Egyptian Star Yosra Interviews Festival Director Peter Scarlet
- Article
Wednesday, September 15 - Peter Scarlet,
Executive Director of the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, was recently
interviewed by Yosra, one of Egypt's leading actresses and
television personalities. In her new show El Arabi with Yosra, the
star tours the Middle East to explore the contributions of the Arab
world to modern history.
Using a combination of documentary, talk-show and reality-TV
formats, the show zooms in on subjects like medicine, technology,
architecture - and now cinema.
As an eminent figure in the world of international film
festivals and a leading expert on the cinema of the Middle East,
Scarlet was asked to share his insights into regional film culture
and the development of the new generation of Arab filmmakers.
"There is a new generation starting in the Middle East - they
have traveled a lot, they are smart, they know all of the different
ways you can live in this world - and they are making films unlike
what we have seen before," Scarlet told Yosra. "Some of them have
trouble showing at home and I am very grateful we can make this
festival a chance to show the expressions of filmmakers from all
over the world, including the Middle East."
Commenting on the Festival's success last year, he added: "We
proved that there is a lot of exciting filmmaking going on here and
the rest of the world just isn't noticing it."
Other interviewees included Yousry Nasrallah, president of the
Short Film Competition jury at the 2009 Middle East International
Film Festival (now the Abu Dhabi Film Festival); Nadine Labaki,
director of Caramel and Variety magazine's Middle Eastern Filmmaker
of the Year in 2007; Wahid Hamed, noteworthy screenwriter of
politically edgy films in Egypt; and Omar Amiralay, Syrian
documentary filmmaker and winner of a SANAD grant for the
development of his current project Seduction.
Many episodes of El Arabi with Yosra are directed by Marwan
Hamed, the son of noted author Wahid Hamed and director of the epic
The Yacoubian Building, which starred Yosra and won the prize for
Best New Narrative Filmmaker at the Tribeca Film Festival (where
Scarlet was Artistic Director) in 2006.
El Arabi with Yosra was aired in Egypt during Ramadan and will
run on Abu
Dhabi TV from September 21, 2010.