The Self-Reference Cinema workshop, a three-week workshop run by filmmaker Basel Ramsis, was held three times at Dahshur Residence: 31st March-17th April 2019, 14th April-3rd May 2018, 19th March-6th April 2017.
The aim of the workshop was to develop participants’ abilities through personal work, starting from film diaries to producing cinematic material that represents them, their lives and their realities. Through intensive thinking and group discussions about the cinematic tools and how to use them in daily life, as filmmakers, the workshop helped participants discover their own tools, the areas and issues they’re most interested in working on, and helped them arrive at several opportunities and options for cinematic approaches, without simply taking an easy shortcut to a certain cinematic approach and getting used to it. At the end of the workshop each participant will have produced three short films.
The Self-Reference Cinema workshop, a three-week workshop run by filmmaker Basel Ramsis, was held three times at Dahshur Residence: 31st March-17th April 2019, 14th April-3rd May 2018, 19th March-6th April 2017.
The aim of the workshop was to develop participants’ abilities through personal work, starting from film diaries to producing cinematic material that represents them, their lives and their realities. Through intensive thinking and group discussions about the cinematic tools and how to use them in daily life, as filmmakers, the workshop helped participants discover their own tools, the areas and issues they’re most interested in working on, and helped them arrive at several opportunities and options for cinematic approaches, without simply taking an easy shortcut to a certain cinematic approach and getting used to it. At the end of the workshop each participant will have produced three short films.
The Theoretical Part:
• Initial questions and an open discussion regarding the main concepts.
• Film diaries or personal cinema? A discussion on the workshop’s syllabus in new cinema.
• Drama; and the search process of what the filmmaker wants to tell. Genres and different narrative strategies.
• The character/ filmmaker/ audience triangle and the type of relationship between them.
• Perspective and the relations between technical, aesthetic and artistic decisions.
• Self-reference cinema and its relation to the technical, aesthetic and artistic questions as well as the spectator’s involvement in the cinematic game.
• Pace and time
• Personal testimony in cinema
The Practical Part:
• Initial personal written observations
• Pivotal life experiences and expressing one of them cinematographically
• Cinematic translation of personal text
• Film diaries
• Film-Letter
• Final exercise
Mentors:
Dina Emam
Muhammad Taymour
SELECTED PROJECTS
Amr ElSeyoufi -The Deer That Ran Away
Yasser Shafiey -Complaint NO. 713317
Mavie Maher -Fragile
Jennifer Peterson -Beyond the Farthest Tree
Ahmed Dahroug -Yasmine in Love
Marwan Imam -The Feast
Amr Wishahy -On the Road
Fady Elkholy and Mohamed Bakr Labib
Abanoub Youssef -Outside of Pelicans Lake
Sherif Fathy -Where from we Tell the Story
April 2018, Self-Reference Workshop
• Initial questions and an open discussion regarding the main concepts.
• Film diaries or personal cinema? A discussion on the workshop’s syllabus in new cinema.
• Drama; and the search process of what the filmmaker wants to tell. Genres and different narrative strategies.
• The character/ filmmaker/ audience triangle and the type of relationship between them.
• Perspective and the relations between technical, aesthetic and artistic decisions.
• Self-reference cinema and its relation to the technical, aesthetic and artistic questions as well as the spectator’s involvement in the cinematic game.
• Pace and time
• Personal testimony in cinema
• Initial personal written observations
• Pivotal life experiences and expressing one of them cinematographically
• Cinematic translation of personal text
• Film diaries
• Film-Letter
• Final exercise
Basel Ramsis is an Egyptian/Spanish documentary filmmaker and writer, residing in Spain. Born in 1973 in Cairo, Egypt, he graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce from Ain Shams University in 1995. In 1996, he joined the script writing department of the Egyptian High Cinema only to leave it in 1998. He later studied film direction and script writing at “Septima Ars” Institute in Madrid and graduated in 2002.He has directed a number of documentaries, short feature films and video arts in Spain, Palestine, Lebanon and Egypt.
In 2003 he started teaching documentary filmmaking in “Ondas Formación School” and in the International School of Cinema in Cuba since 2008. He has been running workshops and different specialised courses in several Spanish universities and cinema schools with a focus on social cinema, gender and cinema, auto-reference cinema, and low budget documentaries. His workshops take place in Spain, Chile, Jordan, Egypt, Tunis and Sudan, resulting in the production of more than 500 short documentaries and fictions films by the workshop participants.
He is a jury member of many international film festivals in Spain, Europe and Latin America, the latest being “Havana Film Festival” in December 2016. Basel is also a member of selection committees of several film festivals, namely Documenta Madrid. He organises the Arab Documentary Film Panorama for “Casa Árabe” in Spain, and organises and supervises a number of other film weeks.
In 2001, he founded “Dayra Arts” a production company, and runs it to date:
-2014 Sokar Barra (Sugar on the side), ACT.
-2007 Columpios (Swings), Dayra Arts production.
-2003 Vida de perros (Dog Life), Odisea TV Channel (Spain & Portugal)
-2003 Belleza de bisturí(Scalpel Beauty), Odisea TV Channel (Spain & Portugal)
-2002 El otro lado… Un acercamiento a Lavapies (The Other Side.. An approach to Lavapies), Dayra Arts production.
About Bassel Ramsis
Basel Ramsis is an Egyptian/Spanish documentary filmmaker and writer, residing in Spain. Born in 1973 in Cairo, Egypt, he graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce from Ain Shams University in 1995. In 1996, he joined the script writing department of the Egyptian High Cinema only to leave it in 1998. He later studied film direction and script writing at “Septima Ars” Institute in Madrid and graduated in 2002.He has directed a number of documentaries, short feature films and video arts in Spain, Palestine, Lebanon and Egypt.
In 2003 he started teaching documentary filmmaking in “Ondas Formación School” and in the International School of Cinema in Cuba since 2008. He has been running workshops and different specialised courses in several Spanish universities and cinema schools with a focus on social cinema, gender and cinema, auto-reference cinema, and low budget documentaries. His workshops take place in Spain, Chile, Jordan, Egypt, Tunis and Sudan, resulting in the production of more than 500 short documentaries and fictions films by the workshop participants.
He is a jury member of many international film festivals in Spain, Europe and Latin America, the latest being “Havana Film Festival” in December 2016. Basel is also a member of selection committees of several film festivals, namely Documenta Madrid. He organises the Arab Documentary Film Panorama for “Casa Árabe” in Spain, and organises and supervises a number of other film weeks.
In 2001, he founded “Dayra Arts” a production company, and runs it to date:
-2014 Sokar Barra (Sugar on the side), ACT.
-2007 Columpios (Swings), Dayra Arts production.
-2003 Vida de perros (Dog Life), Odisea TV Channel (Spain & Portugal)
-2003 Belleza de bisturí(Scalpel Beauty), Odisea TV Channel (Spain & Portugal)
-2002 El otro lado… Un acercamiento a Lavapies (The Other Side.. An approach to Lavapies), Dayra Arts production.
Mentors:
Dina Emam
Muhammad Taymour
SELECTED PROJECTS
Amr ElSeyoufi -The Deer That Ran Away
Yasser Shafiey -Complaint NO. 713317
Mavie Maher -Fragile
Jennifer Peterson -Beyond the Farthest Tree
Ahmed Dahroug -Yasmine in Love
Marwan Imam -The Feast
Amr Wishahy -On the Road
Fady Elkholy and Mohamed Bakr Labib
Abanoub Youssef -Outside of Pelicans Lake
Sherif Fathy -Where from we Tell the Story
