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“An old grandfather, a little granddaughter, an old house and some glimpses of memory. She was growing up building hers. He was getting old losing his.”
Mayye Zayed

Using a mix of outdated home movie formats ranging from Super8 to VHS, Mayye Zayed attempts to reconstruct and fix her fading memory of her grandfather. Her film is structured around the act of recording and the importance it has for the old man: audio recordings made by him capturing Zayed and her cousins and siblings can be heard on the soundtrack, and the filmmaker’s recreated scenes frequently show him holding a video camera. A film about trying to hold on to fleeting images, about the meaning of memory, and the technological determination of remembrance.

Mayye Zayed was born in 1985 in Alexandria, Egypt, where she currently also lives and works. She is a film director, producer, director of photography, and editor. She co­founded Rufy’s Films, an independent film production house based in Alexandria.

Production: Rufy's Films, Alexandria
Screenplay: Mayye Zayed
Camera: Mohamad El-Hadidi
With: Ahmed Khalil, Jana Abdel Aziz, Mariam Hany, Nour Mamdouh
Format: DCP, Color & Black/White
Running time: 14 min
Language: Arabic

Photo: © Mayye Zayed

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