Cracking the monolith

<jats:p>This article looks at the works of three experimental video and film artists in Cairo and how they break existing moulds of artistic practice in their use of the medium. They are respectively Sherief El-Azma, a documentary and fiction filmand video-maker; Hassan Khan, an experimental and documentary video-maker and installation artist; and Wael Shawky, an installation artist. Hamid Naficy’s term ‘accented cinema’ applies to the works of these artists who stand outside the local film industry and yet who benefit from the contradictions and anomalies of this positioning. By the force of their work, they transform the margins by which they are distinguished in relation to dominant modes of production and reception, into an imaginary centre.</jats:p>