Egyptian DOP joins unearthing Pharaonic tomb

CAIRO – 9 April 2019: In a live streaming on Discovery Channel, Egyptian director of photography Ahmad al Morsy joined a team of archaeologists in unearthing a Pharaonic tomb.

Led by renowned adventurer Josh Gates and TV personality Chris Jacobs, the live broadcast was premiered under the title "Expedition Unknown: Egypt Live" and tracked the digging into an archaeological site in Minya governorate, Egypt.

The rare incident was joined by renowned Egyptologist Zahi Hawass and Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Mustafa Waziri.

The special streaming was headlined by a number of Hollywood's select producers, the two-time Emmy Award winner Leslie Greif, executive producer of Big Dreams Entertainment; Discovery Studios' Executive Producers Peter Isacksen (The Munsters Today), Sandy Varo Jarrell (Wheeler Dealers) and Howard Swartz; Jason Sklaver (Who Killed Tupac?), Steve Beim (Super Bowl 2016); Executive Directors of Ping Pong Productions Brad Kuhman and Casey Brumels, and the executive producer of Discovery Studios.

"I'm delighted to be part of this unique experience. To film such important event that is streaming live to be watched by millions of people around the world is something that doesn't happen every day. I'm very pleased to have my name attached to such a significant historic and cultural exploration and to collaborate with Discovery Channel on this notably unprecedented documentation," Morsy told Egypt Today.

The two-hour live event was aired on the American Discovery Channel, in addition to Travel Channel and Science Channel under the leadership of adventurer Josh Gates, winner of Best Host in CableFax Program Awards for Expedition Unknown, and American TV personality and commentator Chris Jacobs.

In this special, the long-standing show takes the viewers to the inner chambers of an excavation site, where archaeologists have recently unearthed a network of vertical shafts leading to a number of tombs with 40 mummies believed to be part of the noble elite communities of ancient Egypt.

The show also witnessed the discovery of a number of amazing monuments, most notably the unveiling of a 2500-year-old mummy that is believed to be of an ancient Egyptian noble, in addition to a mysterious statue of wax and other two mummies.

Watch the episode here:
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=546043192470911

https://www.facebook.com/Ahmad.AlMorsy.Official/

Discovery Channel is an American pay TV network channel dedicated to providing factual and documentary TV shows and films about earth in all its wonder and diversity, with a focus on natural history, science and technology, environment, space, adventure, and exploration.

For more than twenty years, DOP/Director Ahmad al-Morsy has been working in the filmmaking industry, making more than 50 films and over 2000 TV ads as a DOP, and recently as a director as well.

Throughout his career, Morsy won 12 awards for six of his films. Currently, Morsy is a member of the Australian Cinematographers Society (ACS) and the Canadian Society of Cinematographers (CSC).

Best known for his adaptability, Morsy has always kept pace with the latest developments in filming techniques and excelled in experimenting with new tools in filming TV ads and movies.

In 2001, Morsy became the youngest DOP in Egypt with his debut film "El-Onf wel Sokhreya" (Violence and Sarcasm) followed by "Malek We Ketaba" in 2006. In 2010, he received three awards for his film "Rasa'el Al-Bahr" (Sea Messages), Egypt's official submission to the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Later, he was the DOP of "Wahed Sahih" ( A complete person) (2011), "Al Hafla" (The Party) (2013), and then "El Feel el Azr’a" (The Blue Elephant), which shattered previous records at the Egyptian box office in 2014. In 2009 his film "Aswar Al Amar" (Walls of the Moon) is the second film in the world to be shot using ARRI D21 camera, where Morsy mixed between using digital cameras and 35 mm films.

In 2017, Morsy repeated his collaboration with director Marwan Hamed and writer Ahmed Mourad in "El Asleen" (The Originals), which continued with the new film "Torab El-Mas" that was released in 2018, followed by "El-Feel El-Azra 2", which is currently in production.

In 1998, Morsy graduated from the Higher Institute of Cinema and then travelled to the USA to complete his studies in different cinematography schools, attending classes of Feature Film Lighting, DP Master Class and Advanced Cinematography.

Morsy worked as a Steadicam Operator in 40 films. In 1999, he participated as a first assistant cameraman in "El Medina" (The City) by Yousry Nasrallah, which is Egypt's first film shot by a digital camera.

As a cameraman, his repertoire includes other gems from the Egyptian cinema archives, such as Youssef Chahine's "Alexandria ... New York" (2004), Mohamed Yassine’s "Dam el Ghazal" (The Gazelle's Blood) (2005) and the highest production budget film in the Egyptian cinema history, "Omaret Yacoubian" (The Yacoubian Building) (2006).

Morsy was a jury member in the Arab Cinema Horizons Competition held within the 2017 Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) and the Made In Egypt competition at the Shnit Worldwide Short Film Festival in the same year.

Moreover, Morsy conducts a number of lectures and writes articles about the art of cinematography. As for TV commercials, Morsy became one of the most important cameramen in the Arab world due to his passion in experimenting with new tools in more than 2000 ads in Egypt, UAE, Lebanon, Morocco, Jordan, U.K., France and Spain.