Adham Center News

Ali's Angels

Ali Belail, Dina El Guindy, Rania Hegazy, Rania Nabil and Rasha El Sayed

Once upon a time there were four little Egyptian girls. Rania Hegazy, Rasha El Sayed, Rania Nabil, and Dina El Guindi grew up to be four very different women but they have four things in common. They are all brilliant and beautiful Adham Center graduates who work for the Orbit satellite television network. Their boss is Ali Belail, and he too graduated from the Adham Center.

This is their story.

Ali Belail ('96)

Ali graduated from AUC's Political Science department, then took a Master's degree in TV Journalism at the Adham Center. Between graduating and embarking on his Masters degree, he worked mainly in theater as a production manager of The Temple Theater Company which Ali formed with two other friends. He produced several plays such as "The Bus," "Oedipus," and "Marriage on a Divorce Paper." While doing his Master's, he worked as a news assistant for the BBC's Cairo correspondent. From 1996 to 1999, he worked as editor-in-chief for the quarterly English-language academic cultural journal "Sudan Dispatch."

For him the Adham Center is a very special place.

"The atmosphere was based on team work. We all became team players and also learned to compete as well," says Belail.

During the two years of the Master's program, Ali learned the basic skills of TV journalism in general and about news journalism in particular.

"I still go to the Adham Center at least once a month. Like all Adham Center graduates, I feel loyal to the place. The head of the department, Prof. S. Abdallah Schleifer, somehow manages to make us loyal without ever telling us to be so. He is enriching on the professional level and used to tell us amazing stories about his days in Jerusalem in the 60's and in Iran. I personally benefited a great deal from him."

"One day, I received a phone call from Tarek El Kashef, executive producer of the TV network Orbit. He told me that he wanted to establish a news gathering unit to cover news about and produce reports on Cairo. These reports would be shown on a program called Laylat Orbit ("Orbit Night") that would run for thirty days during Ramadan. I worked as editor-in-chief and supervising producer in the Field Reports and Documentaries Unit. He offered me the opportunity to bring with me my own team of reporters and technicians, so I started looking for recent Adham Center graduates," Ali says.

The first reporter Ali recruited was Rasha El Sayed ('99) followed by Rania Hegazy('99), who later became his assistant, and then Rania Nabil('99). They worked hard and under pressure for the thirty days of the program, which was a success and attracted many viewers because it was the first talk show in the region. Orbit's management then decided that the show should continue year round and it became Al Qahira Al Yawm ("Cairo Today").

"As a result we had to expand our operation, so we needed to recruit more people and to broaden the work. The most important thing was to bring in a good editorial team with a broad range of interests in order to cover a broad range of subjects. We started a production cycle to produce different reports for a live daily show. The goal of the unit was to show all aspects of Cairo life, including art, news, culture, food, and entertainment, and also to reflect the richness of Cairo's texture, focusing for example on people's humor or how the city manages to be both chaotic and at the same time charming."

Later on the unit produced four more programs: Mahalliyyat ("The Local Scene"), which is a one-hour fortnightly show that examines social, cultural, and entertainment issues; Amaliqat Al Fann Al Sabi' ("Giants of the Seventh Art"), a one-hour weekly documentary program; Gam'iyyat Khayriyya ("Charities"), a profile of charitable associations and their activities and how they operate; and finally Aghani W 'Agbani ("Songs I Like"), which is slightly different in nature from the unit's other three programs but uses similar techniques. The program hosts celebrities, who talk about songs they like.

"The Field Reports and Documentaries Unit is not just a production unit, but one that develops content as well. The problem with TV in the Arab World is that everyone is copying from everyone else. They do not have their own ideas or the creativity to come up with new things." Ali continues, "I exclude the news channels because they work on a different format. Cairo Today is not a franchised program and neither are the documentaries that the unit produces."

Rasha El Sayed ('99)

Rasha graduated from AUC with a major in Mass Communication and a minor in Psychology. After graduation she joined the Adham Center to take her Master's degree.

"During my Master's, the Adham Center was like a home to me. I learned everything that has to do with reporting from shooting to writing the script to editing. I learned everything and I loved all aspects of the process."

Before joining the Adham Center, Rasha used to be afraid of any kind of button. For her the editing room was really something scary. Now she has become "button friendly," as she puts it. For her, the Adham Center is a perfect place for anyone who wants to do well in the field of TV journalism. "The instructors treated us not as students but as people who work in the field but need to become more professional," she said.

After finishing her master's degree, Rasha was chosen by Ali to be one of the reporters on Orbit's Field Reports and Documentaries Unit. During her assignments in the streets, Rasha discovered kinds of people she even didn't know existed.

"I met so many different categories of people. Some interviewees love to act as if they are the directors of the story: they give the cameraman and me instructions even if they are going to be asked just one question!"

Rasha has funny stories to tell. Once she was doing a report on the first day of April. "I made up something really funny and weird that was hard to believe and yet some people said that they had read about it in the newspaper or heard about it on the news!" After finishing shooting, I told the people that it was an April Fool's joke, and what was weirder is that they didn't seem to be embarrassed."

After reporting for four years, Rasha got the chance to have her own weekly program when Orbit assigned her to present "Solo." Rasha co-presents the program with famous conductor Emad Ashor. Together they host one musician every episode and talk about his music and his instrument.

"I don't have a good background on musical instruments and this really suits the nature of the program since I represent the ordinary viewer who is not necessarily acquainted with everything about music and yet enjoys it. Emad Ashor represents the professional aspect, so there is a kind of balance," says Rasha.

Rania Hegazy ('99)

Rania graduated from AUC with a major in Mass Communication. After graduating she worked as a journalist on "Al Ahram Evening." Next, she took her Master's degree from the Adham Center. Later she became the second person recruited to work in Orbit's Field Reporting and Documentaries Unit, starting as a reporter on "Orbit Night," which turned into "Cairo Today." Now she is the assistant to the unit's supervising producer. She also has a fortnightly thirty-minute segment on Al Qahira El Yawm called "Family Zone," in which she discusses topics that deal with the family.

Rania experienced a very funny and embarrassing situating when one of her interviewees made a proposal of marriage to her after shooting. "You can never tell what you will come across on the street on any given day!" Rania says.

For Rania, the best part of her job is the reporting itself, plus dealing with so many different people with a variety of experiences. "It is not a boring 9-to-5 job, which would not suit my nature. I have also gained knowledge from other people's experiences," Rania continues. "But the bad part of it is that I cannot be committed to any appointment or occasion since my job has no fixed hours and anything might come up at any time and change the whole plan of the day."

Rania's favorite segment of El Qahira El Yawm is "Ask Ragaa," presented by actress Ragaa El Gedawy, who discusses social issues and problems. Rania also likes Amer and Nirvana's introduction where they argue with each other at the beginning of the program.

Rania is so fond of social issues that she wants to present a program where she hosts people who have come across different situations to discuss how they dealt with them.

Rania Nabil ('99)

Rania graduated from AUC in 1996 with a major in Mass Communications (specialization in Advertising and Public Relations) and a minor in Psychology. Then she worked as an editorial assistant at AUC's Adham Center, where she eventually took her Master's degree, completing the final semester at New York University (NYU). NYU students were amazed at the professional approach and practical training that she had acquired at the Adham Center.

"NYU students used to get editors from outside the university, while I was able to do the whole process from start to finish. It made me realize how much I owe the Adham Center."

Rania works as a part-timer instructor at Misr University for Science and Technology, teaching in the Radio and TV section. At the same time she works as a reporter for Orbit. "I have been working for Orbit for five years now and I consider it my home."

Rania is now a senior reporter. She has gained experience over the years and covered all kinds of stories. Her favorite reports are those that deal with serious topics. Rania dreams of having her own program that discusses either political or social issues or issues that engage public opinion.

Rania's favorite part of Al Qahira El Yawm is the amusing and light-hearted cooking segment by actor and musician Hussein El Imam.

Rania's favorite channels are documentary channels like National Geographic, Animal Planet, and the Discovery Channel. She also watches news channels to keep herself up to date on current events.

Dina El Guindy ('03)

Dina graduated from AUC with a major in Mass Communications and a minor in Theater. She then worked in an editing company called 2K while simultaneously studying at the Adham Center. She got her first chance when Ali Belail saw her project at the graduation ceremony.

While doing her Master Dina's main concern was reporting in Arabic: "My first 'stand-upper' in Arabic was really terrible. I was covering a demonstration and I had to ask my colleagues how to say 'demonstration' in Arabic. I also couldn't compose a proper sentence. That day I cried. I didn't imagine that one day I would be reporting in Arabic." She continues, "Dr. Tunsi, my Arabic teacher at the Adham Center, helped me a lot and changed my life."

Dina attributes her love of TV journalism to her nature. "I hate to sit in one place for a long time and also I love to see different people and do different things and cover a variety of topics. One day I was doing a story about the singer Ruby and on the same day but at night I went to Naga' 'Abd El Rasul, the small village that was inhabited by drug dealers. I like the atmosphere; it keeps me interested."

Although her job in Orbit seems to be made for her, Dina sometimes finds it difficult to understand people's attitude towards the camera. "People don't trust standing in front of the camera and if they do, they don't say the truth but give cookie-cutter responses."

For her a good reporter is the one who has a certain charisma, who understands what he or she is saying, and knows how to deliver it in the best way. Some reporters work in this field to become famous, so they care more about how they look than about what they say, claims Dina.

On the streets of Cairo, Dina has gained experience on many levels. "I have learned to be patient and to listen to what people really mean, not what they say."

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Dina wants to do meaningful documentaries that deal with important issues. Whether being a studio presenter or a reporter or doing documentaries, Dina's main interest is "finding out stuff," as she puts it, by researching questions that preoccupy people and finding answers for them.

Predictably, Dina likes to watch documentaries. Her favorite channels are National Geographic and Discovery. Naturally, she loves traveling.

So here is the story of it all - officially Orbit has been out of the news business since its brief alliance with BBC to produce a BBC Arabic TV News Service collapsed in the mid-nineties. Yet with its comprehensive focus on everything but politics, Orbit's field report and documentary unit is generating more field reports on a daily basis than any of the all-news channels' Cairo bureaus. And Orbit is doing it with Adham Center graduates.

By Doha El Zohairy