Film My Design: A platform for Egyptian designers and filmmakers to tell stories and watch them from near and far away

Cairo - March 6, 2022: It is time in 2019 to launch the Egyptian Design Festival, due to the country's long history of design, architecture and filmmaking.After a two-year hiatus due to Covid-19, the second edition of Film My Design (FMD), which is the first festival of its kind in Egypt, the Middle East and North Africa, started in January, providing an opportunity for designers, architects and filmmakers in the region for cooperation, inspiration, and receiving training and victoryPrizes.More importantly, it is an opportunity for the audience to see.

The two Egyptians, Farah Al -Rafii and Israa Mahmoud Ibrahim, who live in the United Arab Emirates, finally took the move after they were subjected to major design events such as the Milan Film Design Festival, Art Dubai, and Venice Pinal, and realized that few Egyptians participated in it.And a few people abroad were aware of the scenes of design and the manufacture of loud and rich films in their homeland.However, there was no common ground between designers and directors in Egypt.

“We are working to raise awareness about what the design is through the film, so we are talking about the design stages.For a person who does not have a background in design or architecture to watch a real movie, not just a documentary ... we can tell the story in different types: feature films, short or long, animation, or visible art films."We explore different types to tell the story in a different and exciting way," said Rafii, the FMD, founder of the FMD..

“We are targeting everyone, not only professionals."We want to tell the story of the design in a different way, which is the movie," she added..

The final product of the engineer, for example, may be impressive to people, but the process is definitely appreciated by the architect like the building.The presentation of this process in a movie will mean a lot to society and allow those interested in appreciating the work more.

The same applies to movie makers.Their only opportunity should not be in a drama, movie or television program.The more festivals and competitions that call for their creative work, the better, the better.

This year, the American Embassy facilitated Bergman, the founder of the New York -based Cinematic and Cinema Festival, which contributed to films, talks and workshops.During the launch of FMD, he said that he did not advance a single Egyptian movie to be chosen at the Architecture and Film Design Festival, adding that he hopes that FMD will consolidate the idea between Egyptian creators until more Egyptian films are watched in international design festivals.

"We celebrate this partnership, which will reveal inspiring films and talks from the United States to Egypt ... human beings are in fact more similar than they are different, more close and more similar.".

Learn about the founders of Film My Design

He studied designing designers at the American University in Sharjah and worked with Art Dubai, one of the largest art festivals around the world, and now works as a first coordinator of exhibitions in the UAE pavilion in Venice Biennial.Meanwhile, Ibrahim obtained a master's degree in design in Italy and worked at the Milan Film Design Festival.Their prayers have benefited greatly from foot -and -mouth disease in Egypt;Many universities in Egypt and abroad want to integrate design and filmmaking in their education and they have contacted FMD to show their films.Other parties said that they want to watch Egyptian films dealing with certain topics, while other parties said that they want general design films, according to the founders..

The guests were also excited when contacting FMD to contribute to an Egyptian festival, such as Wayne Thomas, a US -produced production designer, Oscarlla Man, Beauutiful Mind, and Hidden Figures..From Egypt, Amr Aansa, director of furniture design at PINOCCHIO, and Karim Shaban, director and participant, presented workshops to direct young creators.

Ibrahim pointed out that the Dubai Design Week in 2016 extended the time of the Egyptian pavilion, which was entitled "Cairo Now: an incomplete city", for a full week for the huge amount of talents he showed.Then the idea appeared, but the two women were disappointed that there was not enough information about Egyptian designers on the Internet, and they have no platform despite the amount and number of talents in the state.To establish foot -and -mouth disease, they had to follow oral speech, meet the designers personally, and use their communications network even to find relevant people.

He made my shelters and Ibrahim their own movie in 2017 to explain their idea and how to meet the film and design industry to present history, a human story and cooperation with the Milan Design Film Festival in 2019 to clarify the importance of design festivals.

Several programs and activities are presented by FMD, including Emerging Local Talents, a program for young directors and designers, which alone resulted in four films.

Other FMD programs include Egyptian design stories, and Design at Trans Borders, which called for the Architecture and Design Film Festival from the United States in addition to workshops and discussion episodes, FMD also takes Egyptian films to be shown in international festivals and cinemas.

Ibrahim said in her opening speech: “We managed to achieve the festival’s goal through films about design, workshops and talks on innovation in a set of design areas, such as architecture, furniture and crafts.”.

How to flourish the design films festivals?

To anticipate the future of foot -and -mouth disease, Egypt today asked Bergman about how the Architecture and Film Design Festival continued, which was founded in 2009.Today, more than 350 films are undergoing the festival selection process.

"I did not realize that he was going to grow into something, but he did that ... there is a great appetite for people there, so not only design professionals," said Bergman, noting that the design movie needs both human and designing a desire for everyone.

“My design film is a very positive opportunity for all local designers and international designers.It is an inspiring thing as a person who has been doing it long ago to see new films for young people who have just started, often from young creators and a lot of good energy there..

Bergman highlighted "the democratic character of filmmaking", where one can make a movie using the iPhone, and that more design films festivals are established in different parts of the world, and that documentaries have become more famous.

Nine films, four of which are Italian, participated in the first edition, and was the largest partner of the Milan Film Design Festival.It was more than 30 films in the 2022 edition, about 14 of which were Egyptian, and the rest is international, which proves the tremendous position that the festival fills in the Egyptian creative scene.

American Ambassador Jonathan Cohen said in the opening speech of the FMD exhibition..It will also be deepened in sustainability and climate change, and the masses will encourage the re -visualization of public and private places and cultural heritage sites..

"We also want to present the inspiring achievements of women's ideas in architecture, planning and landscape engineering from Egypt and from all over the world to emphasize the benefits that come from investing in equality, diversity and inclusiveness.".

The founders thanked the British Council, the Italian Cultural Institute, the Japan Foundation, the Austrian Cultural Forum, the Swiss embassy, and the American embassy for their care and FMD 2022.

The American embassy presented the largest contribution this year with eight American films in addition to Corbergmann.

This is not the first time that the American embassy has facilitated workshops in Egypt provided by American design experts.In November 2018, Professors of Parsons Design John Bruce and Mark Randal presented a five -day workshop for 15 participants from different backgrounds and professions on one table, and helping each other in various projects, most notably empowering women, children, youth, education, movement and use of art to involve people inpublic places.

Architecture in Egypt

The cooperation of architects and filmmakers in Egypt can be amazing, due to the different types of authentic architecture in the country, starting from the ancient, Roman, Coptic and Islamic Egyptian, ending with European and modern..Today, the urban expansion in Egypt is greater than ever, and therefore the timing of foot -and -mouth disease is great.

“People are interested in design, especially a country like Egypt, where the design is very important.It is in your history and in your DNA."I mean, you have the most famous buildings in the world from the design perspective," said Berjmanan..

He said that the films about the new capital will be interesting, positives and negatives.

He said in an answer to Egypt's question today about the architectural patterns, as Egypt begins the planned urban expansion throughout the country, "I think the strong city allows to bring both historical things and modern things.".

He stressed that the "international style" that was created to be placed anywhere in the world is not a solution because it does not take into account history.

“I think you should know where to do that and be respectful and pursuing to the site ... it does not look at the environment.Bergman said: “She does not look at culture.”.

“This does not mean that you cannot make modern buildings, such as, if you look at Italy, I think Italy does it very well.He explained that they have ancient ancient cities and sometimes they bring modern buildings and the materials may be different, but the scale is appropriate..

Since the design festivals are looking for Egyptian films in architecture, telling stories is the most powerful tool for Egyptian creators, according to Bergman, because it includes the emotional side.

“Serving stories is really one of the best ways to talk about architecture ... as an architect, you are a narrator of stories.As a film maker, you are my storyteller.We all tell the stories all the time.Site stories through the clothes you have chosen, and how you present yourself in the world, as you know, through the color of the walls, the high lights.These are all novels..

In Egypt, the design may be known among the general public as a term used in certain areas such as fashion, decoration and graphics.But the design is a huge concept that applies to everything in life, so everything can be designed and redesigned.

In the seventies of the last century, designer Victor Babanic said that the design is not related to creating things, but rather brings together many people who participate in a position to understand the complexity, according to American design professor John Bruce.Babanic wrote the book "Design for the Real World", which is translated into about 24 languages and helped the way to design to be an approach.

This is the way a designer can designing a city, building, event, or commercial project without being an engineer, planner or holder of the Master of Business Administration as long as he has the appropriate team and is able to think about everything related to the product and how all factors affect each other.

Each design has a story.FMD founders invite designers and filmmakers to access FMD and social media platforms to discuss projects and progress for the festival in 2023, to inform the world of the human and creative story behind the design.