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Past Film/Video | Documentaries
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From prolific filmmaker Atteyat Al-Abnoudy—called the matriarch of Egyptian documentary—comes this intimate portrait of a woman’s daily life farming near the Suez Canal.
Atteyat Al-Abnoudy was born in 1939 to a working-class family in Egypt. Trained in law, journalism, and cinema, Al-Abnoudy started making documentaries in the 1970s, beginning with her award-winning short Horse of Mud (1971), which focused on women working at a brick factory and revealed their exploitative working conditions. Al-Abnoudy would go on to produce some 30 documentaries before her death in 2018.
Permissible Dreams embodies many of the central themes that Al-Abnoudy would return to time and again throughout her career: the intersections of class, labor, social justice, and the perspectives of women. The film follows farmer Oum Said, who—although she doesn’t read or write—provides a range of essential services to her family. She serves as bookkeeper, doctor, administrator, and visionary, working, in her own words, “to the limits of her possibilities.” In step with Al-Abnoudy’s signature approach to documentary, Permissible Dreams is entirely narrated by Oum Said herself, who describes her daily life on her own terms. The result is an intimate portrait of one individual that resonates across a broader look at social class and identity. In Arabic with English subtitles. (31 mins., video)
Organized by the Wexner Center for the Arts and curated by Ohio State History of Art graduate student Dareen Hussein and Film/Video Curatorial Assistant Layla Muchnik-Benali.
This series was made possible with support from the Global Arts and Humanities Discovery Theme Fellowship.
FILM/VIDEO PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY Cardinal Health Kaufman Development
ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY Rohauer Collection Foundation
WEXNER CENTER PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY Greater Columbus Arts Council Mary and C. Robert Kidder L Brands Foundation American Electric Power Foundation The Columbus Foundation Ohio Arts Council Bill and Sheila Lambert Institute of Museum and Library Services Huntington Nationwide Foundation Adam Flatto Vorys, Sater, Seymour, and Pease Arlene and Michael Weiss
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Past Film/Video
Permissible Dreams
