Oppression is not a point of view
by OMAR ROBERT HAMILTON Counterpunch, OCTOBER 26, 2015 “Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic.” — J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, 2007. How disappointing to see JK Rowling and Hilary Mantel signing this nefarious letter calling for the need for ‘cultural bridges’ with Israel. The letter, assembled by a new organisation calling itself Culture
» Read moreOmar Robert Hamilton Ibraaz, 4 July 2017 Archives are important. Control the past, and you shape the present. Throughout history archives have been a target and a tool of oppressive governments, invading armies and colonial administrators. The national archives in Egypt are kept as hidden from the public as possible, part of a wider project to divorce people from their
» Read moreby Omar Robert Hamilton A debut novel that captures the experience of the Egyptian revolution like no news report could Sam’s review History changes as invisibly as the future, though more painfully in having tasted what is lost. The City Always Wins is astonishing, intelligent throughout and alternately inspiring and saddening, a novel of the Egyptian Arab Spring that covers the
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A reprint of Omar Robert Hamilton’s article in Translating Dissent, ‘Moments of Clarity’, has appeared in the dossier on Translating Testimony in the October 2016 issue of the international journal of the Auschwitz Foundation, Testimony between History and Memory (issue No. 123). Hamilton in Testimony and MemoryThe dossier also features a French version of the article (‘Des moments de lucidité’), translated by Carine Chauran. Hamilton French
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Omar Robert Hamilton Mada Masr, November 17, 2016 In the photograph, I’m wearing a gas mask and 3D glasses that I knew, if it came down to it, would not protect my eyes from the police’s buckshot. My mother is next to me, we’re riding the elevator in her building, going down to Tahrir. The police had attacked a protest
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Omar Robert Hamilton Omar Robert Hamilton is a filmmaker, writer and cultural organizer working in documentary and fiction. He helped found Cairo’s Mosireen collective and works on the documentation, archiving and the visual record of the Egyptian revolution in various ways: after making dozens of short documentaries he’s currently editing a feature documentary from the archive. He helped found the
» Read moreFaber | 13 April 2016 Faber signs a remarkable debut The City Always Wins amidst major rights excitement at the London Book Fair Faber is delighted to announce an extraordinary and important first novel by Omar Robert Hamilton. David Godwin sold Lee Brackstone World Rights excluding US. The novel is scheduled for publication in Spring 2017. The City Always Wins is a remarkable novel from the psychological
» Read moreBy Omar Robert Hamilton Jadaliyya, 16 February 2016 Multiple fractures, cigarette burns, abrasions, fingernails forcibly removed and every finger bro-ken, dozens of lacerations all over the body, on the soles of feet and ears all ending in a broken neck and suffocation. Giulio’s body was found semi-naked by the side of the road. The marks of Egypt’s security services
» Read moreOmar Robert Hamilton The Guardian, Monday 25 January 2016 I didn’t take my camera out with me the night Hosni Mubarak was overthrown. I stood in Tahrir Square among tens of thousands of Egyptians and told myself I would enjoy the moment, I would not divide myself from the night’s magical reality with a lens. I had filmed up until then because it
» Read moreGuernica, November 24, 2015 By Omar Robert Hamilton Two weeks as a volunteer at a refugee camp in Greece. I see the young man of the night before, sitting alone and smoking, staring at the black sea before him, his phone dark in his hand. Next to him a dozen young men lie asleep under grey blankets, their
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