Seen Films أفلام س
28 Ali Ibn Abi Taleb st. Pyramids, Giza
Cairo
Egypt
- Arts
- International/Cultural relations
- Media
Seen is interested and works in fields of development, implementation, presentation and distribution of creative projects reaching beyond common aesthetics and confinements of the moving image. Seen aims to open up cinema and filmmaking to innovative forms of interaction with the public, dealing with topics and stories that are both needed or suggested by society.
We seek the development and progress of traditional frameworks of the mainstream media (programs, soap operas, films, documentaries and feature films) to evolve into more crucial and inherent forms.
Lastly, we believe in the innate nature of stories—whether real or imagined—to the moving image. Cinema is the art of the visual story, and all our attention is to promote aesthetic quality and art in these stories. As these stories progress with and by the audience, we reach a common experience, making and screening films, as part of a whole society.
Films Produced:
Out On The Street, Feature Hybrid Doc/Fiction, Directed by Jasmina Metwally and Philip Rizk. Presented at Dubai Film Connection, Selected for Cannes Film Festival’s L’Atelier du Festival. World Premiere: Berlinale: Forum Expanded.
The Mulberry House, Feature Documentary, 65 min, SD, Proaction Film in co-production with Seen Films, and Setara Films, co-produced with Enjaaz, a Dubai Film Market Initiative, 2013. World Premiere: IDFA Official Selection. MENA Premiere: Dubai International Film Festival Arab Documentary Competition.
Sound from the Hallways, Short Fiction, 25 min, HD, Kran Film and Seen Films, 2012. World Premiere: CPH:DOX Official Art:Visions Competition.
Images Of Freedom, Online Series: 6 x 5 min, HD, SEMAT for Prod. and Distr. 2011-2012
Festivals, Workshops and Events:
Hybrid Reels, May 2015. A month of documentary film screenings organized by Zawya, in partnership with Seen Films who programmed the Workshops, Talks and Discussions Program.
Sound Recording and Sound Library Making for Film (Sound Design Workshop for one month).
We believe that open and free exchange of creative content will help expand boundaries of creativity and expression, enabling the creation and enrichment of more works of art. One need only look at how the evolution of most of our folk story heritage went to understand that communal and collaborative creation results in more powerful and long-lived works of art.
Our belief is not just in the freedom and openness of the creative products themselves, but we also believe that the information and knowledge (data), surrounding the filmmaking process should be shared freely. The film circuits in our countries suffer a huge lack of available information. No How-To’s, resources, and hardly any curriculums are available freely and openly in the Arabic language. Young filmmakers in Egypt and the Arab world don’t have any point of reference on how to produce their films, their legal rights, ways to view movies, film festivals, markets, etc.. This information is so simply and freely available in most other countries and languages.
In the past years, we opened our resources to others: lists containing documentary and short film festivals, their deadlines and contacts, funds and invited filmmakers to use it and add to it. We were happy to find many filmmakers using the online documents, adding to it themselves. When data is accessible it invites others to add to it as well.
Availability of such information is essential to the functioning of Seen, where we believe that you cannot create a creative atmosphere in a healthy film industry without opening up information and data. Unfortunately, most traditional companies deal with information the same way Silversmith Guilds in the middle ages dealt with "secrets of the profession." In our film industries today we hear certain statements saying that this is: “how it is” or “necessary” without understanding the reasons. We see many who appoint themselves as gatekeepers on such knowledge to empower themselves at the expense of young, unknowing, and under-informed filmmakers. The openness of such information will terminate that so that all filmmakers would have equal access to funds, markets, development schemes, methods of working, etc..
We are working with the corporate lawyer Nahla Djabi on the development of open and free formulas for contracts; taking into account all the Egypt-specific laws. As traditional mainstream contracts yield all rights to the producer, we are trying to draft new contracts around collaboratory partnership and ownership. We hope that by opening up coproduction contracts that are straight forward, easy to understand and free to use, we will encourage and promote equalized partnerships in coproductions.
Working on the development of these documents is not a luxury but we think it is integral to a yet-shaping industry, with a long history of monopolist distibution practices where talented young people's efforts were always for the service of the producer/distributor compound. There is, hence a vast bitterness and automatic rejection of collaborative work as no rights are guaranteed. We believe that it is vital to have resources of legal and regulatory knowledge available, to help us work on our films and help others at the same time and encourage a climate of collective and participatory action. This is not strange in many countries; we find companies that put examples and models of regulatory and legal documents, also production and financial workflow suggestions and plans, in order to open a general pool of knowledge that helps all.
To benefit from the many opportunities provided by ALF and other network members; and to gain access to a wide network of film, art and culture active organizations and individuals.