HUNT FOR A SUITABLE VENUE

The venue for the upcoming Cairo Refugee Film Festival had to be chosen with a lot of care. It’s location had to provide for easy accessibility and be popular enough to attract the “regulars” at the venue. And of course the rent had to fit within our budget (Money matters have been the bane of organizing this festival).

Sakya or the Culture Wheel at Zamalek was our foremost choice. Its reputation for encouraging new talent gave us hope. But our hopes were dashed when we realized that hosting the festival at the Sakya would require dealing with a maze of bureaucratic tangles.

We had the option of hosting the festival at the American University of Cairo (AUC) campus in downtown but the AUC premises can be construed a very ‘elitist” venue. It may deter the average Egyptian from attending the festival. Further, we wanted to avoid the festival being perceived as being meant for the academia, which would be the case if AUC were to be the venue.

Cairo Opera House was also considered as a venue for the festival before we finally decided on the Rawabet theatre, which had collaborated earlier in 2007 with the UNHCR and the Townhouse Gallery to celebrate the World Refugee Day.

The Rawabet theatre is located next to the factory space of Townhouse in downtown Cairo. The neighbourhood is a “working area” with car mechanics, sign painters, carpenters and coffee shops occupying the surrounding space. Probably the best example of bringing art to the community. This was commensurate with the ideology for the refugee film festival which was bringing using art (the films) to bring communities together.

The physical address of the venue is
3, Hussein Al Me'mar Pasha St., Off Mahmoud Bassiouny St.Cairo,

Agonies and Angst of the Films Committee

Films had started trickling in much to the delight of the films committee. What had seemed unachievable some time back-getting quality films to be screened at the festival- now seemed attainable.

It was refreshing to come across filmmakers who really believed in what we were doing. Like Anne Marie Jacir, the award winning Palestinian filmmaker of “Salt of this Sea”, who intervened on behalf of the Cairo Refugee Film Festival with the producers of the film. The result was that we got the perfect film to open our festival with.

The Movies that Matter, a Netherlands based foundation proved to be a good resource for starting on the kind of films that we wanted for the films that we wanted for the festival. We had approached them for funds-that took some time reaching fruition but their recommendation as to films that can be screened was timely and welcome. We also drew inspiration from other Film Festivals around the world.

While selecting films, the films committee had to strike a balance between art and academics. The Cairo Refugee film Festival aims to bring the narratives of the trials, tribulations and the triumphs of the refugee community into the public sphere and at the same time ensure that the narratives are entertaining enough to attract the host community (Egyptians).


At times, the films committee felt like a trapeze artist walking the tightrope. Some films were really interesting but too academic. Some were entertaining but not a true reflection of the circumstances. Over the course of 20 meetings or maybe more, the films committee selected films that would be educating, entertaining and non-controversial too.

Illegal Economic Migrants Vs Refugees-This issue was debated extensively during the meetings and the sound bytes generated would have been enough to fill the pages of a research project on the subject. We wanted films that dealt with refugees who had fled their countries due to persecution and share stories about their success in rebuilding their lives despite all odds.

We are proud of getting films like “Slingshot Hip Hop”, which will be premiering in Egypt at the Cairo Refugee Film Festival and was the official selection at the Sundance Film Festival 2008. “The New Year Baby” is the winner of the 2007 Amsterdam International Film Festival Movies That Matter Award. It is a documentary film on a girl born in a refugee camp on Cambodian New Year.

Fundraising-A Roller Coaster Ride

Terms like economic depression, hard times, took on a whole new meaning for the fundraising committee of the Cairo Refugee Film Festival.

UNHCR which had collaborated on most of the World Refugee Day celebrations in Cairo could not support us, which was a big dampener for us as we had been heavily relying on their participation. They did offer us a valuable advice though-to trim the festival duration from the proposed 8 days. A very pertinent suggestion, in view of the current economic scenario.

Reem had painstakingly researched on the potential funders but had not met with any luck. Mai was wary of approaching the corporate sponsors and the usual collaborators like the UNHCR had said no. Where did that leave us?

And then the first breakthrough came when UNICEF decided to collaborate with us on the workshops and our media campaign. Though we were still by no means any closer to the required amount, it was at least a beginning.

After the response from UNICEF, there was a lull for so long that we were becoming nervous. Our volunteers-Tamara and Ligia-came up with great ideas to get funding but nothing seemed to work.

All our hopes were pinned on the upcoming meeting with the Netherlands embassy. On the day of our first meeting at the Netherlands embassy, Mai and Sankalita took special care with their dressing-turning up in their “Sunday best”. An exercise in futility because the concerned person had called in sick that morning and there was no meeting. An ominous sign?

When the meeting with the Netherlands embassy finally took place, Sankalita’s forceful defence of the relevance of the proposed film festival to the average Egyptian was brought to an abrupt halt by the insightful question of the Netherlands embassy representative “You are not an Egyptian, are you?” This broke the ice as the discussion meandered into how much time must be spent in a country before a person starts referring to it as his/her own. A very satisfactory meeting but there was slight hitch-the lady was going to go away on vacation, though she promised that a colleague of hers would be in touch with us. Our project was approved the very next day but we spent a tension-filled week because the mail approving our project had been sent to the wrong mail ID! Anyways, at this point, we were ecstatic!

The icing on the cake was when Mai’s perseverance and optimism in relation to Movies that Matter turned out to be well founded and they approved a princely sum for the festival.

Money makes the world go round and no one knows this better than the fundraising committee at the Cairo Refugee Film Festival.

Cherry on the cake?-the Gothe institute agreed to lend us their projector for screening the films for the festival, apart from supporting us with funds. As they say “now we are in business.”