Samirah Al-Kasim
at American University in CairoSamirah Al-Kasim is an independent filmmaker and film professor who teaches at the American University in Cairo, Egypt. She is currently working on several projects including research on the experimental arts in Cairo and the impact of digital video on cinema and the arts for a future book. She is also developing a documentary video about Palestinians living in Jordan, with focus on their relationship to the land and the status of citizenship, in relation to the historical ties between Jordan and Palestine. Her background is in experimental film with minor specialization in optical printing, but now she works in the experimental documentary mode, in digital video. The question of the boundaries between experimental and documentary form inflects most of her work. Previous films include "From Here to There" (2003); "Far From You" (1996) - distributed by Arab Film Distribution, "Lawrence of the Lambs" (1996); "Trip/Ballade" (1992); and work in progress "Picker" (begun 1999). Her recently published article, "Cracking the Monolith---Video and Film Art in Cairo" can be found in New Cinemas: Journal of Contemporary Film, vol. 2, no. 1, published by Intellect, UK.