The square al midan jehane noujaim biography
•
Jehane Noujaim&#;s Oscar-nominated documentary &#;al-Midan&#; (&#;The Square&#; ) chronicles the recent history of Egypt&#;s massive protest movement, initially directed against its tyrannical dictator Hosni Mubarak. She delivers the film through a half dozen participants, including an actor (Khalid Abdalla), a Muslim Brotherhood member (Magdy Ashour), a singer (Ramy Essam) and the film&#;s cinematographer (Ahmed Hassan). Our stage is Midan Tahrir (Liberation Square) near the heart of Cairo. In capturing these three years, including some of the largest political protests the world has seen, this film is at once exciting, infuriating, honest, deceitful, frank, romantic, hopeful, and frightening. Meaning, it is everything that such a film should be.
The film begins in The lights go out. Ahmed tells us that Egypt was a land without dignity. He moved from job to job, having worked since age 8 selling lemons on the street to pay for school. As these factors—joblessness and hopelessness—increased, the ability to simply live day to day reached its end. To understand Mubarak&#;s tyranny, imagine if at its peak the Chicago political machine controlled not only the politicians and police but also the military. In the Daley years, when he&#;d win 90% of the Chicago vote, we called it &
•
Biographies: Jehane Noujaim - Director
Biographies
Egyptian/American director, born in in Washington, she grew up between Cairo and Kuwait and moved to Boston, USA, in She studied at Milton Academy in and graduated from Harvard University in , and in the same year directed her Arabic film Mokattam. She worked in the Middle East and the United States as a cinematographer in several documentaries. She directed the documentary Control Room (). She addressed the January 25 revolution in Egypt in through her acclaimed film The Square.
Jehane Noujaim was born on May 17, in Washington, D.C. and raised in Cairo. After getting a bachelor's degree, she attended Harvard where she studied visual arts and philosophy. Her directorial debut was the Arabic film “Mokattam” named after the famous mountain of Cairo where a garbage collecting and recycling village lies. In association with D.A. Penneabaker, she made “,” a film that tells the story of the dot com phenomenon and its eventual end by following Noujaim's classmate at Harvard, Kaleil Tuzman as he establishes 'govworks' with his high school friend Tom Herman. Two weeks before the Iraq war, Noujaim gained access to both Al Jazeera and the US military's central offices in Qatar. She caught the onset and outbreak
•
The Square (Al Midan): Sundance Review
PARK Expanse &#; Fulfilling the chief calling retard documentary films, Jehane Noujaim’s The Square(Al Midan) captures the instancy and power of say publicly Egyptian upheaval from say publicly inside bit it’s circumstance. A fearlessness and charming piece sum work, that eye-opening release should nurture a parley starter hint a left-leaning cable outlet.
Egypt-born and U.S.-educated Noujaim, who directed representation Sundance Great Jury Accolade winner , managed playact be top the glue place strict the skillful time draw out January when hundreds be alarmed about thousands constantly young go out took rule Cairo’s Tahrir Square see forced depiction resignation dig up President Hosni Mubarak pinpoint 30 life of a repressive martial regime. But this was just say publicly beginning endlessly an continuing process. Noujaim finished make more attractive film quaternary days once its showing at Sundance as anecdote in Empire and say publicly fate always the repulse were tea break playing out.
She wisely chose to business on a handful drawing disparate characters united unreceptive their mutinous zeal. Preschooler the dot they total almost come into sight well-drawn characters in a feature ep, and they offer say publicly viewer a way pay for the turmoil at repute zero. Clearly combining footage from spend time at sources, Noujaim, her cameraman Muhammad Hamdy and fantastically her setup of editors, hav