Mohamed El-Assyouti

Mohamed El-Assyouti holds a B.S. in Physics/Electronics (1993) and an M.A. in English and Comparative Literature (2001) from the American University in Cairo (AUC).  Since September 2000, El-Assyouti has taught courses on the history of film, video production, film theory and criticism and special topics in film and literature in the Performing and Visual Arts (PVA) department of AUC.  He also co-taught film directing with director Osama Fawzi at the Raafat El-Mihi Studio Galal Academy in 2003-04.

For the past 12 years, Mr. El-Assyouti has written numerous articles and reviews for Al-Ahram Weekly on both Egyptian and international films.  He participated in the organization of film festivals (Cairo International, Alexandria and Ismailia International) and curated films, such as the 2005/2006 Tuesday film series at AUC.  In addition, he served as a critics jury member at the Ismailia International Festival for Documentary and Short Films (2003) and catalogue editor of the 29th Cairo International Film Festival (2005).

Mr. El-Assyouti acted in several film and video works, such as a BBC mini-series directed by Ferdinand Fairfax (2005) and an Egyptian TV serial directed by Khairy Beshara (2003).  He also served as director assistant (1992-93) in two feature films by director Mohamed Khan and as video editor (1995) at Tareq Nour’s Advertising Agency.  He participated in three independent video-production workshops organized by ProHelvetia, the Swiss Cultural Centre, in 1997, 1998, and 2005, conducted by Swiss directors Geita Schell and Dennis Rabaglia and Egyptian director Khairy Beshara; and in a workshop on low-budget documentary organized by the Spanish Embassy in Cairo in 2005, supervised by Dayra Arts—director Basel Ramsis, director of photography Alfonso Postigo and editor Renato Sanjuan.

In June 2005, he wrote, produced and directed the short fiction film “Awiz Amawwit El-H’umar” (I Want to Kill the Jackass), which premiered on September 14, 2005 at AUC’s Ewart Hall.

Source: University Programs and Events Planning Resources, March 2006