Making Media Public: On Revolutionary Street Screenings in Egypt

Authors

  • Nina Grønlykke Mollerup Roskilde University & International Media Support
  • Sherief Gaber Mosireen

Keywords:

Egypt, revolution, street screenings, information activism, media

Abstract

This article focuses on two related street screening initiatives, Tahrir Cinema and Kazeboon, which took place in Egypt mainly between 2011 and 2013. Based on long-term ethnographic studies and activist work, we explore street screenings as place-making and describe how participants at street screenings knew with rather than from the screenings. With the point of departure that participants’ experiences of the images cannot be understood detached from their experiences of everything around the images, we argue that Egyptian revolutionary street screenings enabled particular paths to knowledge because they made media engage with and take place within everyday spaces that the revolution aims to liberate and transform, and because the screenings’ public and illegal manner at times embodied events portrayed in the images.

Author Biographies

Nina Grønlykke Mollerup, Roskilde University & International Media Support

Nina Grønlykke Mollerup is an anthropologist and a PhD student at Communications, Roskilde University. She is carrying out her PhD about activism and journalism in Egypt in collaboration with NGO, International Media Support.

Sherief Gaber, Mosireen

Sherief Gaber is a lawyer, housing rights researcher, and a founding member of the Mosireen Collective. He works in Egypt on urban issues and the right to the city.

Downloads

Published

2015-08-31

Issue

Section

Articles