Egyptian-born, Sydney-based comedian Akmal Saleh was so dismayed at the way Western media portrayed the 2011 revolution in his homeland that he shot a documentary on the subject.
Pharaoh Vs The Egyptians will have its Sydney premiere on the opening night of the fourth annual Indie Gems Festival which runs September 12-14 at the Riverside Theatres, Parramatta.
“Most of the information that Australians got about the uprising came from CNN, which Akmal felt was either inaccurate or did not reflect what was happening,” festival organiser John L. Simpson told IF. “He was very passionate about it, went to Egypt and made this extraordinary documentary about what the Egyptian people actually did. It’s a story of a tyrant (President Hosni Mubarak) who has gone too far and the people who got sick of being lied to by their government. Ïn light of what’s happening in Turkey at the moment the story becomes even more important.”
The film explains how social media helped bring millions of people together, as related by young activists who were instrumental in coordinating the protests. Simpson hopes to arrange a theatrical release for the documentary through his distribution company Titan View once Akmal has cleared the commercial rights to use some of the images sourced from a photo agency. The doco has played in a few festivals including the Byron Bay International Film Festival and the Canberra Comedy Festival.
The closing night film is Korean-Australian director Michael Kang’s Gossip Nation, which chronicles the conflicts and dramas of a community of African immigrants and refugees who settled in Sydney’s Blacktown. The protagonist is Kemi, an unemployed Nigerian teenager who learns that gossip and innuendo can wreak havoc and turn her friends and family against each other.
Simpson picked up the film after it won the last year’s DigiSPAA competition. He’s arranging community screenings and four-wall deals with some exhibitors.
One innovation at this year’s Indie Gems festival is a student short film competition for aspiring filmmakers who live in the western suburbs, created around the theme of “kindness.” Simpson hasn’t yet figured out what the prizes will be. Also on the program will be a DIY cinema marketing forum.