CAIRO: After an exciting week of screening 35 films representing more than 20 countries, the 6th Cairo International Women´s Film Festival comes to an end at the Falaki Theatre.
The aim of the festival was to showcase the cinematographic art of women from all over the world by bringing the best films made by female directors to the largest audience possible.
Amal Ramsis, the festival´s director, was inspired to launch this project during her stay in Cuba, where she was presenting her first documentary. “My film was the only documentary representing the Arab world,” she told The Cairo Post.
“Our films don´t reach audiences in Latin America because we don´t subtitle them,” she continued. “So I decided to create a project that breaks this language barrier.”
What is now an International Women´s Film Festival began as the Arab and Latin-American Women Film Festival. During the last five years, the festival has traveled to different countries where it has been well received by a curious and eager audience.
In order to “break the language barrier” and bring foreign films to an audience who might otherwise never have access to it, Ramsis often subtitles the films herself. Yet, subtitling more than thirty films was not as difficult for Ramsis as hosting a film festival in Cairo under the current political and social turmoil.
“This year was the ultimate test,” said Ramsis. The fact that the award ceremony and final film screening was held at the Falaki Theatre, just around the corner from Mohammed Mahmoud Street, is not one of life´s sinister ironic twists. On the contrary, the historic location, more than a mere symbolism of the organizer´s tremendous efforts, it is the materialization of their commitment to building bridges between different worlds.
Threes Anna, director of “Silent City” and winner of the festival´s 36,000 EGP award for best film, thanked the organizers and the audience for making the festival possible. “It is hard for an audience to walk these streets, blocked by barbed wire and massive tanks,” she said.
“I also want to thank these powerful and courageous women for organizing the festival.”
Despite the obstacles facing the film festival, the organizers managed to put it together in only two months. “The people need this festival,” said Ramsis. “They need it to disconnect from what surrounds them. They also need it to discover a different world.”
And indeed people do ask for it. This year the festival was held in three different locations, attracting a large audience.
Ramsis plans to carry on with the International Women´s Film Festival, both in Cairo and the international scene. Next year, she will bring the films to Mexico, free of charge as she originally intended, to expose audiences to international cinema, and most importantly, to a myriad of different human experiences.
