popyrus|cinema&art
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| Hussein Fahmy |
Abdel Fattah El Gebaly, Chairman and Managing Director of the Media Production City, expressed his sincere appreciation and deep thanks to the star Hussein Fahmy, President of the Cairo International Film Festival, who praised during his speech at the opening ceremony of the 45th session of the festival, the great effort made by the Center for the Revival of Audiovisual Heritage in the city, in restoring a group of masterpieces of old feature films, which represent the classics of Egyptian cinema, and bringing them back to life again with the highest levels of image quality and sound clarity, after they were damaged and old and became unfit for cinematic screening. These films are: Cairo 30, The Second Wife, Al Haram, Something of Fear, The Impossible, Al Samman and Al Khareef, Al Saraab, Qasr Al Shawq, Bayn Al Qasrein, and Al Shahat.
During his speech, the great star praised the role of the city’s Heritage Revival Center in this regard, describing the center as “a very wonderful and distinguished center on a global level,” noting that cooperation with the center had begun since the previous session of the festival, which adopted the initiative to restore old Egyptian films, which are considered treasures of Egyptian cinema. Indeed, during that session, the films “Diary of a Country Prosecutor” and “A Song on the Passage” were restored.
He added that there are 12 other old films currently being restored in the city, which are masterpieces of old Egyptian films, and that they are being translated into foreign languages to be shown more widely to the world audience.
It is worth noting that the Media Production City had previously signed an agreement with the Holding Company for Investment in Cultural and Cinematic Fields, affiliated with the Ministry of Culture, to restore 40 old feature films from the classics of Egyptian cinema, at the Center for the Revival of Audiovisual Heritage in the city, as a first phase among more than 300 films owned by the Ministry of Culture, which represent the history of Egyptian cinema.
Then, the great artist Hussein Fahmy, accompanied by the Holding Company delegation, visited the Heritage Revival Center in the city, and witnessed the film restoration processes and the stages they go through, from transferring the image of old, dilapidated films to the 4k technology with international quality, in addition to the digital restoration and color correction processes, which are carried out with the utmost precision and professionalism. During the visit, Fahmy confirmed that the restoration of the films owned by the Holding Company is a first step in cooperation with the city, which will be followed by many steps to restore the huge number of films successively at the Heritage Revival Center. He thanked the city’s management and all the workers at the center for this wonderful effort they are making to preserve the Egyptian heritage of old films.
In this context, the Media Production City confirms that it spares no effort in playing its important role in preserving the Egyptian treasures of old feature films that represent the history of Egyptian cinema, as well as documentaries owned by Egypt, which are an extremely important information treasure. The city has restored the Egyptian Cinema Newspaper owned by the General Authority for Information, which documents many historical events and major occasions. This is done through the city’s Cinema Restoration Center, which is the first of its kind in the Middle East in this specialization, and in cooperation with the official bodies, ministries and technical institutions concerned with this matter. The city’s management attaches great importance to this center by equipping it with the latest global devices applied in this field, and providing it with human elements trained globally to reach the highest level of efficiency and excellence to keep pace with the global levels specialized in this field.