Published on: Tuesday, February 13, 2024 – 6:50 PM | Last updated: Tuesday, February 13, 2024 – 6:50 PM
John Rock Patodium: The films we produce are sold to international sites because we don’t have the space to show our films inside
Gabi Khoury: Unfortunately, there is no presence of African film in Egypt, because regular theaters are built on profitability
Abdel-Ilah El-Gohary: African cinema is rich in all types of arts… and piracy harms the distribution of African films
Today, Tuesday, a symposium entitled “Challenges Facing African Cinema in Production, Distribution, and Preserving Local Identity” was held on the sidelines of the activities of the fifth day of the 13th Luxor African Film Festival, with the participation of Cameroonian producer John Roque Batoudiom, Moroccan director Abdel Ilah El Gohary, and producer Egyptian Gabi Khoury, managed by producer and director Sherif Mandour, and in the presence of screenwriter Sayed Fouad, founder and president of the festival, and director Azza Al-Husseini, director of the festival.
At the beginning, Azza Al-Husseini said that African production is not many and there are crises in distribution, and the idea of African production has not yet crystallized, so today we are assessing in this panel discussion the challenges facing the African film industry in general.
For his part, producer John Rock Patodium said that he is happy to be in Egypt and to participate in this symposium, because he already produces films in a group of countries, especially French-speaking countries, noting that “the French government has stopped the support for many festivals in the African continent that it was providing.” Before, despite this, we are still making cinema to a large extent after cinema turned to digital, so young people have the ability to produce films at a low cost and display them through digital platforms.
“Rock” added, “Cameroon has begun to make films with support and private productions, and there are parties that support these films, but the films produced are sold to international sites, because we do not have the space to display our films in a large way in Cameroon.”
Producer Gabi Khoury said: “Egypt currently has African-Sudanese productions, and theaters in Egypt show films that are either American or Egyptian films. Therefore, we created a Zawya project to display films that are not shown in Egyptian theaters and are more artistic films, but unfortunately there is no The presence of African films in Egypt, because regular theaters are based on profitability, and today in order to show an African film we need a distributor at a time when we are suffering from distribution in general, due to the collapse of the Egyptian currency, and I do not know what the solution is to the problem that made cinema affected by the current economic situation.” .
Khoury added, saying: “We are working on an ancient heritage. Egyptian films were present throughout the Arab region and the audience was accustomed to them. I believe that it will not be difficult for us to exchange our culture with them. Now Egyptian films are in demand in the Arab countries in general.”
While the Moroccan director, Abdel-Ilah El-Gohary, said that African cinema is rich in all types of arts, and I believe that Arab and African cinema are one, and their goals and culture are the same, just as the economic models are the same in cinemas in the Arab region, but the control of cinematic production in some countries is what causes a crisis in cinemas in the Arab region. Distribution, and we find that some countries encourage piracy, and this could harm the distribution of African films and even harm the interest of the film industry in general. I do not know how African cinema lost its identity to the benefit of Western funds, as it was able to return to the forefront through co-production and some festivals, and I see “Morocco is the champion of film festivals in the region because we have more than a hundred festivals.”
