The film screening with the attendance of the director Gini Reticker and activist Hend Nafea; will be followed by two short presentations by Nada El-Kouny and Ola Galal about the current political situation in Egypt, the quandaries of documentation, and the dilemma of doing research. Moderated by Omnia Khalil
Wednesday, March 30th, 2016
6:00 – 9:00 pm
Martin Segal Theater
The Trials of Spring feature documentary recounts the story of 21-year-old Hend Nafea who travels from her village to Cairo in the early days of the Arab Spring in search of freedom and justice. As the country becomes gripped in a dangerous power struggle she endures crushing setbacks. In the end, Hend’s resilience sustains the hope of reform for her and her fellow activists, even during the darkest hours of their struggle for a better Egypt.
Gini Reticker has been directing and producing award-winning independent documentary films for over 20 years. Reticker directed Pray the Devil Back to Hell (2008), the inspiring story of Liberian women whose actions helped bring an end to a brutal civil war—it premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival where it won Best Documentary. She produced the Academy Award-nominated short Asylum(2003) the story of a Ghanaian woman who fled female genital mutilation to seek political asylum in the U.S; that same year she produced A Decade Under the Influence that looks at the heyday of 1970s filmmakers, was nominated for an Emmy, and garnered the National Review Board Award for Best Documentary. She received an Emmy for Ladies First (2004), the story of women rebuilding post-genocide Rwanda. Her first film The Heart of the Matter (1994) a groundbreaking film about women and AIDS, won the Sundance Freedom of Expression Award. She was a creator and executive producer of the PBS series Women, War & Peace (2011), recipient of the Overseas Press Club’s Edward R. Murrow Award as well as The Academy of Television Honors Award. Reticker has also coproduced or executive produced such notable films as The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)— nominated for both an Academy Award and an Independent Spirit Award; 1971, Alias Ruby Blade, Citizen Koch, Hot Girls Wanted, and She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry.
Hend Nafea received a degree in Mathematics Curricula and Teaching Method from Banha University in Egypt. While still a student, she joined thousands of Egyptians demonstrating for an end to 60 years of military rule. At the demonstration, she was arrested, beaten, and tortured by security forces and subsequently faced numerous charges, including attempting to overthrow the state. Her family punished her severely and tried to prevent her from any further participation in the public sphere. She later refused their attempts to marry her off to someone she didn’t know and headed to Cairo alone where she found work at the Hisham Mubarak Law Center. As the state’s case against her wound its way through the courts, Nafea started the organization Nation Without Torture to support fellow victims of torture at the hands of Egyptian security forces. In February 2015 she, along with 229 of her codefendants, was sentenced in absentia to life in prison. She managed to leave Egypt and now lives in exile pursuing justice for all Egyptians.
Nada El-Kouny is a PhD candidate at Rutgers University in Anthropology. Her work focuses on infrastructure, violence, and state (un)making in rural Egypt. Nada previously worked as a journalist for Ahram Online in Cairo from 2011-2013. Nada is also involved in a number of documentary film projects.
Ola Galal is a PhD student at the Graduate Center, CUNY in cultural anthropology. Her research focuses on youth, marginalization, and political participation in Egypt and Tunisia. Previously, she worked as a journalist covering current events and economic news in North Africa and the Middle East for Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters, and Agence France-Presse.
Omnia Khalil is a PhD student at CUNY Graduate Center, cultural anthropology program. Omnia is an urban researcher and co-founder of 10 Tooba| Applied Research on the Built Environment. Her research focuses on social urban justice, informality, and violence in times of revolutions, in the self-built housing areas and urban poor, and the gentrification processes.
This event is free and open tot he public. It is sponsored by the Center for Place, Culture and Politics, Graduate Center, CUNY.
