Laslie: We are Happy to Partner with GFF

On Thursday, Rachel Leslie, the US Cultural Attache in Cairo, held a virtual press conference on the collaboration between the US Embassy in Cairo and the El Gouna Film Festivalfor supporting independent filmmakers, CineGouna.

Laslie initiated her talk by a general background about the collaboration between the US Embassy in Cairo and CineGouna. She said: "We are happy to partner with GFF this year for being a recognized international film festival and we are cooperating together since 2017."

She continued: "the importance of CineGouna lies in bringing experts together, deepening the cultural engagement, gathering different voices and creating strong cinema industry between Egypt and the US."

She added, 40 Egyptian Filmmakers have benefited from the workshops and training, therefore, the number of filmmakers is going to be grown.

This year's program includes a virtual industry panel discussion with leading American film executives and producers, a seven-day feature short-film script-writing virtual workshop led by American experts, and providing a residency for two Egyptian filmmakers that includes private and curated virtual sessions with film experts in Los Angeles.

According to GFF official conference press release, some of the workshops will be instructed by Bollywood actor Ali Fazal, Egyptian director of photography Ahmad Al Morsy, and the Director of Creative Talent Investment & Development at NetflixChristopher Mack.

One of the topics that will be discussed is the idea of Hollywood narratives. Laslie clarified: "The traditional American films used to be male voiced, but nowadays these movie narratives are turning to be female-voiced."

In addition, she asserted that the cinema industry is witnessing the rise of women's participation, and she mentioned Ayten Amin as an example.

It's worthy to be mentioned that Amin's latest feature ''Souad'' has been announced an official selection at the Cannes Film Festival in 2020. Amin was the first Egyptian female filmmaker to take part in the official selection of the festival.

Concerning the widespread COVID-19, Laslie stressed the importance of establishing access between the Egyptian filmmakers and the experts in LA and organizing the activities of CineGouna by depending on alternative channels for filmmakers such as virtual workshops.

Also, CineGouna is providing a precious opportunity for filmmakers to have dialogues with other artists and widening their horizons, furthermore the organized workshops cover massive cinematic domains such as scriptwriting, editing, storytelling, film production, and film generating.

Regarding the activity of the US embassy with other Egyptian festivals, Laslie commented, "the US embassy has a long-standing history with Cairo International Film Festival, in addition, we are intending to support other festivals in Egypt such as Aswan International Women Film Festival."

Aiming to expand the cultural exchange between Egypt and the US, Laslie pointed out the several cultural activities adapted by the embassy in order to support independent artists in different fields such as fine arts, music, and education.

Finally, Laslie expressed the importance of strengthening the cultural relations between Egypt and the US due to Egypt's outstanding cultural role in the Middle East.

She confirmed: "Egypt plays a permanent role in the culture of the middle east due to its central standing."

CineGouna is a creative hub for minds and markets furthermore, it is an industry-oriented event created to support and empower Egyptian and Arab filmmakers, and help them find artistic and financial support.

It includes CineGouna SpringBoard and CineGouna Bridge programs that provide opportunities for communication and learning.

CineGouna SpringBoard is a project development and co-production lab that offers opportunities to find creative and financial support for Arab film directors and producers with projects in development or films in post-production. Applications of feature narrative and feature documentary projects in development, as well as films in post-production, are accepted for participation in the program from all parts of the Arab world.

CineGouna Bridge is a meeting point and a forum for dialogue between different cinematic voices, where Arab filmmakers and their international counterparts engage in and share their perspectives on a wide range of subjects related to the social and business aspects of cinema.

The 4th edition of GFF will take place between October 23 and 31 with wide international participation. The Festival has three main competitions: Feature Narrative Competition, Short Film Competition, and Feature Documentary  Competition.

A number of the participants of the official competition were winners of previous CineGouna editions such as "200 Meter," "The Man Who Sold his Skin," and "Meca."