An archive of resistance: Documenting Egypt's revolution
As videos of the Egyptian regime’s violations during the 2011 and 2013 uprisings were disappearing from social media, the Mosireen Collective launched an online archive to keep the memory of the Arab Spring alive in the minds of citizens.
On Jan. 16, “858: An Archive of Resistance,” a vast collection of videos documenting the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, was launched online.
The videos, 858 hours in total, document police abuse, protests, labor strikes, scenes from the morgue following the death of protesters and many other events that occurred mostly between the years 2011 and 2013.
The archive was put together by a large group of people, many of whom were also founders and contributors to the Mosireen Collective, which sprung up in the early days of the revolution with the initial aim of archiving videos. In response to the Maspero massacre, in which almost 30 Coptic protesters were killed in an attack by the military on Oct. 9, 2011, Mosireen decided to not only archive but also to film, edit and broadcast its own videos of the events during the revolution.
The 858 archive was put together in part with footage that Mosireen had initially recorded as well as with the collaboration of dozens of other people who had videos of events during the revolutionary years.
