El Nahas is a filmmaker and cinema scholar who has been involved in the founding of a number of cinema associations and festivals since the 1960s including Gameyyat Al Film, one of the oldest and most influential of such associations in Egypt, Gamaat Al Cinema Al Gadeda, the guild for Arab documentary filmmakers, The Film Critics Association and The Ismailia International Film Festival for Documentaries and Shorts. His 1972 film Al Nil Arzaq (The Nile is Fortune) continues to be a landmark of documentary cinema today and attests to a flourishing documentary movement in the late 1960s and early 70s in Egypt.