From Queens to Cairo
2012
United States
57 mins
Arabic and English
Documentary Film Competition
| Sherif Sadek | |
| Sherif Sadek | |
When the Egyptian Revolution started on January 25th, 2011, many Egyptians abroad were unable to leave their jobs and families to return to Cairo to participate in that popular attempt to shake off autocracy in Egypt. Determined not to miss the anniversary, New York-based filmmaker Sherif Sadek takes his family to his native Egypt one year later. He travels throughout Cairo, hearing from people inside Liberation Square to rallies in different squares around town, he talks to cab drivers, goes to slums, talks to people from social workers to political activists, and within all that political chaos, finds time to take his kids to a few playgrounds. On January 25th, 2012, he understands the culminations of one year of uprising. And though it’s impossible to foresee the future, Sadek is able to make a few predictions.
About the Director
Cairo-born and Queens, NY-based, Sherif has been making shorts since 1999. After graduating from Rochester Institute of Technology, he returned to his native Egypt to work on a documentary film about the nomadic tribe of the Bisharin. In late 2001, Sherif returned to New York, working on documentaries on Arab-Americans in post-9/11 America, the Iraq War, and Latin gangs in Los Angeles. Sherif now works for a software company that makes a color-correction and visual effects software.
Awards
2013 Queens World Film Festival – Best Documentary Feature
2013 Madrid International Film Festival – Best Documentary Short October
2013 Citizen.tv – Best Documentary October 2013
