I thought it would be nice to share this documentary about Alexandria today, on the day of Egypt's constitutional referendum. It's an important day in Egypt's history and this short was produced in a time when Egypt was still under dictatorship. Little did I know that Egypt would be free two years later. Today's a day of celebration.
Alexandria Symphony of a City is a short documentary that I produced during a visit there in the winter of 2009. I wanted to capture a nostalgic romantic mood inspired by classic black and white Egyptian movies of the 1950s and 1960s with actors like Omar Sherief, Faten Hamama and Roushdy Abaza. These were elegant times (or at least I perceived them that way), when Egypt had a voice culturally, intellectually and politically. I feel these times are returning now. Freedom has made everything possible now.
I always see Alexandria in black and white. I sometimes feel like it's frozen in time, especially when I drive along the Alexandrian Corniche and when I see some of the classic buildings like the Cecil Hotel, now called the Sofitel Cecil Alexandria, where my parents used to go.
Not sure how to structure the narrative arc, I ended up developing the concept around a day journey to Alexandria. Hence you see the film start with the arrival by train during daytime and departure at the train station in the evening.
The film was inspired by classics like the 1927 Berlin Symphony of a Metropolis. The idea of some of the train shots came from there. I love some of those classics.
Alexandria Symphony of a City is a short documentary that I produced during a visit there in the winter of 2009. I wanted to capture a nostalgic romantic mood inspired by classic black and white Egyptian movies of the 1950s and 1960s with actors like Omar Sherief, Faten Hamama and Roushdy Abaza. These were elegant times (or at least I perceived them that way), when Egypt had a voice culturally, intellectually and politically. I feel these times are returning now. Freedom has made everything possible now.
I always see Alexandria in black and white. I sometimes feel like it's frozen in time, especially when I drive along the Alexandrian Corniche and when I see some of the classic buildings like the Cecil Hotel, now called the Sofitel Cecil Alexandria, where my parents used to go.
Not sure how to structure the narrative arc, I ended up developing the concept around a day journey to Alexandria. Hence you see the film start with the arrival by train during daytime and departure at the train station in the evening.
The film was inspired by classics like the 1927 Berlin Symphony of a Metropolis. The idea of some of the train shots came from there. I love some of those classics.
I hope you like watching it. Please leave any comments/thoughts.
I like it. I posted it on my FB account to read my friends' opinions about it. It's definitely born from nostalgia. Alexandria, the glorious creation of Alexander the Great... Alexandria's origin is portrait with romaticism, "If what the Alexandrians say on the authority of Heracleides is true, then it seems that [the legendary poet] Homer was no idle or useless companion to him on his expedition. They say that after his conquest of Egypt, Alexander resolved to found and leave behind him a large and populous Greek city which would bear his name. On the advice of his architects he was about to measure out and enclose a certain site, when during the night, as he was sleeping, he saw a remarkable vision. He thought he could see a man with very white hair and of venerable appearance standing beside him and speaking these lines:
ReplyDeleteThen there is an island in the stormy sea,
In front of Egypt; they call it Pharos. [1]
He rose at once and went to Pharos, which at that time was still an island a little above the Canobic mouth of the Nile, but which has now been joined to the mainland by a causeway.[2] When he saw that the site was eminently suitable (it is a strip of land similar to a fairly broad isthmus, running between a large lagoon and the sea which terminates in a great harbor), he exclaimed that Homer was admirable in other respects and was also an excellent architect, and ordered the plan of the city to be drawn in conformity with the terrain.
Since there was no chalk available, they used barley-meal to describe a rounded area on the dark soil, to whose inner arc straight lines succeeded, starting from what might be called the skirts of the area and narrowing the breadth uniformly, so as to produce the figure of a mantle. The king was delighted with the plan, when suddenly a vast multitude of birds of every kind and size flew from the river and the lagoon on to the site like clouds; nothing was left of the barley-meal and even Alexander was much troubled by the omen. But his seers advised him there was nothing to fear (in their view the city he was founding would abound in resources and would sustain men from every nation); he therefore instructed his overseers to press on with the work."
I should have written "portayed" instead of "portrait"
ReplyDeleteAlejo, thank you for sharing my post and for your interesting comment.
ReplyDelete