New Voices in Arab Cinema , livre ebook

NEW VOICES IN ARAB CINEMA
NEW VOICES IN ARAB CINEMA
Roy Armes
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2015 by Roy Armes
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ISBN 978-0-253-01516-7 (cloth) ISBN 978-0-253-01522-8 (paperback) ISBN 978-0-253-01528-0 (ebook)
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For Helen, Philip, and Alison
Arab cultural modernity in the twentieth century was probably even more far-reaching than during the nineteenth-century renaissance, since it went beyond the written word. Other forms of cultural creation presented themselves, different ways in which Arab artistic expression could reflect its time-in the visual arts, theatre, music and in particular the cinema.
Samir Kassir, Being Arab
Contents
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
1. Characteristics of the New Cinema
2. The Filmmakers
The New Importance of Women Filmmakers
Questions of Identity
Training
Funding
A Cosmopolitan Generation
3. Documentary
Palestine
Lebanon
Egypt and the Maghreb
Iraq
Syria
4. Feature Filmmaking
Algeria
Morocco
Tunisia
Egypt
Lebanon
Palestine
Iraq
Syria
The Gulf
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
M ANY PEOPLE HAVE helped me with the compilation of this book, and I thank those, among them festival organizers and film distributors, who have guided me to new sources of material: Masoud Amrall Al Ali of the Gulf Film Festival, Marie-Claude Behna of the Association de Cin ma Arabe, St phanie Boring of Films d Ici, Catherine Chicot, Jaqueline Dallmair of trigon-film, Mona Deeley of Zenith Films, Nick Denes of the Palestinian Film Foundation, Alberto Elena of the Carlos III University in Madrid, Haithem El-Zabri of the Palestine Online Store, Yael Friedman, May Hossam of Misr International Films, Rose Issa, Tarik Khalami of the Centre Cin matographique Marocain, Thierry Lenouvel of Cin -Sud Promotion, Nicole Mackey of Fortissimo Films, Diran Mardirian of Video Chico in Beirut, Le la Mourad of Aramis Films, Egil Odegard of the Norwegian Film Institute, Anne-C cile Pavaux of 3B Productions, liane Raheb of the Beirut Film Festival, Michel Riachi of Nadilekolnass in Beirut, John Sinno of Typecast Films in Seattle, Annabel Thomas, Suzanne Widmer of trigon-film, and Abdellah Zerguine of Regard Sud.
I am especially grateful to those filmmakers who provided, or helped provide, access to DVD or on-line copies of their own films: Ahmad Abdalla, Layth Abdulamir, Mohamed Alatar, Kamal Aljafari, Khaled al-Haggar, Kouta ba al-Janabi, Ayda Ben Aleya, Nigol Bezjian, Nadia Cherabi-Labidi, Dima El-Horr, Abbas Fahdel, Dalia Fathallah, Nasri Hajjaj, Moktar Ladjimi, Najwa Najjar, liane Raheb, Ahmed Rashwan, Djamila Sahraoui, Leila Sansour, Hany Tamba, Tariq Teguia, and Hady Zaccak.
Last, but by no means least, I must thank the Leverhulme Trust for the award of a further Emeritus Fellowship which helped to finance the research for this book.
Abbreviations
ACCT
Agence de Coop ration Culturelle et Technique (France)
AIF
Agence Intergouvernementale de la Francophonie (France)
ALBA
Acad mie Libanaise des Beaux Arts (Lebanon)
ANAF
Agence Nationale des Actualit s Film es (Algeria)
AUB
American University of Beirut (Lebanon)
CAAIC
Centre Alg rien pour l Art et Industrie Cin matographiques (Algeria)
CAV
Centre Audio-Visuel (Algeria)
CBA
Centre Bruxellois de l Audiovisuel (Belgium)
CCM
Centre Cin matographique Marocain (Morocco)
CLCF
Conservatoire Libre du Cin ma Fran ais (France)
CNC
Centre National Cin matographique (France)
CNCA
Centre National du Cin ma Alg rien (Algeria)
CPC
Cinema Production Centre (Palestine)
DAMS
D partement d Art, de Musique et du Spectacle (part of the University of Bologna, Italy)
ENADEC
Entreprise Nationale de Distribution et d Exploitation Cin matographiques (Algeria)
ENATT
cole Nationale des Arts et Techniques du Th tre (France
ENAPROC
Entreprise Nationale de Production Cin matographique (Algeria)
ENPA
Entreprise Nationale de Productions Audiovisuelles (Algeria)
ESAD
cole Sup rieure d Art Dramatique (part of the University of Geneva, Switzerland)
ESEC
cole Sup rieure des tudes Cin matographiques (France)
ESRA
cole Sup rieure de R alisation Audiovisuelle (France)
FAS
Fonds d Action Sociale (France)
FED
Fonds Europ en de D veloppement (Brussels, Belgium)
FEMIS
Fondation Europ enne des M tiers de l Image et du Son (France)
FEPACI
F d ration Panafricaine des Cin astes (Burkina Faso)
FESPACO
Festival Panafricain du Cin ma de Ougadougou (Burkina Faso)
FIS
Front Islamique du Salut (Algeria)
FLN
Front de Lib ration Nationale (Algeria)
FTCA
F d ration Tunisiennes des Cin astes Amateurs (Tunisia)
IDHEC
Institut des Hautes tudes Cin matographiques (France)
IESAV
Institut d tudes Sc niques et Audiovisuelles (part of the Universit Saint-Joseph in Beirut, Lebanon)
IKON
Interkerkelijke Omroep Nederland (Netherlands)
INSAS
Institut National des Arts et du Spectacle et Techniques de Diffusion (Belgium)
ISADAC
Institut d Art Dramatique et Animation Culturelle (Morocco)
ISM
International Solidarity Movement (United Kingdom)
JCC
Journ es Cin matographiques de Carthage (Tunisia)
LAU
Lebanese American University (Lebanon)
NGO
Non-governmental organization
NTFS
National Film and Television School (United Kingdom)
OAA
Office des Actualit s Alg riennes (Algeria)
OFC
Office F d ral de la Culture (Switzerland)
OIF
Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (France)
ONCIC
Office National du Commerce et de l Industrie Cin matographiques (Algeria)
PARC
Palestine Agricultural Relief Committee (Switzerland)
PCL
Partie Communiste Libanaise (Lebanon)
PLO
Palestine Liberation Organization (Palestine)
RTA
Radiodiffusion T l vision Alg rienne (Algeria)
RTBF
Radio-T l vision Belge de la Communaut Fran aise (Belgium)
SATPEC
Soci t Anonyme Tunisienne de Production et d Expansion Cin matographiques (Tunisia)
USJ
Universit Saint Joseph (Beirut, Lebanon)
VGIK
Vsesoyuznyi Gosudarstvennyi Institut Kinematografii (All-Union Cinema Institute)
ZDF
Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (Germany)
ZSP
Zone de Solidarit Prioritaire (France)
NEW VOICES IN ARAB CINEMA
Introduction
T HIS BOOK is a personal journey through aspects of contemporary Arab filmmaking, dealing essentially with feature-length documentary films and fictional features made by filmmakers who began their careers in the 2000s. It has been an enjoyable and very revealing journey. The hundreds of films I have viewed basically adopt a single perspective: they are for understanding, liberty, equality, tolerance, and greater freedom for women. Not a single film I have seen-or even heard of-advocates jihad, war, violence, or oppression. According to Wissam Mouawad (currently a student at the Sorbonne) in a curious little article, my pleasure is a form of neo-Orientalism, worse than the original, because we in the West are now employing local manufacturers (he refuses to call them artists) to produce the vision we wish to receive of the Arab world. 1 He chooses a predictably easy target for his wrath (Nadine Labaki s Where Do We Go Next? -a film clearly aimed at a popular audience). His argument would have been much more difficult to sustain had he chosen, for example, Haifaa al-Mansour s even more widely distributed and universally admired debut feature, Wadjda .
The reasons for the uniformity of approach shared by so many of the new Arab filmmakers is easily explained. It lies largely in the situation of the filmmakers themselves. For independent filmmakers working in the Maghreb and the Middle East, the norm is European/US education and film training, foreign (mostly French) co-production funding, and in many cases, expatriate, usually European, residence (Nadine Labaki is almost unique in not having received a foreign education and/or training). Their films are all designed, at least in part, to please European funding organizations and potential coproduction collaborators and (for documentaries) international television corporations and NGO (non-governmental organization) sponsors, without whose continuing support the filmmaker s career is unlikely to progress. It will be fascinating to see if the increasing availability of Gulf funding-through the Doha festival, for example-changes the na