arabshorts.net: Insights on Arab Lives in Film
The arabshorts.net website is a chief pillar of the three-year project Arab Shorts. Arab Shorts was initiated in 2009 by the Goethe-Institut Cairo to promote the comparatively young arts of Arab film and media in the Middle East and Northern Africa. A curated film programme, an annual film festival with guests from Europe and the Arab Welt, educational journeys by Arab filmmakers to German film institutions and film festivals as well as publications aim to contribute to better networking the filmmakers both regionally and internationally. Attention is also given to placing Arab film and media art more in the focus of professional film distributors, festival organizers and media. One of the main objectives of the project according to its artistic director Marcel Schwierin is to create an easily accessible international platform for young independent Arab film on the arabshorts.net website.
Multifaceted kaleidoscope of film
The first 62 films to be viewed on the website were originally shown at the arabshorts.net festival of the Goethe-Institut Cairo in December 2009. Nine curators from nine Arab countries put together a multifaceted festival programme. These independently produced short films from Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Jordan, Syria, the Arab Gulf States, the Palestinian Territories and Lebanon offer the users of the portal a broad spectrum of themes and formulas. Since short films are less subject to censorship in Arab countries than long films, arabshorts.net contains uncommonly personal as well as political insights into the Islamic-influenced life and thought of Northern Africa and the Middle East. The website’s extensive film-related content is rounded off with statements by the curators and information about the production countries and the filmmakers.
The films from the second and third festival of December 2010 and 2011 are also online at arabshorts.net.
Arab Shorts is a project by the Goethe-Institut Cairo as part of the Culture and Development initiative. The project was conceived by the German film expert and curator Marcel Schwierin and the Goethe-Institut Cairo.
