Sep 5, 2013
Artist Development
The San Francisco Film Society has announced that Egyptian filmmaker Mohamed Diab will be in San Francisco for the Film Society’s sixth Artist in Residence program, October 1-15. Diab’s schedule will include programs in each of the Film Society’s core areas-education, exhibition and filmmaker services-including visits to Bay Area high school and college classrooms, a screening of his debut feature film Cairo 678 (October 10), an artist talk at SFFS’s FilmHouse (October 14) and various networking events with the local film community. The Fall 2013 Artist in Residence program is made possible by a grant from the Kenneth Rainin Foundation and is presented in partnership with Compound.
“With the ongoing upheaval and turmoil in Egypt, the timing of Mohamed’s residency is both prescient and significant,” said SFFS Director of Education Joanne Parsont. “We are grateful for the opportunity to welcome him and his wife and producer Sarah Goher to San Francisco to share their film and their experiences with us and the Bay Area community. We anticipate some truly compelling conversations at all of his public events and are particularly eager to engage him with students in local high school and college classrooms to talk about his work.”
For complete Artist in Residence information visit sffs.org/Education/Artist-in-Residence.
Mohamed Diab was born in Mecca, Saudi Arabia in 1977. Having migrated to Egypt, he studied commerce at Suez Canal University in Ismailia before pursuing film at the New York Film Academy. In 2011, Diab received a Webby Special Achievement Award for his role as a social media activist during the revolution in Egypt, for “embodying the spirit of the Internet and harnessing its power to bring freedom and democracy to [his] nation.” Prior to his directorial debut Cairo 678, he was the writer of four films (Real Dreams, The Island, The Replacement, and Congratulations), each of which enjoyed commercial success in Egypt.
Cairo 678 (Egypt 2010, 100 min.), Diab’s feminist drama exploring sexual harassment in Egypt, will be screened Thursday October 10 at 7:00 pm at New People Cinema (1746 Post Street). The screening will be followed by a discussion with the director and a special guest moderator. Tickets are $10 for SFFS members, $12 general, $11 for students and persons with disabilities. Box office now open online at sffs.org. This screening is copresented by the Arab Film Festival and UN Women.
In Cairo 678, three Cairene women from different backgrounds join together in uneasy solidarity to combat the sexual harassment that has impacted each of their lives. We begin on an overcrowded bus line, dreaded by Fayza as a daily site of humiliation and anguish. Responding to a self-defense talk by Seba, whose own assault has driven her marriage apart, Fayza fights back-and soon has a police detective searching for her amid public panic. Meanwhile, Nelly, an aspiring comic, faces pressure from her family to drop a lawsuit against her attacker. Mohamed Diab’s deftly braided narrative tells a gripping, timely social tale through its patchwork of interconnected lives and deeds. –Rob Avila, Global Film Initiative
“Though it was made before the popular uprising that overthrew Hosni Mubarak’s government, Cairo 678 is unmistakably a harbinger of that revolution, vividly portraying how the old system failed repeatedly to address daily indignities and frustrations suffered by ordinary Egyptians.” –New York Times
Diab will also participate in an intimate artist talk Monday October 14, 5:00 pm at FilmHouse (1426 Fillmore Street), in which he will discuss his transition from writer to director and his personal filmmaking style and how it compares with others in the film industries of Egypt and in the U.S. This event is free and open to the public. To reserve a seat, email filmmaker360@sffs.org.
Visiting artists are selected based on their filmmaking experience, compelling body of work and desire to share their knowledge with emerging filmmakers and film students. Under the auspices of the Film Society’s Education department, Diab is scheduled to visit several high school and college classes during his residency. In collaboration with Filmmaker360, the Film Society’s filmmaker services program, he will also have the opportunity to meet and network with Bay Area filmmakers.
Previous SFFS Artists in Residence have been Federico Veiroj of Uruguay, Ido Haar of Israel, Oday Rasheed of Iraq, Anna Boden of the U.S. and Ashim Ahluwalia of India.
To request interviews or screeners contact bproctor@sffs.org.
For photos and press materials visit sffs.org/pressdownloads.