Pulse, 2011

HDV Digital Video, 4 min, 2011

Talaat Harb Street is one of Downtown Cairo’s busiest streets — a constant exhale of energy, with pedestrians and cars moving through it at almost every hour. For years, all that energy had been pressed into a deeply frustrating social and political reality. Then, on 25 January 2011, a roar broke across Cairo’s streets: “Freedom! Freedom!”

Roughly 200 metres from Tahrir Square, Talaat Harb was one of the most turbulent streets of the revolution’s opening weeks. Protesters converging on the square from across the city moved through it in waves. The street saw battles between protesters and police, clashes with regime thugs, and moments of extraordinary celebration. Caught between the desire to be fully present and the impulse to document as much as possible, I filmed the same scene from my balcony every day — the same street, different events.

Pulse is a compilation of events and emotions that unfolded on Talaat Harb Street between 25 January and 11 February. For me, a relationship to a place is shaped not just by what happens there, but by how you live through those events in proximity to it. These weeks changed my relationship to Egyptian society, and to Cairo, permanently. I felt something new beginning — a different pulse, pumping different blood through the city’s veins.