From Egypt Independent: ‘Boulaq’ and ‘Downtown’: Two neighborhood portraits

Artwork produced in Cairo, regardless of who is making it — visiting artist or lifelong resident — tends often to center on the city itself, an overwhelming presence that imposes on the lives of its residents in myriad and profound ways.

Two new documentaries, “Boulaq: Among the Ruins of an Unfinished Revolution,” directed by Davide Morandini and Fabio Lucchini, and “On the Road to ... Downtown,” directed by Sherif al-Bendary, express the deep interconnectedness of the physical city to the lives lived within it. The two works, though distinct in many ways, are marked by carefully constructed visual observations only loosely structured into a narrative. They focus instead on the atmosphere of the neighborhoods they examine, and the daily rhythm of the neighborhoods’ inhabitants.

“Boulaq” is a short film, only 26 minutes long, filmed in the neighborhood of Boulaq Abul Ela, adjacent to downtown. Director Morandini told Egypt Independent, “My first day in Boulaq was my first day in Cairo, I was staying downtown and I bumped into this strange neighborhood. I was struck by this strong difference between the Hilton, the downtown buildings and this area.”

For more, please see this: http://www.egyptindependent.com/node/735496