Featherweight Portable Cinema
01 - 09 Mar 2014
FEATHERWEIGHT PORTABLE CINEMA
[Film Series]
1 - 9 March 2014
Featherweight Portable Cinema
Rawabet
March 1, 2, 8, 9; 7 pm
Accompanying photographer Barry Iverson’s exhibition “The House of Rare Historic Photographs,” the "Featherweight Portable Cinema" is a program of short and feature-length videos and films that undermine the veracity of the photograph, sabotage the construction sites of visual representation and reshuffle the anthology of images that we consult to remember the past.
Saturday March 1
Domestic Tourism II (2009, 62m)
Maha Maamoun
Exclusively utilizing footage from other Egyptian films that use the pyramids as backdrop, Domestic Tourism II explores the ways in which these iconic historical monuments can be reappropriated from the “timelessness” of the tourist postcard and reinscribed into the complex political, social, and historical moment in urban narratives.
In Search of Oil and Sand (2012, 47m9s)
Wael Omar and Phillipe Dib
Oil and Sand was an extravagant film made by members of the Egyptian royal family and a few friends and relatives in 1952 about a coup d'état, shot just weeks before the royals were overthrown in a real coup. The completed Technicolor film was destroyed by the director in fear that it would be used as propaganda against the ousted monarchy. Following Mahmoud Sabit, the man who found the original 8mm reels and who is himself a relation of the late king of Egypt, this documentary focuses on the reconstruction of the film's story, its array of real life players, and the political circumstances surrounding the shoot. This uncanny marriage of fiction and reality reveals that the original film not only managed to unwittingly predict the fate of the King, but also foresaw the next 60 years of relations between Egypt and the West.
Sunday March 2
Mr.Moonlight (2014, 5m48s)
Ahmed Shawky
A video about the act and appearance of listening to second-hand, retold stories that lose their original meanings and shapeshift in the retelling, "Mr. Moonlight" is Cairo-based artist Ahmed Shawky's first essay into cinematic language. It is presented here in the context of "Rough Cut," Townhouse's ongoing program of screening and discussing first films.
The Three Disappearances of Soad Hosni (2011, 70m)
Rania Stephen Pieced exclusively from VHS footage, the film is a tragedy in three acts wherein the actress Soad Hosni recounts her dreamed life story through the dialogue of her films; an homage to the golden age of Egyptian cinema and to one of her most brilliant stars.
Saturday March 8
Camera Mayya (2012, 1m) I Don’t Know (2012, 4m39s)
Paul Geday
Crop (2012, 47m09s)
Johanna Domke and Marouan Omara
Sunday March 9
The Walls of Sana’a (1971, 12m48s)
Pier Paolo Pasolini
The Lost Film (2003, 42m)
Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige
[Film Series]
1 - 9 March 2014
Featherweight Portable Cinema
Rawabet
March 1, 2, 8, 9; 7 pm
Accompanying photographer Barry Iverson’s exhibition “The House of Rare Historic Photographs,” the "Featherweight Portable Cinema" is a program of short and feature-length videos and films that undermine the veracity of the photograph, sabotage the construction sites of visual representation and reshuffle the anthology of images that we consult to remember the past.
Saturday March 1
Domestic Tourism II (2009, 62m)
Maha Maamoun
Exclusively utilizing footage from other Egyptian films that use the pyramids as backdrop, Domestic Tourism II explores the ways in which these iconic historical monuments can be reappropriated from the “timelessness” of the tourist postcard and reinscribed into the complex political, social, and historical moment in urban narratives.
In Search of Oil and Sand (2012, 47m9s)
Wael Omar and Phillipe Dib
Oil and Sand was an extravagant film made by members of the Egyptian royal family and a few friends and relatives in 1952 about a coup d'état, shot just weeks before the royals were overthrown in a real coup. The completed Technicolor film was destroyed by the director in fear that it would be used as propaganda against the ousted monarchy. Following Mahmoud Sabit, the man who found the original 8mm reels and who is himself a relation of the late king of Egypt, this documentary focuses on the reconstruction of the film's story, its array of real life players, and the political circumstances surrounding the shoot. This uncanny marriage of fiction and reality reveals that the original film not only managed to unwittingly predict the fate of the King, but also foresaw the next 60 years of relations between Egypt and the West.
Sunday March 2
Mr.Moonlight (2014, 5m48s)
Ahmed Shawky
A video about the act and appearance of listening to second-hand, retold stories that lose their original meanings and shapeshift in the retelling, "Mr. Moonlight" is Cairo-based artist Ahmed Shawky's first essay into cinematic language. It is presented here in the context of "Rough Cut," Townhouse's ongoing program of screening and discussing first films.
The Three Disappearances of Soad Hosni (2011, 70m)
Rania Stephen Pieced exclusively from VHS footage, the film is a tragedy in three acts wherein the actress Soad Hosni recounts her dreamed life story through the dialogue of her films; an homage to the golden age of Egyptian cinema and to one of her most brilliant stars.
Saturday March 8
Camera Mayya (2012, 1m) I Don’t Know (2012, 4m39s)
Paul Geday
Crop (2012, 47m09s)
Johanna Domke and Marouan Omara
Sunday March 9
The Walls of Sana’a (1971, 12m48s)
Pier Paolo Pasolini
The Lost Film (2003, 42m)
Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige