‘Farouq Abul-Aziz’ (born on July 24, 1946, at El-Mahalla El-Kubra, in the heartland of Egypt’s Nile Delta) is a well known TV presenter, interviewer, writer, producer and director in the Arab World.
Debuting his career in his native country; Egypt, in 1966 as an academic arts & film critic on radio and in the press, Farouq’s cultural track had ushered him, a decade later, into another medium to become an eminent Arab TV personality with his prime-time Kuwait TV weekly film show “Cine-Club” (1979-1992), followed by another; “Screen Gems” (2001 – 2002). One of Farouq’s major cultural achievemetns is founding and managing (1977-1992) the Kuwait Cine-Club, a non-profit government sponsored Society, orginizing, among other activities, about 60 multi-national film festivals for the first time in the Gulf region. He also advised Kuwait’s Ministers of Information (1980-1990) on the cinematic section of the cultural protocols signed with foreing bodies. His film criticism profile covers four decades of serious writing. Farouq’s articles and essays, in both Arabic and English, have been published in major Arab dailies and periodicals.
As a juror at many local and international film festivals Farouq’s fest-list includes Germany’s Oberhausen Short Film Festival (1980), Cannes Film Festival’s International Federation of Film Critics Panel (FIPRESCI) (1984 – 1985 – 1987) and Egypt’s Ismailia International Short and Documentary Film Festival (1995).
Farouq’s documentary record has featured Abdul-Aziz in many a role as an interviewer, writer, producer, and director. The slate includes his involvement as writer and interviewer in the Britain’s New Park production of the 60 min. documentary “Vanessa Talks to Farouk Abdulaziz”. A portrait of the life and times of actress Vanessa Redgrave (1980), followed by of the 60 min. documentary “The Making Of The Lion Of The Desert” in Arabic and English commissioned by USA’s Falcon International (1981). “Merhaba” a 40 minute documentary designed for the Arabic speaking market, was commissioned by Turkey’s Ministry of Culture in 1988.
Farouq had served as a Producer/Co – Writer and Director of the international (English) version of the Japanese production “The Silk Road – Part 2”. An 18 hour documentary series commissioned by NHK of Japan for worldwide release (1987) – aired on Britain’s ITV, Canada’s CBC and History Channel, Australia’s ABC among others. During a stint with LA based International Cartoon & Animation Center (1997 – 2000) as ICAC’s Creative Consultant, Farouq wrote three feature length animated films.
If you want to read the full bio of Farouq Abdul-Aziz, Kindly visit his page on Wikipedia
