CAIRO: El Sawy Culturewheel hosted the first international event for Open Show on Wednesday night, drawing an estimated 60-70 people eager to see what was being shown. Open Show, an event that started in San Francisco two years ago, is an outlet that provides photographers, filmmakers and multimedia producers the opportunity to present their work in an interactive atmosphere. “I started working with Open Show in San Francisco and really enjoyed it. When I came to Cairo a few months ago, I thought it would resonate really well here so I started planning,” said Rachel Anderson, co-producer of the event. “There has never been an international Open Show event, let alone something like this in Cairo, so I had to start from scratch researching and contacting people,” she added. The event took Anderson approximately three months to plan and set into action with the help of many others, including co-producer Laura Guidy. “The point of this event is to create a dialogue from the creator to the audience where both can learn from one another,” said Anderson. To be a part of the event, those interested must submit their work through the Open Show website (openshow.org) and after all submissions are reviewed, a select few are chosen. Normally, the event includes up to five presenters, but for the first show, Anderson opted for three. The format for the event included each presenter giving a brief background of their piece, showing their work and then followed by an interactive conversation between the presenter and the listeners. The first presenters, Tamer Ashry and Ahmed Hayman, battled through a few technical problems, but showed their finished short video that took the audience through the Al-Qaed Ibrahim mosque in Alexandria during the past Ramadan. “We shot the footage on the 27th night of Ramadan, Laylat ul-Qadr (Night of Power), with thousands of people praying in the mosque, in the streets and on the rooftops; pretty much anywhere and everywhere,” said Hayman. “It is easy to see the emotion come through in the video from the people praying through the 20 minutes filmed that we later edited down to about three minutes,” Hayman added. The last two presenters, Moustafa Mazhar and Maja Wadin, chose to cover the Characters of Egypt festival through still photography and a short video documentary. “This video was a short introduction video to what is going to be a longer documentary on the people in the festival, but I was really glad to be able to share it through this event,” said Wadin. This type of event is a first for Wadin, but she can't wait to participate again, adding that she appreciated the feedback from the audience. Mazhar, a freelance photographer, also said it was an interesting experience, but enjoyed the opportunity to show his photographs at Open Show and would participate again in the future. “I'm really happy with how this first event went and now I understand more how things work here. The future can only get bigger and better from here on out,” said Anderson. Open Show is open to all levels of amateur and professionals wanting to submit ongoing or completed work. The show welcomes a diverse range of submissions from documentary to fine art. Anderson notes that she has seen previous submissions range from artistic to abstract to photojournalism. Starting in January, Open Show will be a monthly event held at El-Sawy Culture Wheel. “This event is really open and anyone has a chance to be involved in this unique little community,” said Anderson.
