Egypt: First Human Rights Film Festival

The Cairo Human Rights Film Festival kicked off yesterday (November 23) and will continue until Thursday (November 27). The event is being organized by the American Islamic Congress and it's Middle East Director Dalia Ziada in partnership with the Hisham Mubarak Law Center, Ibn Khaldoun Center for Development and the New Woman Foundation and will feature seven films.

On her blog, Dalia wrote:

تطلق منظمة المؤتمر الإسلامي الأمريكي من خلال مكتبها في القاهرة أول مهرجان لأفلام حقوق الإنسان في العالم العربي، وذلك في الفترة من 23 إلى 27 نوفمبر 2008 في عدة منظمات حكومية وغير حكومية داخل القاهرة، يعرض المهرجان للعديد من الأفلام التي تناقش قضايا حقوق الإنسان من جميع أنحاء العالم، ويتبع كل عرض جلسة نقاشية أو محاضرة متعلقة بموضوع الفيلم، ونشاط المنظمة التي يتم فيها العرض

The American Islamic Congresss is launching, through its Cairo office, the First Human Rights Film Festival, from November 23 to 27, at several governmental and non-governmental venues in Cairo. The festival will feature a number of films which discuss human rights issues around the world, and will be followed by discussion panels and lectures about the film's subject matter, and the activities of the organisation, the film is being presented at.

Fustat also wrote about the festival saying that a similar festival was held in Bahrain earlier this year:

This is the first such festival in Egypt, if i´m not totally wrong , but Human Rights Film Festivals is not a new phenomena, the Human Rights Watch has held a festival on the same theme for years, and earlier this year the Arab Gulf had it´s first in the form of the first Bahrain Human Rights International Film Festival took place in Manama.

Ibn Al Dunya also provides us with a preview of the movies being featured at the festival:

The opening film is Democracy in Dakar, on the impact of youth culture in the political context of Senegal´s Presidential election in 2007, Tomorrow follows the Egyptian film Guáwa al Shabaka (The Power of the Web) about the internet freedom, or lack there off and blogging for human rights in Egypt, feauturing Gamal Eid, Noha Atef, Abd al Moneim Mahmoud, Ahmed Maher, Muhammad Gamal and others, directed by Mahmoud Saber and created by Muhammed Gamal.

Among the other films is Stephen Johnson´s animated film from 1988, explaining the 30 articles of the UDHR (view it here, in 31 different languages, Arabic being one of them here.

The final film is the Egyptian classic al bab al Maftouh (The Open Door), based on Latifa al Zayyat´s novel, portraying Laila, played on screen by the legendary actress Faten Hamama. Laila, of course, being as important today , as when it was first published, has been an inspiration for the Egyptian blogger project , Kolena Laila.

Three other films are also part of the festival, The Elders, A force more powerful and Confronting the truth.

For those who can´t join the festival, you can view the film Guawa al Shabaka below(via Sami Ben Gharbeia).