Revisiting Memory is a project that emerged after coming across many images and archival pieces over the past few years, randomly and sometimes by coincidence. Our team became fascinated by the possibilities this material presented, and excited about the prospect of eventually sharing it with the public. The project has since developed, and now includes broader questions we have been asking ourselves: what is the role of a film archive in Egypt, and to what extent can the fleeting nature of an image lend itself to a deeper understanding of a country's mood, or shifts in perspective?

The culmination of nearly two years of research and debate, Revisiting Memory is an experiment, an attempt to widen the conversation about cinema, ownership of history, and the veracity of contentious narratives. Whose story are we living, and to whom do these fragmented memories belong?

Drawing from material currently present in Cimatheque's archival collection, in addition to a myriad number of sources, the project will focus its lens on images produced by the mainstream, commercial Egyptian cinema, alongside advertisements, newsreels, and other film-related ephemera. However, special attention will also be paid to material created on the margins of society, and the various meanings they represent: amateur footage and home videos, independent films made beyond the influence of the state, rushes or unedited versions of documentaries and newsreels, and so on. It is hoped that the inclusion of different languages and aesthetics will help envision an alternative visual history, and unconventional reading of the past.

In parallel, discussions will be held regarding the practical challenges behind building an archive, film preservation, and the ways in which such work can be made accessible to the general public. Because we are dealing with an inherently fragile medium, films will be screened in various formats: 8mm, 16mm, 35mm analogue films, Betacam, VHS tapes, DVDs, and digital files. Tracing the changing physical substances that encapsulate Egyptian cultural heritage, and the ways in which important works have moved from copy to copy, obliterated only to be duplicated once again in another form (either due to neglect or lack of awareness) is in itself an important question in our collective visual legacy: therefore, work that refuses to erase itself and somehow manages to survive the ravages of time will be a part of the conversation.

The program will be inaugurated by a special screening of Tewfik Saleh's The Dupes (1972), and include films by Atiat El-Abnodi, Hossam Ali, Tahani Rached, Said Marzouk, and animators Ali and Hossam Moheeb, amongst others.

Exhibits featuring the work of Ala Younis (artist and curator) and Rana ElNemr (visual artist), centered around film archives and the various questions to which they give voice will also be featured onsite at Cimatheque. A graphic design workshop centered on visuals from Cimatheque’s print archive is scheduled to take place between June 14th till the 16th; more details will follow soon.

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