In September 2012 the Arab British Centre (in partnership with the ICA and Dubai International Film Festival) presented Safar: A Journey Through Popular Arab Cinema. This year, from 19-25 September, Safar returns with more screenings of Arab films accompanied by Q&As as well as “a day-long forum which will bring together some of the most significant figures in Arab cinema.”
New this year is an exhibition of vintage Arab movie posters, memorabilia and contemporary art inspired by film, runing from Tuesday 2 September until Sunday 5 October. More on the exhbition:
Whose Gaze Is It Anyway? is an exhibition that looks at the history of Arab pop culture through printed matter – posters, notebooks, diaries and book covers, as well as through film and video. The inspiration behind this display began with the archive of Abboudi Bou Jaoudeh – a prolific collector whose underground treasure trove located in Beirut holds one of the vastest collections of Arab film memorabilia, from rare Arab film posters to cultural magazines published from the 1930s to the present day.
Way To Hell, Tareek Al Khataya, 1968, Arabic cover
The exhibition, entitled Whose Gaze is it Anyway?, is part of the ICA’s Arab film festival Safar, which opens later this month, and presents a series of rare film posters from the archive of collector Abboudi Bou Jaoudeh….His collection in Beirut is one of the most comprehensive archives of Arab film memorabilia, and includes Arab film posters and cultural magazines published from the 1930s to the present day, according to the ICA….As well as printed materials, the exhibition will also feature video works including Maha Maamoun’s 2009 film Domestic Tourism II. The work uses historic film footage of the Egyptian pyramids to explore how images of the monuments have been used in the global tourism industry, acting, as the ICA says, as ‘as a nostalgic symbol for a flawed modern country.”
The recent films screened include:
Factory Girl/ Fatat Al Masnaa (2013) by Mohamed Khan,
Rock the Casbah (2013) by Laïla Marrakchi,
Chaos, Disorder/ Harag W’ Marag (2012) by Nadine Khan
Arab Hyphen 