Featuring the Participation of Hussein Bicar and Retrieved from the
New Zealand Film Archive
Ismailia Film Festival for Documentaries and Shorts Screens The Eighth Wonder after Years of Disappearance
Cairo, Egypt | Thursday- 29 May, 2014:
After years of omission in the New Zealand Film Archive, the Ismailia International Film Festival for Documentaries and Shorts brings The Eighth Wonder to light once again, by screening the film in the Special Screening section as part of the 17th round which runs from the 3rd to 8th of June, 2014.
The Eighth Wonder is a major Egyptian documentary that tracks the transfer of Abu Simbel temples during the construction of the High Dam. It took John Feeney 4 years to direct this film with a set of great Egyptian artist Hussein Bicar's paintings that narrate the 3500-year history of the temple before transferring it.
Commenting on the great efforts exerted to get a copy of the film, the Festival Director, Mohamed Hefzy, stated "Thanks to the Ministry of Culture, and the New Zealand Film Archive, we have been able to retrieve a digital copy from the last surviving print of a great work by two-time-Oscar-nominated Canadian Director and Photographer John Feeney."
In 1973, the film premiered at the Berlin Festival for Documentary Films, then the copy was lost from the Egyptian Documentary Film Archive. In 2006 and shortly before his death, Director John Feeney dedicated the only surviving copy of The Eighth Wonder to the New Zealand Film Archive.
"Thanks to a young fan of Hussein Bicar, namely Karim Alaa, we were able to reach the New Zealand Film Archive who supervised the digitization of the print and sent it to us on time for the festival," Hefzy added.
Feeney was assigned by Dr. Tharwat Okasha, the then Egypt's Culture Minister, who spearheaded a worldwide campaign to rescue the Nubia antiquities from being flooded during the construction of the High Dam. The film was produced under the supervision of the then Director of the Egyptian Center for Documentary Films, Hassan Fouad. Co- scripted by Bicar and John Feeney, the film's music score is composed by an Italian musician, inspired by Pharoanic tunes which Bicar performed on the Mandolin.
The Eighth Wonder is one of the greatest and most prominent artistic works in the history of Egyptian fine arts. With the set of paintings done by Hussein Bicar, the film highlights the tale of Ramsis II Temple in Abu Simbel where Bicar drew illustrations depending on historical and geometrical information provided on this grand architectural structure. It took him more than two years to complete those works during which he visited Nubia and Thebes. He moved between the two towns on a Nile boat.
The Ismailia International Film Festival for Documentaries and Shorts is one of the Arab world's major film festivals, and the first to be exclusively dedicated to documentaries and shorts. The festival was first launched in 1988 under the jurisdiction of the National Cinema Center, to continue afterwards as one of three film festivals coordinated by Egypt's Ministry of Culture.
The Eighth Wonder is a major Egyptian documentary that tracks the transfer of Abu Simbel temples during the construction of the High Dam. It took John Feeney 4 years to direct this film with a set of great Egyptian artist Hussein Bicar's paintings that narrate the 3500-year history of the temple before transferring it.
Commenting on the great efforts exerted to get a copy of the film, the Festival Director, Mohamed Hefzy, stated "Thanks to the Ministry of Culture, and the New Zealand Film Archive, we have been able to retrieve a digital copy from the last surviving print of a great work by two-time-Oscar-nominated Canadian Director and Photographer John Feeney."
In 1973, the film premiered at the Berlin Festival for Documentary Films, then the copy was lost from the Egyptian Documentary Film Archive. In 2006 and shortly before his death, Director John Feeney dedicated the only surviving copy of The Eighth Wonder to the New Zealand Film Archive.
"Thanks to a young fan of Hussein Bicar, namely Karim Alaa, we were able to reach the New Zealand Film Archive who supervised the digitization of the print and sent it to us on time for the festival," Hefzy added.
Feeney was assigned by Dr. Tharwat Okasha, the then Egypt's Culture Minister, who spearheaded a worldwide campaign to rescue the Nubia antiquities from being flooded during the construction of the High Dam. The film was produced under the supervision of the then Director of the Egyptian Center for Documentary Films, Hassan Fouad. Co- scripted by Bicar and John Feeney, the film's music score is composed by an Italian musician, inspired by Pharoanic tunes which Bicar performed on the Mandolin.
The Eighth Wonder is one of the greatest and most prominent artistic works in the history of Egyptian fine arts. With the set of paintings done by Hussein Bicar, the film highlights the tale of Ramsis II Temple in Abu Simbel where Bicar drew illustrations depending on historical and geometrical information provided on this grand architectural structure. It took him more than two years to complete those works during which he visited Nubia and Thebes. He moved between the two towns on a Nile boat.
The Ismailia International Film Festival for Documentaries and Shorts is one of the Arab world's major film festivals, and the first to be exclusively dedicated to documentaries and shorts. The festival was first launched in 1988 under the jurisdiction of the National Cinema Center, to continue afterwards as one of three film festivals coordinated by Egypt's Ministry of Culture.
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