As Egypt awaits a statement by military leaders, the armed forces has provided film director Khaled Youssef with a military helicopter in order to film and document protests that Egypt is currently witnessing.

While army troops are deployed in the streets, Al-Ahram's Arabic-language news website reported that other military helicopters were hovering over protest gatherings to film the protests and demonstrations "to create archival material for the history of Egypt."

Youssef is one of Egypt's most prominent film directors. A former student of Youssef Shaheen and one of the leading voices of Arab cinema, he is well known for his political activism against the government of President Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Youssef has also made an effort to document the social history of corruption, poverty and social ills in pre-revolutionary Egypt during the Mubarak era. He directed many controversial works that dealt with critical social issues, including street children, prostitution, homosexuality and police brutality.

Youssef used some scenes from the January 25 Revolution in his latest film, 'Sarkhet Namla' ('An Ant's Scream'), produced in 2011.