The Arab Film Archive Collects and Digitizes Arab Films Over the Span of 75 Years

The Arab Film Archive (AFA) documents the Arab world’s fascinating cinematic heritage, with its ever-evolving range of regional history, political changes, culture and consciousness. The independent non-profit initiative has one goal in mind: to make regional films accessible for academic and research purposes, and in turn truly shed some light on the Arab world's cinematic treasures.

The archive – founded by Arab cinema history writer and researcher Ahmed Ameen -  has been collecting films made between 1935 to 2006, boasting almost 75 years of cinematic history. To view their rich database, click here. Their aesthetic Instagram page hosts an amazing grid that showcases how their rich archive was used to create their very own identity based on Arab pop culture, and shows off the diversity of the archive, as well as the different artistic ways through which it can be used. If you’re a student, teacher, journalist or researcher interested in accessing a film on the database, send an email to info@arabfilmarchive.com. Happy digging!