November 19, 2021

In this episode, I speak with the film director & co-founder of Seen Films, Mostafa Youssef. We chat about his near lifelong love of film, the entertainment industry in Egypt and its impact throughout the Arab-speaking world, and the unique challenges of filmmakers on the Continent. We also get into the many artist development programs and resources that are under the Seen Films umbrella including a free-to-use opensource post-production unit and their magazine, Terr.so, the only online magazine and portal on cinema, audiovisual media, film criticism, and filmmaking in Arabic. Mostafa is also the producer of Homemade Stories which will have its world premiere at IDFA 2021. Mostafa is a Bruce Springsteen fan, so this week’s song is “Hello Sunshine.”

Photo Credit: Fatma Abed

[Image Description: Mostafa is pictured from the torso up. He sits at a table with a blue and pink patterned table cloth and a roll of paper towels. He has his elbows on the table and looks to the left with one hand underneath his chin. He wears a brown sweater. He is sitting in an open courtyard that is painted in blue and white. To his left is a graffiti drawing of a cat.]

Image: Seen Films Logo

[Logo Description: A multicolored arabic letter “sīn” is that is slightly offset and blurry.]

About Mostafa

Mostafa is a director and producer based in Cairo. He founded Seen Films, where he produced Out On The Street, The Mulberry House, and Sound From the Hallways that collectively screened in over 20 international festivals including Berlinale, IDFA, Dubai, Istanbul, Carthage, as well as art institutions and museums such as the British Museum. His debut short fiction Blue Dive was officially selected for the International Film Festival Rotterdam. Mostafa currently runs Seen Studio, a year-long film development lab for Egyptian independent filmmakers. He previously managed the first edition of Cinegouna Platform, El Gouna Film Festival’s industry program in 2017, the industry programs of Zawya’s Cairo Cinema Days in 2017 and 2018, and the industry program of Aswan International Women’s Film Festival in 2019.

About Seen Films

Heba Yossry and Mostafa Youssef recently founded Seen Films as a Cairo-based film house that produces and supports authentic and innovative film and media works seeking to live beyond the traditional boundaries of the screen.

Seen Films believes in the natural capacity of stories, whether real or imagined, to transform societies. Cinema is the art of the visual story, and all our attention is to promote authentic vision, language and art in these stories.

We endeavor to work for the full representation, self-realization, and positive engagement of all marginalized groups—whether due to gender, urban centrism, economic restriction, or religion. We aim to open up cinema and filmmaking to innovative forms of interaction with the public, dealing with topics and stories that play an integral role in everyday life. We push the boundaries of traditional formats: programs, series, films, documentaries, and feature films, to evolve into more crucial and inherent forms.

Seen Films also organizes several film industry and development activities, and offers creative and production services; thus, utilizing its storytelling expertise to break through mainstream formats. Our current projects include:

SEEN STUDIO: a training program and a development platform for feature films by first or second-time filmmakers residing in Egypt.

TERR.SO: Online magazine and portal on cinema, audiovisual media, film criticism, and filmmaking in Arabic.

About Homemade Stories

When the revolution in Syria turned into war, Nidal Al Dibs and his family fled to Cairo. There, he started filming his Egyptian friends as they attempt to reopen a long-closed cinema in their impoverished neighborhood. As this endeavor proves to be more and more difficult, Nidal turns to managing renovations of his house back in his troubled homeland.

All he’s got is a camera and a few home movies, but Al Dibs uses them to point out major issues in the Arab world. For him, film represents hopes and dreams—and that’s a vision borne out by local people in Cairo sharing their cinematic memories. But making a dream come true is another matter entirely.

Al Dibs uses scenes from everyday life to tell a powerful story. But this film is also about the images he will never get back: footage of his old film club and photos of friends who have disappeared paint a picture of a country that no longer exists, except in the memories of its people.