Cairo Collective

Daily reminder by @heyporterposter

On civilization, anti-imperialism and looking inwards 🌎 1. Youssef Chahine on civilization in the documentary series ‘A Story of Film: An Odyssey’ by Mark Cousins via @baladbox 2. ‘Why be a sunflower and turn towards the sun? I myself am the sun’ - Senegalese director and writer, Ousmane Sembène via @moyoafrika 3. ‘English Is a Foreign Language’ poster by @heterogeneoushomosexual ‘’english is a foreign language: is a colonial language: is a set of symbols atop a grave stone: is a prison that limits the capacity of our dreams and imagination: is a thief that has severed the ancestral and cosmological connections between bodies of flesh and land and water and flora and fauna and primal beings and insects that are deserving of their own liberation’’ 4. ليس لهم وجود (1973) - مصطفي ابو علي Via @fana.collective 5. ‘Africa, Asia, Latin America. One Enemy, Imperialism’ pages from a 1983 issue of ‘ Lotus’ an Afro-Asian quarterly via @reem_falaknaz 6. ‘Has none, has none’, revolutionary black power movement leader Kwame Ture via @warsanshiree

المقاومة اعمق اشكال الحب ❣️- @areejkaoud

🌙 نوستالجيا تلفزيون رمضان ✨كل سنة وانتو طيبين

ARAB ART CALENDAR - 2025 Wrapped 🖼️🔄 (better late than never!) From Cairo to Amman, through Dubai, we’ve been reflecting on what a transformative year 2025 has been for Arab art; locally, regionally, and on the global stage. Our collaboration usually takes form in a quarterly Arab Arts Calendar that covers exhibitions and programming across Arab cities and the diaspora. The process inevitably leads to endless conversations, WhatsApp threads, Zoom check-ins with each other that leave us reflecting on the undercurrent of the Arab art landscape, it’s themes, what it’s responding to, who it’s engaging with, and what it’s reflecting. 2025 felt like a seminal year for Arab arts as the aftermath of the war starts setting in, and the world gaze has shifted towards a different center. We opened up the conversation with our curator friends, around the world (special thanks to Nabila Adel Nabi, Senior Curator, Tate (@nabilaanabi ), Tarek Abou El Fetouh, Independent Curator (@tfetouh ), Salma Tuqan, Director of Nottingham Contemporary, (@stuqan ), Remi Homs, Curator, Barjeel Art Foundation (@remihoms ) & Gaith Abdulla, Co-founder of Bayt Al Mamzar (@gaith_ab ) who shared their favorite highlights and spoke to us about moments of resonance and shifts that defined the year. Stay tuned for more of our curator highlights on our stories 👀 (and our first Arab Art Calendar of 2026). To an amazing year ahead, we can’t wait to have more conversation with you, Alya and Alia 🤍

A selection from Fairuz’s ‘The Christmas Hymns’ (تراتيل الميلاد), composed and arranged by Assi and Mansour Rahbani. Merry Christmas! 🤍❄️🎄 1. بدي خبركم 2. ثلج ثلج 3. نجمة عيد 4. اؤمن

Excerpts from ‘One Day Everyone Will Have Been Against This’ (2025) by Omar El Akkad. @oelakkad is an Egyptian-born writer who lives and works in the United States. In his latest book, ‘One Day Everyone Will Have Been Against This’, he reckons with the events of the October 7th war and his own growing disillusionment with the West and the so-called promises of freedom and democracy it sells. Tracing both a personal and political journey—a kind of “breakup with the West”—El Akkad interrogates what it means to exist as the “other” within systems that claim moral authority, and questions the very foundation of neoliberal thought. Find ‘One Day Everyone Will Have Been Against This’ in local bookstore and Amazon. Images: 1 - ‘Black Power’ speech in 1966 by Kwame Ture 2 - ‘Concerning Violence; Nine Scenes from the Anti-Imperial Self Defense’, 2014

CALLING ALL ASPIRING FILMMAKERS PREP 💥 STEAL 💥 RUN Two.Five competition is BACK This time with the competition in Super 8/16mm formats + a unique Prototype Programme 🎞️ 👉 Super 8 Competition - Shoot a 2.5min film - 1 film cartridge - In-camera edits ONLY - Silent films (add music/sound design later) - Suitable for first-time filmmakers 👉 16mm Competition - Same rules Super 8 Competition but using a 16mm camera and film - Teams must have at least one member experienced with cinema cameras 👉 Prototype Programme - Targetting early-career filmmakers - Shoot a proof-of-concept for a long short/debut feature - Intensive script development + preproduction - Shoot on hybrid 16mm/Super 8 - ِEditing allowed - 5-7 mins final duration ⏳ Apply with your idea before 12 Oct 🙋🏼‍♀️ All selected teams will join an intensive programme (Jan–Mar 2026) featuring workshops, peer-to-peer feedback + technical guidance. 🤝 We provide film stock, cameras, and 8mm/16mm post-production. 💥 FINALE = films screened at Two.Five Festival in Zawya (Sept 2026). Ready for the challenge? 🎬 APPLY NOW ~~ Link in bio *This Project is funded by the European Union in collaboration with EUNIC Egypt لكل الحكائين وعشاق الأفلام 🎞️ حضر اسرق واجري أول مسابقة لأفلام الأنالوج القصيرة في مصر رجعت من تاني، مع مسابقتين وبرنامج لتطوير مشاريع الأفلام! 💥 مسابقة سوبر 8 - هتصور فيلم مدته دقيقتين ونص على بكرة فيلم ١ بس - روائي أو تسجيلي - من غير إعادة ولا مونتاج - أفلام صامتة (وممكن تضيف موسيقى وصوت بعدين) - مناسبة للمبتدئين وصُنّاع الأفلام لأول مرة (لأننا بنوفر تدريب تقني وفني) 💥 مسابقة ١٦مم - زي مسابقة السوبر 8 بالظبط، بس مع فيلم وكاميرا ١٦مم - لازم يكون فيه مدير تصوير أو خبرة سابقة في صناعة الأفلام 💥 برنامج تطوير الأفلام - مش مسابقة - البرنامج مخصص لتطوير المشاريع - قدم بفكرة أو معالجة لمشروع فيلم أطول - التصوير على سوبر 8 أو ١٦مم (ومسموح بالمونتاج) - مدة الفيلم النهائي ٥-٧ دقائق ⏳ قدم فكرتك قبل يوم ١١ أكتوبر 👉 كل الفرق المختارة هتدخل برنامج تطوير مكثف (يناير – مارس ٢٠٢٦) ما بين ورش، محاضرات، نقاشات جماعية، ودعم تقني وفني. 🤝 احنا بنوفر الأفلام، الكاميرات، التحميض والمسح الضوئي 💥 عرض الأفلام هيكون في زاوية (سبتمبر ٢٠٢٦) جاهز تصور وتحكي؟ 🎥 قدّم دلوقتي!

💿 AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 TRACKS 💿 @omarelakhrass x cairo collective playlist v.23 [LINK IN BIO] This Eid, co-founder of @geezarecords takes us on a sonic journey across continents—80 tracks in a playlist carefully curated to transport you through space on a musical ride around the world. From Libyan raggae, to electronic jazzy sounds from Guadeloupe, to Afro-beats from the heart of Ghana and 80’s Japanese synth pop —each song takes us to a different corner of the world. Bon voyage! ✈️🥁🌍 Listen to the playlist through the LINK IN BIO or find us on Spotify to listen to our guest curated playlist library

INSPIRED BY Coffee Break - if only these events were real, we would attend them all.❤️ We’re thrilled to share the outcome of the Poster Design Workshop led by Bushra Mettawa, Youssef Marzouk and Omar Mobarek, at last months Coffee Break by Daybreak and Brown Nose Coffee. Within a 2hr-workshop, held at @totalestudio , mixed teams of experienced designers and beginners channeled their creativity and workshop learnings to create flyers for a fictional music event. Each design evokes a truly unique music universe and taps into the Daybreak/Coffee Break spirit - celebrating diverse music cultures from around the world. Congratulations to all the participants, we couldn’t be more inspired by your creations. 💫 (Due to Instagram being Instagram 🥲 we couldn’t tag everyone, so please tag yourselves in the comments!👇)

Happy Ramadan everyone 🌙 ✨