July 2008 |
 |
Ready Made
By Raed Yassine
|
|
 |
The Editors’ Assembly
By Barrack Rima
|
|
 |
The Editors’ Assembly
BBy Barrack Rima
|
|
 |
The Editors’ Assembly
By Barrack Rima
|
|
 |
The Editors’ Assembly
By Barrack Rima
|
|
|
Introduction (English/Français)
Daikha Dridi introduces the special issue.
In the 1960s, 1970s, and sometimes until the 1980s, almost all big Arab cities lived a spectacular infatuation with ciné-clubs. In the Maghreb especially, many of these ciné-clubs were founded by militants affiliated to leftist political organizations, with the intention to create spaces for free expression and activism otherwise forbidden in conventional realms by the regimes at rule. Elsewhere, in Beirut, Damascus or Cairo, ciné-clubs were founded by film critics or filmmakers, often themselves politically engaged, who wanted to establish spaces for free expression and discussion, and a realm alternative to counter commercial movie theaters and the prevalence of mainstream American and Egyptian films. In as much as it seemed once widespread and thriving, this phenomenon seems to have disappeared without a trace today, almost as if by mystery. Version originale en français disponible en pdf et texte plat, cliquer sur le lien ci-dessus (titre)
|
|
 |
"Ah, Nostalgia, Nostalgia..."
Daikha Dridi interviews Aziz Mihrab, founder of ciné-clubs in Casablanca and history teacher.
Aziz Mihrab established and animated ciné-clubs as a trotskyite militant in Casablanca’s popular neighborhoods in the 1970s and 1980s. At 54 years of age today, he chose to sit in favorite café in Sidi Dernoussi, where on occasion he still screens films, to recall the years of militancy and cinéphilia. Version originale en français disponible en pdf, cliquer sur le lien ci-dessus (titre)
|
|
 |
"I went to the Ciné-Club to Hang Around Pretty Rich Girls"
Daikha Dridi interviews Moncef Dhouib, filmmaker living and working in Tunisia.
Incisive, corrosive, Moncef Dhouib recalls the glory days of ciné-clubs in Tunisia with humor and sobriety far from lyricism and nostalgia. Before he became a filmmaker in his own right, Moncef Dhouib was a cinephile, founder and animator of ciné-clubs as well as president of the federation of ciné-clubs in Tunisia. At 55 years of age, he revisits this chapter in his life and the political and cultural history of Tunisia without a hint of effusion, quite to the contrary…
|
|
 |
At the Movies, (Real) Love Reigns Supreme
By Chawki Amari
Birds hide to make love. In some of the movie theaters in the center of Algiers, young couples meet in the darkness of theaters to share very adventurous embraces. A cinematic dive in the world of love in the dark. Chawki Amari is a celebrated columnist and cartoonist at the al-Watan newspaper in Algeria. Version originale en français disponible en pdf, cliquer sur le lien ci-dessus (titre)
|
|
 |
“We Screened Films that Would Have Never Been Allowed in to Big Theaters.”
Daikha Dridi interviews Jean-Pierre Goux Pelletan, a veteran film critic in Lebanon and one of the founding members of the Beirut Ciné-club.
At 88 years and a few specs ("but don’t write down specs”, he prompted me laughing), Jean-Pierre Goux Pelletan tried to resurrect recollections of the years in the 1960s and 1970s when the Beirut Ciné-Club drew hundreds of members each week. The war brought the adventure to an end but Goux Pelletan continued to write on cinema in the Lebanese press, until the moment he had to leave Beirut a little over a year ago, because of illness. From Montpellier in France, he traveled back those years for us. Version originale en français disponible en pdf, cliquer sur le lien ci-dessus (titre)
|
|
 |
Dispatch from Omar Zelig
By Omar Zelig*, a regular commentator in Algerian newspapers.
One sure way of sounding like an old fart to younger generations of Algerians, is to keep reminiscing about the good old days when you could still go to the movies in Algiers, before the wide spread of video and satellite television in the end of the 1980s.
Considering the handful of surviving movie theaters now serve as shelters to more or less solitary lovers and cohorts of listless and unemployed boys, it is tedious to explain there was a time, not so long ago, when one could casually discover images of the world, at least those the authorities –guardians of moral rectitude– deemed beneficial for us to see.
In spite of extreme prudery regarding anything that related to representation of sexuality, the spectrum of possibilities was still vast, including Italian comedies, Le détachement féminin rouge, Ingmar Bergman films, Youssef Chahine films, Brazilian cinema novo, Walt Disney flicks, French auteur films, militant films from all over the world, and even a relatively impressive national roster that, aside from the unavoidable propaganda reels, contained some small cult gems like Mohamed Zinet’s Tahia ya Didou. Version originale en français disponible en pdf, cliquer sur le lien ci-dessus (titre)
|
|
 |
Film Schools Have Replaced Ciné-Clubs in Today's Lebanon
Daikha Dridi interviews veteran Lebanese film critic and essayist Walid Chmeit, a founding member of the Beirut Arab Ciné-Club.
A film critic since his young age, Walid Chmeit was among the founders of one of Beirut’s most important ciné-clubs, the Beirut Arab Ciné-Club, that closed down because of the civil war. From Paris, where he has settled for good, he revisits what he recalls as “a marvelous experience”. Version originale en français disponible en pdf, cliquer sur le lien ci-dessus (titre)
|
|
 |
In Memory of Esther: Cinema Dunia
By Raja Shehadeh
Raja Shehadeh is a lawyer, writer and novelist who lives and works in Ramallah. He published a memoir, Strangers in the House, in 2002 and When the Bulbul Stopped Singing in 2004, adapted to the theater and performed in Edinburgh, Tehran, New York and Amman. His most recent book is Palestinian Walks, Notes on a Vanishing Landscape (2007).
|
|
 |
In Saudi Arabia, Ciné-clubs Are Struggles of the Present
Daikha Dridi interviews Abdallah Eyyaf, filmmaker, founder of an itinerant ciné-club in Saudi Arabia.
Abdallah el-Eyyaf, a mere thirty-years old, is a mechanical engineer at Aramco. He is also a filmmaker and soldiering on for the establishment of a ciné-club in Riyadhh. He, along with some forty fellow passionate cinephiles, succeeded in presenting publicly and officially their ciné-club hereto with dwelling in the underground. The ‘outing’ lasted a mere handful weeks. He bitterly recalls the experience, but miraculously, it has not deterred his optimism. If stories of ciné-clubs belong to the recent history in the Arab world, in Saudi Arabia, they belong to the future, affirms Eyyaf with assurance. Version originale en français disponible en pdf, cliquer sur le lien ci-dessus (titre)
|
|
 |
In the 1970s, the Entirety of World Cinema with Leftist Coloring Passed through Algiers
Daikha Dridi interviews Saïd Benmerad, founder and director of several ciné-clubs in Algiers.
From Algiers, where he continues to teach literature at the university, Saïd Benmerad revisits the singular world of ciné-clubs that prevailed in the years that followed the Algerian revolution. He was twenty years old, a cinephile and militant on the extreme left in a city that saw itself as a light-house of anti-imperialism, passionate about politics and cinema with equal fervor. Version originale en français disponible en pdf, cliquer sur le lien ci-dessus (titre)
|
|
|
« 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 » |
|
