Roots of the New Arab Film

Roy Armes

Description

Roots of the New Arab Film deals with the generation of filmmakers from across North Africa and the Middle East who created an international awareness of Arab film from the mid-1980s onwards. These seminal filmmakers experienced the moment of national independence first-hand in their youth and retained a deep attachment to their homeland. Although these aspiring filmmakers had to seek their training abroad, they witnessed a time of filmic revival in Europe – Fellini and Antonioni in Italy, the French New Wave, and British Free Cinema.

Returning home, these filmmakers brought a unique insider/outsider perspective to bear on local developments in society since independence, including the divide between urban and rural communities, the continuing power of traditional values and the status of women in a changing society. As they made their first films back home, the feelings of participation in a worldwide movement of new, independent filmmaking was palpable. Roots of the New Arab Film is a necessary and comprehensive resource for anyone interested in the foundations of Arab cinema.

Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations

Introduction
1. The International Era
- Foreign Influences
- The Role of Television
- Feature Film Funding Mechanisms
- Francophonie
- Aid to the Cinemas of the South

2. A New Independence
- Beur Filmmaking in France
- Algeria
- Morocco
- Tunisia
- Egypt
- Lebanon
- Palestine
- Iraq
- Syria

Bibliography
Index

Sujets

• Middle Est
• HISTORY
• Histoire
• Película fotográfica
• History of the Middle East
• Arabian Peninsula
• Middle East
• History of film
• Film

Informations

• Publié par: Indiana University Press
• Date de parution: 06 janvier 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780253031730
• Langue: English

Extrait

ROOTS OF THE NEW ARAB FILM
ROOTS OF THE NEW ARAB FILM
Roy Armes
Indiana University Press
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
Office of Scholarly Publishing
Herman B Wells Library 350
1320 East 10th Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA
iupress.indiana.edu
2018 by Roy Armes
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Armes, Roy, author.
Title: Roots of the new Arab film / Roy Armes.
Description: Bloomington, Indiana, USA : Indiana University Press, 2018. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017046670| ISBN 9780253034182 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780253031723 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Motion picture producers and directors-Arab countries. | Motion pictures-Arab countries. | Motion pictures, Arab-France.
Classification: LCC PN1993.5.A65 A77 2018 | DDC 791.430917/4927- dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017046670
1 2 3 4 5 23 22 21 20 19 18
To Annie
Genres-such as the novel, the short story, drama and framed painting-emerged in Arabic culture in the twentieth century as a result of a comprehensive process of change and cultural modernisation that occupied most of the nineteenth century . As soon as the process of modernity took root in the culture and started to yield its fruits, most of the Arab countries fell under the yoke of colonialism and the struggle for independence became inseparable from the quest for national identity. The literary and artistic elaboration of this identity was a vital element in the process of national transition.
-Sabry Hafez
Contents
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
1 The International Era
Foreign Influences
The Role of Television
Feature Film Funding Mechanisms
Francophonie
Aid to the Cinemas of the South
2 A New Independence
Beur Filmmaking in France
Algeria
Morocco
Tunisia
Egypt
Lebanon
Palestine
Iraq
Syria
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
I GUESS I OWE a lot to my sister. Thanks to her, I saw my first film in 1943, when I was just six and she fourteen. Somehow she managed to sneak me into a backstreet cinema in Norwich for the rerun of Alexander Korda s imperial epic, The Four Feathers . The significance of the plot, Harry Faversham redeeming himself by doing the right thing, was beyond me, but the colors were wonderful and the Sudanese landscape was like nothing I d ever imagined. But when it came to the scene where a gallant British officer is blinded by vicious Arab fuzzy wuzzies (as they are called in the film) who hold a red-hot sword in front of his eyes, I apparently screamed inconsolably and had to be carried, kicking and struggling, out of the cinema. Life being what it is, I suppose it was inevitable that, from that moment on, I would be fascinated by film, spend my entire adult career working as a film historian, and find myself, at the age of eighty, publishing a three-volume study of contemporary Arab filmmaking. Proving, as always, the superiority of novelists over mere critics, Michael Ondaatje reveals that, as a child, he too saw the same film and also had to be dragged from the cinema. But in his case, it was only after the ending credits-he wanted more. 1
On a more serious note, many 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 Amralla Al Ali of the Gulf Film Festival, Catherine Arnaud, Marie-Claude Behna of the Association de Cin ma Arabe, St phanie Boring of Les Films d ici, Mona Deeley of Zenith Films, Nick Denes of the Palestinian Film Foundation, Christian Eid of Abbout Productions, 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, Yara J kel of Dschoint Ventschr, 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, Egil Odegard of the Norwegian Film Institute, Lucy Parker, Anne-C cile Pavaux of 3B Productions, Eliane Raheb of the Beirut Film Festival, Michel Riachi of Nadilekolnass in Beirut, John Sinno of Typecast Films in Seattle, Annabel Thomas, and Abdellah Zerguine of Regard Sud.
I am especially grateful to those filmmakers who helped provide access to DVD copies of their own films: Daoud Aoulad-Syad, Asma El Bakry, Jean-Claude Codsi, Najri Hajjaj, Nizar Hassan, Kassem Hawal, Abdelkader Lagta , Moez Kamoun, Mohamad Malas, Najwa Najjar, Yousry Nasrallah, Ghassan Salhab, Samir, Moumen Smihi, Heiny Srour, and Mohamed Zran.
I must thank most warmly Dee Mortensen, my editor at Indiana University Press, for commissioning this, the sixth successive book of the series on African and Arab cinemas, and all the staff at the press for the care with which they have produced this volume.
Last, but by no means least, I must thank the Leverhulme Trust for the further emeritus fellowship, which has helped fund the research for this volume and its predecessor.
Note
1 . Anthony Minghella, The English Patient (London: Methuen, 1997), vii.
Abbreviations
ACCT
Agence de Coop ration Culturelle et Technique (France)
AFAC
Arab Fund for Arts and Culture
AIF
Agence Intergouvernementale de la Francophonie (France)
ALBA
Acad mie Libanaise des Beaux Arts (Lebanon)
ALN
Arm e de Lib ration Nationale / National Liberation Army (Algeria)
ANAF
Agence Nationale des Actualit s Film es (Algeria)
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)
CNC
Centre National Cin matographique (France)
CNCA
Centre National du Cin ma Alg rien (Algeria)
CNSAD
Conservatoire National Sup rieur d Art Dramatique
DAMS
D partment 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)
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
FAMU
Filmov Akademie M zickych Umeni (Czechoslovakia)
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 Panafricain des Cin astes (Burkina Faso)
FESPACO
Festival Panafricain du Cin ma de Ougadougou (Burkina Faso)
FNL
Front National de Lib ration / National Liberation Front (Algeria)
FTCA
F d ration Tunisiennes des Cin astes Amateurs (Tunisia)
GPRA
Algerian Republican Provisional Government (Algeria)
IDHEC
Institut des Hautes tudes Cin matographiques (France)
IESAV
Institut d Etudes Sc niques et Audiovisuelles (part of the Universit Saint-Joseph in Beirut, Lebanaon)
IFC
Institut Fran ais du Cin ma
IKON
Interkerkelijke Omroep Nederland (Netherlands)
INC
Institut National du Cin ma d Algers (Algeria)
INSAS
Institut National des Arts et du Spectacle et Techniques de Diffusion (Belgium)
JCC
Journ es Cin matographiques de Carthage (Tunisia)
MAF
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
OAA
Office des Actualit s Alg riennes (Algeria)
OIF
Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (France)
ONCIC
Office National du Commerce et de l Industrie Cin matographiques (Algeria)
ONPS
National Office for Social Protection
RTA
Radiodiffusion T l vision Alg rienne (Algeria)
RTBF
Radio-T l vision Belge de la Communaut Fran aise (Belgium)
RTM
Radio T l vision Marocaine (Morocco)
SATPEC
Soci t Anonyme Tunisienne de Production et d Expansion Cin matographiques (Tunisia)
USJ
Universit Saint Joseph (Beirut, Lebanon)
ZDF
Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (Germany)
ZSP
Zone de Solidarit Prioritaire (France)
Introduction
T HIS BOOK IS a personal journey through aspects of contemporary Arab filmmaking that deal with feature-length documentary films and fictional features, with a particular focus on those filmmakers who emerged in the 1980s and 1990s. It avoids the newcomers to Arab filmmaking in the 2000s, who have been dealt with in a separate study. 1 It also ignores the continuing commercial force of the Egyptian film industry, which still operates, with great success, in traditional ways. Only a couple