In recent years, Egyptian cinema has been dominated by movies considered “inappropriate” for kids due to sexual connotations and obscene words, which no doubt have an impact on kids' personalities and cultural awareness.
This is what sparked the creation of the “Mobile cinema” campaign, a non-profit entertainment project that wanders Cairo's streets with modest tools — a projector screen and a laptop with a bunch of documentaries — to provide kids with inspirational, age appropriate content. The idea is that the campaign will have a positive impact on cultural identity and instill important values and morals in the next generation.
“Culture is the tool for change, self-expression and identity," said Mohammed Wahdan, founder of the "Mobile cinema" campaign. "It is a big umbrella uniting all segments of society, without discrimination but with creativity, freedom and art.”
Wahdan, along with his five coworkers and many other volunteers, select documentaries and short movies that have educating messages from different cultures and screen them for kids from the slums and marginalized regions with the hope of helping to build their own cultural way of thinking and understanding.
The project began in 2012 by presenting some videos to kids and youth in mosques after each daily prayer. The campaign was soon invited to carry out their idea at NGOs and libraries.
“This year we targeted the Ain Shams neighborhood in Cairo, especially during summer vacation when we were going to many districts six days a week,” said Wahdan. “We are constantly working with charities and NGOs, including Al-Mahdi, Kon zat Assar Academy and many others.”
Although Wahdan studies architecture, he believes deeply in social responsibility. ”Everyone should give something to serve society," he said. "I found myself interested in launching this project and was thrilled when I saw the kids' reactions; smiles beaming on their faces and their repeated requests to come again were enough to make us want to proceed."
“During the movie screenings we usually use some tools to help kids understand the messages behind the movies,” he said.
“Every time we encourage the kids to interact with each other in order to stimulate their talent for self-expression," continued Wahdan. "For instance, every time we ask them about what they understood and ask for solutions if there was a problem discussed in the movie, and at the end we give them small gifts.”
Wahdan emphasized that the past couple of years have been a testing period for the campaign and they are currently developing broader programs that would cover more areas.
Wahdan also confirmed that the project is a non-profit organization and the movie screenings are offered for free. The campaign only received a modest budget from an organization called Madad, to buy the screen projector and laptop needed to screen the movies.
