Shorts Program
Shorts Program
unfolding portraits
unfolding portraits
unfolding portraits
November 29, 2025
7:00 P.M
Tickets at the door
November 29, 2025
7:00 P.M
Tickets at the door
Unfolding Portraits is a program dedicated to the cinematic examination of identity as a complex, constantly shifting canvas, captured through lenses that explore duality, memory, and social context. The collection opens with Hamza, a nuanced portrait of estrangement and duality, following an Egyptian DJ in France as he attempts to balance the demands of a rigorous corporate life with the passion of his artistic dreams, revealing the perseverance required to carve out an authentic self across cultural and career divides. The scope then widens to encompass external pressures, featuring A resident of the city I, a stark short that observes the profound social stratification in Cairo, contrasting the privileged and working class and highlighting how external realities define individual freedom and existence. The program then turns inward to explore the architecture of self through memory and childhood: Father Never Approved of My Toys uses a combination of animation and archival footage to enter a child’s imagination, showing how she copes with inconvenient realities by creating an ideal, familiar world with her favorite doll; complementing this journey. Finally, Ali’s Diaries takes a personal, introspective look at the complexities of a childhood past, attempting to reconnect with long-ago feelings through a reflective search of old photographs, vivid memories, and music. Together, these films challenge the idea of a static image, instead presenting identity as a dynamic sum of cultural pressure, internal coping mechanisms, and the persistent effort to reconcile the past self with the present.
(Ali's Diaries) مذكرات علي
Yousef Menesy, Egypt 2023, 8 mins. Documentary, Arabic with English subtitles
(Father Never Approved My Toys) أبي لم يحب ابدا لعبي
Maysoon Abdelghany, Egypt 2024, 8 mins. Experimental, Arabic with English subtitles
(A Resident of the City) احد سكان المدينة
Adham EL Sherif, Egypt 2011, 16 min. Documentary, Arabic with English subtitles
(Hamza) حمزة
Karim Alcharkawy, Egypt 2023, 14 mins. Documentary, Arabic with English subtitles
Unfolding Portraits is a program dedicated to the cinematic examination of identity as a complex, constantly shifting canvas, captured through lenses that explore duality, memory, and social context. The collection opens with Hamza, a nuanced portrait of estrangement and duality, following an Egyptian DJ in France as he attempts to balance the demands of a rigorous corporate life with the passion of his artistic dreams, revealing the perseverance required to carve out an authentic self across cultural and career divides. The scope then widens to encompass external pressures, featuring A resident of the city I, a stark short that observes the profound social stratification in Cairo, contrasting the privileged and working class and highlighting how external realities define individual freedom and existence. The program then turns inward to explore the architecture of self through memory and childhood: Father Never Approved of My Toys uses a combination of animation and archival footage to enter a child’s imagination, showing how she copes with inconvenient realities by creating an ideal, familiar world with her favorite doll; complementing this journey. Finally, Ali’s Diaries takes a personal, introspective look at the complexities of a childhood past, attempting to reconnect with long-ago feelings through a reflective search of old photographs, vivid memories, and music. Together, these films challenge the idea of a static image, instead presenting identity as a dynamic sum of cultural pressure, internal coping mechanisms, and the persistent effort to reconcile the past self with the present.
(Ali's Diaries) مذكرات علي
