“CineGouna” second panel discussion kicked off on sep.22

CAIRO - 22 September 2019: CineGouna’s second panel discussion as part of the “Gouna Film Festival” was held on Sunday September 22 at TU Berlin.

The discussion was regarding the “Nature of the boundaries between documentary and fictional filmmaking” and was led by “Alessandra Speciale”, consultant of Arabic and African movies in the Venice Film Festival.

The main speakers included documentary filmmakers, and the discussion began with Alessandra pointing out that documentaries tell the story of real life events portrayed by real people who lived through these experiences. Moreover, the filmmakers must exclude certain facts and be more imaginative to add an attractive narrative element in order to grab the attention.

“Tala Al Darki”, a Syrian director, had a different point of view, he claims that there’s no need to add a nonrealistic element to a documentary to attract an audience, he expressed his gratitude to technology for allowing documentary makers to reach the audience in a different way; anyone with a camera can film a while movie and upload it to the internet to be watched by millions of people.

On the other hand, the Egyptian Director “Mohamed Seyam” added that movies combine reality with imagination because showing facts may not be enough artistically for the filmmakers and the audience. He also mentioned that the lines between documentaries and fictional movies are being blurred, and that soon they will both be classified as “movies” with no specific description.

The director and creator of the movie “Sisters in Arms” which is competing in the feature narrative competition, added her voice to this opinion. She even mentioned that sometimes movies portray real life events better than documentaries. Caroline talked about her movie and how proud she is to have finally made a narrative movie after creating several documentaries. She added that you can film whatever you want in a documentary and then edit the footage and choose whatever you wish to show the viewers. In contrast, when shooting a narrative movie you have to carefully think about your creative choices beforehand while keeping in mind certain obstacles in production and in setting a budget.

Then it was “Marouan Omara”’s turn to talk who expressed how happy he was to be a part of such a panel open to the public. He talked about his experience while working his highly acclaimed movie “Dreamaway” which depicts young Egyptian workers in the city of “Sharm El Sheikh” who work in one of the luxury hotels in the area where they’re exposed to Western culture showing us a specific class of young guys living the dream.

Moreover, “Subaib Gasemalbari” the Sudanese director, agreed that there is no difference between a documentary and a narrative movie in terms of how both express the filmmakers point of view which is composed of the reality of different situations as well as an artistic touch to complete the movie.

The panel was attended by a large audience with standout members like actresses “kinda Alloush” and “Tara Emad” as well as various young filmmakers.