The Egyptian Ministry of Culture is to propose a draft law to the People's Assembly, which will allow the Ministry to keep a negative copy of all the old Egyptian movies, many of which were made in black and white.
"The law will be effective retrospectively, with the films purchased by the Ministry being kept in a special archive. They will never be exploited commercially or shown at cinemas," Fawzi Fahmi, chairman of the Academy of Arts (affiliated to the Ministry of Culture), told The Egyptian Gazette.
According to the proposed law, persons who possess the original copies of old films should immediately notify the Ministry of their purchase. "The Ministry will take the original and reimburse them. But if officials find out that anyone has decided to hold onto a film, thereby breaking the [new] law, he or she will be promptly fined and the original confiscated," Fahmy explained.
Egyptian legal experts say that the reason for proposing a new law is that Egypt still lacks a specific law to protect the nation's precious film heritage. The film-producers or their inheritors are not obliged to present a negative copy to the Ministry, even if it pays for it.
Last month, the Culture and Information Committee of the People's Assembly in Egypt began intensive discussions as to how the nation can keep its hands on its wonderful old films. What gave rise to the discussions, which proved to be very heated, was the fact that a number of old originals were recently sold to private companies.
Unfortunately, Egypt's old films, starring legendary actresses like Suad Hosni, Mariam Fakhr Eddin and Faten Hamama, and great actors like Omar al Sherif, Emad Hamdi and Farid Shawqi, are seriously threatened. The weekly reported that out of at least 3,000 old films that have been pictured, the nation only owns around 1,200 in color and 700 in black and white, as well as a further 100 that are in drastic need of resplicing. In other words, Egypt lacks about 1,000 classic movies, and, even more tragically, there are many others that have gone forever, having been destroyed accidentally or on purpose.
The Ministry of Culture has agreed to buy a sophisticated machine that will restore old films, resplicing damaged sections and bringing poorly printed copies into sharper focus.
"The government really wants the PA to approve this particular piece of legislation, which will go a long way to preserving a large piece in Egypt's unique cultural jigsaw," Fahmy concluded – Albawaba.com
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
