CAIRO: The American University in Cairo (AUC) held its first annual Student Film Festival on May 11, where over 20 short films by seniors were screened in front of a live audience. The screenings were followed by a panel discussion with film experts and critiques. Most of the films took a comedic approach. One film in particular named “Curse of the Beggars” was extremely well received and had the audience in laughter. Most felt it was an overall good production. The film was made by Omar el-Mohandes, the grandson of Egyptian comedian Fouad el-Mohandes. The film describes a man's horrible journey through Valentines Day, after being cursed by a beggar. The audience felt it held great insights on Egyptian everyday life and in a humorous approach. It covered packed micro-buses, crazy Taxi drivers and, of course, beggars. Even though the films were low budget, most of the films were successful in showing creative ideas and the ability to portray the directors' idea through film. Malek Khouri, Director of Film Program at AUC told Bikya Masr that “money makes the difference, which in cinema is totally wrong.” Khouri teaches his students how to produce a quality film and portray their idea without the high costs. He said many of the films in the United States rely on high cost, producers, engineers and editors. But in the end none of that matters because it is the creative idea that makes a film. “You can do miracles with a little bit of money,” added Khouri. His example of this was Director Christopher Nolan's 2000 film “Memento,” which won 42 awards. The budget for “Memento” was $3 million. Compared to “Twilight's” $37 million budget or “Avatar's” estimated budget of $300 million, “Memento” is an extremely low budget film. Mohamed Abdelbary, director of the short film “I'm Lovin it,” said the professors were very helpful throughout the film making process. “They would some times come out to the shooting of the film, to help out with camera work,” Abdelbary said, “the best part of screening his first film was hearing the people laugh.” He knew that people understood his humor. BM
