“Clean Living” Nominated for Samir Kassir Award

Published: 6 June 2013

Region: Middle East

The short film “Clean Living”, supported by the Media Diversity Institute (MDI), was nominated for the prestigious Samir Kassir Award. Ahmed Ateyya, the co-founder of Wojood Media Production which produced “Clean Living”, said that “it is an honour and a great achievement to be finalist in one of the most competitive journalism in the Middle East”.

He expressed his gratitude to the MDI team for supporting quality journalist, especially to the MDI trainer and journalist Richard Cookson.

A short film, “lo’ma Ndeefa” or Clean Living, by group of young creative individuals sheds a spotlight on one of the marginalized and poor communities in Egypt. The film focuses on the events of a normal day-at-work of Ahmed Al-Edel, a sewage-water drainer. Ahmed lives and works around Bedef-Giza (200 KMs from Cairo).

Supported by the Media Diversity Institute (MDI) and Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), the film was well received by both the media and the audience in Egypt and on the regional level. As a result, the film was nominated for Samir Kassir Award in Lebanon. It also was screened in the “Des Rencontres De L’Image” festival, organised by the French Institute in. Significant attention was paid to the film by screening it on one of the popular Egyptian talk-shows “Lazim Nifham” or “We Must Understand”.

MDI has also provided the special training for the director of the film and the rest of the cast.

The winners of Samir Kassir Award for 2013 are Ahmed Abu Draa, Doha Hassan and Luna Safwan.

Samir Kassir Award for the Freedom of the Press recognizes outstanding journalists who report on violations and violence, injustice and suffering, corruption and mismanagement, humanitarian and natural disasters, sometimes at the price of taking great personal risks in doing so.

Samir Kassir was a Lebanese journalist and professor. He was assassinated on June 2, 2005, in Beirut, when a bomb placed under his car was detonated.