The tourism industry in Egypt did not have a great year in 2014. Because of that, all the Dahabians had plenty of time on their hands. It was like the perfect opportunity to do something special. But what?
Regula Bashir (the director of Circ Bonboni) and Nimisha Keshwala (Manager of Dahab Paradise Hotel) both had the idea to make our own Dahabian version of the music video Happy from Pharell Williams.
I thought it sounded crazy enough to try, so we decided to combine our efforts. So with my wife/assistant Elvira we went around town to film the happy people of Dahab shaking it up. We also had the help from Cairo based cameraman Marwan Imam.
After 5 days filming, we had almost 90 GB of footage, sore feet and lots of fun memories. I then spend 3 days sorting through all the raw footage, edited the video together and launched it on YouTube.
An instant Success
It naturally became an instant hit amongst the Dahabians. Everybody was in it, or at least knew someone in it. It got shared widely, and even ripped and copied by the Egyptian tourist ministry. If only they had asked, I would have been happy to give it to them, we had the same goal after all.
It also got stolen and used as a diet tea commercial. I was not too impressed with that, I must admit.
Now, a couple of years later, I can put a little bit of perspective on the project, and see that the video is as charming as the first day we saw the finished project. Probably because it shows all the various people living in Dahab, the grocery man, the doctor, the dentist, the scuba instructor, the local music band, the little ones in the kindergarden, the circus children, the tourists, the Egyptians, the Bedouins, the Expats…