though independent parties have also expressed concern about whether such support will really be unconditional.
