CAIRO
CHRONICLES
2004
28 minutes
Color, Film and Video
Egypt
Cairo Chronicles is a personal documentary that takes places in Cairo, Egypt.
The death of the filmmaker's father compels her to return to his native Egypt.
Kamal-Eldin documents the past - her father's generation and her own childhood.
Cairo Chronicles is a nostalgic tribute that casts a critical look at modern
Cairo. Kamal-Eldin's first-person narration is the core of the narrative structure.
The piece is shot on 16mm-color film and DV.
Rich images are juxtaposed contrasting old and new, rural and urban and rich
and poor.
The Middle East is a part of the world that is rarely covered positively by
Western media. In Cairo Chronicles, Kamal-Eldin imparts a deeper understanding
and a more compassionate view of that part of the world.
"Cairo
Chronicles is terrific. So evocative. Nostalgia without sentimentality.
It is beautifully edited. And bears the Kamal-Eldin stamp."
Dr.
Margot Badran
Middle East Historian and Author
"In Cairo Chronicles, Kamal-Eldin's visual depiction of Cairo powerfully
articulates change, decay and loss."
Fatma Mindikoglu
Communications Department, UCSD
"Cairo Chronicles was beautiful. A lyrical poem, soft, romantic,
sultry, yet also stark and honest. I was very much impressed by the sensual
and nostalgic quality of it."
Dr. Olga Rojer, Department Chair,
Language & Foreign
Studies
American University, Washington DC
SCREENINGS:
-
Tiburon International Film Festival
-
Women of Color Film Festival
- The Middle East Studies Association Conference (MESA)
- Semifinalist at Boston Motion Picture Awards International Short Film Festival
Competition
- Hosni Haddad Memorial Lectures and Presentation, University of Chicago
- Vocation Visitor at Luther College, Iowa