Q&A Following the Screening of “Crop”

Film Director: Marouan Omara is a filmmaker based in Cairo. His films wander around the unmarked territory between fiction and documentary to explore the nexus of power and citizenship. His last feature-length film “Dreamaway”  was selected by the Egyptian Critics Association as the best Egyptian film of the year 2019. Omara works as a consultant for different film programs and teaches film production in different universities in Egypt and abroad. Recently, he got assigned to be the director of the Short Film Competition at the Cairo International Film Festival.

Moderator: Karim El Hayawan is a Cairo-based visual artist and interior architect. After founding Design Point Studio in Cairo in 2002, El Hayawan began to develop his photography under the mentorship of Alaa Abdel Naby of Reuters. He is continuously inspired by his hometown Cairo, relentlessly seeking visual vocabulary that defines the complexities of the ever-expanding urban metropolis. His work has been featured in numerous publications and exhibitions throughout the region: the “Contemporary Arab Photography Biennale'' at the Institut Du Monde Arabe in Paris, the Grid Cape Town Biennale in South Africa, the off-Biennale in Cairo, titled “Something Else”, Abu Dhabi Art at Hafez Gallery,  Cite  Internationale Des Arts Paris, Art D’Egypte and Darb1718 in Cairo as well as the Egyptian pavilion at Dak’art Biennale. El Hayawan is also the founder of Cairo  Saturday Walks, an initiative that invites participants to explore different neighborhoods in Egypt through street photography and that was featured and highlighted on CNN’s “Connect the World” and “Destination Egypt.”