Our team at Cimatheque-Alternative Film Centre is very happy to invite you to our upcoming retrospective dedicated to noted documentarian, Atteyat Al Abnoudy (1939-2018). Al Abnoudy's work helped to shape contemporary approaches to Egyptian documentary filmmaking, and her films have only grown in stature over time. In addition to producing deeply affecting documentaries that beautifully capture the lives of society's most vulnerable and marginalized figures, Al Abnoudy was also known for her tremendous generosity of spirit. An early supporter of our initiative, she donated much of her analogue film archive to Cimatheque back when the space was all but an idea in 2011, with the hopes that we would eventually ensure its preservation and future accessibility to a new generation of cinephiles.

While we continue to work hard to develop our archival facilities - bearing a special commitment to all those who have generously entrusted us with their personal archives - we would like to start making small sections of it accessible to our audience via public programming. This retrospective dedicated to Atteyat Al Abnoudy in particular hopes to do just that: by combining never before seen elements such as outtakes and behind the scenes footage we have digitized alongside her completed films, we would like to illustrate the ways in which archives can help to create a multi-layered understanding of cinema. Furthermore, the film selection in this program eschews a straight-on chronological approach, and rather focuses on how certain ideas or motifs throughout Al Abnoudy's career have changed or developed interesting tangents over time.

We hope that you will join us for this modest and yet exciting exploration of one of Egypt's most important filmmakers. We are deeply indebted to Atteyat Al Abnoudy -- as well as her daughter, Asmaa Yehia El-Taher for her continued support and helping to make this program possible

For more info and details about the programme, visit the facebook link below