Libya: the end of the end

Unbelievable but true, Gaddafi felt.
With the international direct involvement we knew that it will come but there was still some scepticism. Now it is done.
Never two without three: It was quite quick the change in Tunisia and then in Egypt. Libya took a bit more time but it had to stand in the line.
Since months ago began the end of Gaddafi regime in Libya. The last hours the forty years in power, colonel Gaddafi, reached the bottom of his fall.
For a lot of people this is was unimaginable few months ago. But the facts are there.
Tripoli is surrounded and the zone under the control of the regimes force is becoming more and more narrow.
More painful, is the arrest of the sons. Three of them are already in the hands of the rebels. They are the first circle of personal protection of Gaddafi.
The former leader who was received by the world leaders like Tony Bler, Nicolas Sarkozy and Barak Obama, is now called the haunted “ dog of the middleeast”.
What then ?
The big question started to be asked with a serious insistence: how will it be after the end of the rebellion?
For sure there will be a transitional process, and like in all conflicts, there will be a huge plan to rebuilt the country.
The process started already in the two neighbours Tunisia and Egypt. It was not possible for Libya to stand there as an old regime between two new ones.
The photo would not be homogenous.
We knew that there will be a domino effect, now we witness it concretely.
Three of the five countries of the North of Africa are living a historical change.
The world will never be the same after that. It is not only a problem of a one country, one region, and one continent. It is the affaire of the whole world.
But Libya is a special case
Of course the whole world is concerned, but Libya is espeically interestes less on terms of democracy or human rights, but for economy.
This country is one of the biggest countries in Africa on terms of size (two million square kilometers, while tunisia, as a matter of fact is only 165000 S. klm)
It is a huge and a very rich country for a population of only 6 millions. The problem until now is that the welth was profiting only to the family of the leader Gaddafi.
Libya is one of the biggest producers of oil. It owns 3% of the global reserve and produces one million barils per day from a very good quality.
With all these caracteristics, the country could be like one of the richest Golf Emirates.
Once free from the dictatorship, and the welth democratically and equitably administrated, not only the country will emerge from fourty years of darkness, but the whole region will propser.
There however obstacles
In ashort a period the world is witnessing a the quickest changes in human history. And there is a kind of model of transition’ s proces.
After the fall of a regime, a country needs a ptransitional periode: it will be run by a group of interim governement of technocrates.
This is necessary to prepare a new constitution that is going to supply the green book of Gaddafi and establish the new political framework of the country.
This schema looks handy out of the reality. For many reasons, it is not as obvious as it looks.
The regime of Gaddafi didn’ t built any institution that could hold the construction of a united nation nor a society.
Out of the rouling family, the rest of the population is divided in around eighty tribes.
These are not going to gather for a long time. They look united right now around one idea: let’s get rid of the dictator and after that we will see.
New political paysage
One should not forget that the rebels are not obviously united. They are armed but they don’ t have have one real comandement.
Symbolically, they are represented by a kind of“council” but on the field they are groups of armed fighter pushed by only one desire: force Gaddafi to surrender or to flee.
Once this is done, it will be really complexe to birng a new order.
In addition to the ethnic confusion, the country is distorced by two big political tendencies.
The libyan nationalisme is going to emerge as a reaction to decennias frustration because of the arab nationalisme somehow developped by Gaddafi.
The islamisme is having a huge influence on a society where education was never considered as a priority by the former regime.
Like in Tunisia and egypte, and perhaps more, the religious feeling in the libyan society is very strong and could be fertile ground to grow an explicite islamic regime like in Iran or like the regimes in the arabic Golf.
Libya in the region’s
Because of the former dicatorship, Libya was allways isolated as a society. It never succeeded to connect to any regional configuration.
The first tendency was the arab nationalism. Gaddafi’s first idol was Naceur, the Egyptian leader with whom he tried to work out a kind of union or coalition.
Once this latter disappeared, he turned to toher side and tired to build a union with Tunisian leader Bourguiba in the 70’s.
None of these plans could lead to any construction first of all because of the lunatic character of the person.
Even the Maghreb Union between the five countries of North Africa (except Egypt) could never be effective because of the lake of empathy between the leaders.
His last plan was the Union of African Nations. It led also nowhere because it never had a real fundement but was based on capricious megalomaniac and pathetic search of leadership.
New dreams
A new Libya with a new political framework could lead to new real regional plans that could profit to the all populations.
The Maghreb union could be relouched with new perspectives. Three on the five members would achieve their democratic process. After Mauritania, few years ago, it is now time for Tunisia and lately Libya.
A new democrtic Libya could have a leading economic role for the region.
It was already a workers host country. A lot of Egyptians, Tunisians, Somalian, Chadian… used to make their living by working in Libya.
One could easily imagine that a free rich country will offer a lot of opportunities to investors and workers of the region.
Will Libya be for the north of Africa like South Africa for its South? Nothing is less obvious regarding many parameters.
The most important of them is the political islamism that everybody fears.
Until now in Tunisia and Egypt, there is a kind of fight between Islamism and secularisme.
The two countries have a strong progressist elite which is able to resist to the strong religious feelings and foreign influence
It is not sure that the same balance is possible in Libya.
The big challenge
The dream of democracy and prosperity has a big handicap: the islamist influence coming from the east and precisely from the wahhabite version led by Saoudia Arabia.
Historically there was always a will not to let the Maghreb countries progress out of the saudian influence as a centre of Sunnite version of political Islam.
The wahhabism stands behind the emergence of the islmaic political movements called: “Muslim Brotherhood” and fights against the Shiite growth.
The first is led by Saudia Arabia and the rich countries surrounding it; the latter by Iran and now by the new Iraqi Shiism.
In North Africa the wahhabism has always a huge influence through different programs of help and investment in the region.
The uprising is a danger if it leads to real democratic regimes. But at the same time it is an opportunity to control it completely by boosting islamist partys to power.
This can be already obviously witnessed in Tunisia where the muslim brotherhoods movement, Annahdha is showing a big financial strength and quite invading the country.
Rumours say that the party is financed by the Quatari and Saudian govenements in order to take the power in the country.
The same Qatar is directly participating to the international military operations against Gaddafi.
There is a big paradox in this revolution. The uprising is tending to two opposite directions.
On the one hand, it is winking to the modern democratic western ideas by association to the western big democracies.
On the other hand, it can’t get rid of the reactionaries ambitions of the religious influence.
Two scenarios are possible: a bizarre synthesises of the two like it is in the Golf countries or a continuous unrest not to say a civil war.
What is sure is that we are going to wait for a while until we see something really coming out of this mess.

African Scarface in Amsterdam

After Berlin last February, and Los Angeles, San Francesco and NYC last May, Viva Riva by outsider producer and director Djo Tunda Wa Munga is following its European cruise. From 10 August to 21 August, it is the only African film competing for the two prizes of the World cinema Amsterdam,Netherlands.
Congolese filmmaker Jo Munga is one of those filmmakers who can still show some African colours on world screening. He is well known as a documentary producer and did well in particular with Congo four acts, the collective film directed by Dieudo Hamadi, Kiripi Katembo Siku et Divita Wa Lusala and also with State of mind by Munga Tunda Djo
It is all about Congolese stories like Viva Riva the new film, which is a feature film inspired by the underground life of Kinshasa. After helping other directors to tell their stories it seems that Jo Munga wanted to tell his own.
The film seems to be intended to be more entertaining for the audience. The filmmaker put all ingredients together; fight between gangsters, a lot of action and shooting, music and dancing scenes in Kinshasa’s night clubs and slums, quite hard erotic scenes. All the action is compiled according to a romantic love story and melodrama involving two main characters Riva (Patsha Bay) the good burglar and Nora (Manie Malone) the fatal beauty of the city. It’s all about love, money and criminality.
If the film is made of a very stereotyped crime thriller story, yet it is also deeply inspired by the real life in Kinshasa. The actors, coached by French actress Sandrine Bonnaire look sincere and authentic.
A lot of scenes are shot in real locations and with real people and give the film a documentary dimension: scenes of the city, gas stations, and bus stations for instance create the atmosphere of the film. All these are real images contrasting with the violent and erotic scenes which are more like a fantasia.
The film is typical Nollywood product: a mixture of the African reality on the one hand, and the cliché scenes from Hollywood gangster films like Scarface by Hawks, Reservoir dogs and Pulp Fiction by Tarantino.
Yet all of this gives an idea about the life and the dreams of young Congolese and Africans of these days. The film got six trophies at the 7th African Academy Film Award 2010.

http://www.monitor.co.ug/LifeStyle/Theatre+++Cinema/-/691234/1221754/-/6kb1sa/-/index.html

Special Ramadan in North Africa

Since January this year, and the eruption of North African societies, everybody knows that nothing is going to be like before.
Since Monday the first Ramadan after the revolution began in the cacophony of the political debates and the rise of the foodstuffs prices. Freedom has indeed another taste, isn’t it?
Ramadan is the holy month for Muslim societies. It is supposed to be very peaceful time for pray and human solidarity. It seems that the spiritual mood is going to be mixed with the will of changes.
Ironically what the people see right now as the most concrete change is how prices of food are absurdly and extremely high. The basic element is quite unaffordable for the ordinary Tunisian or Egyptian.
One cannot think of it without considering the objective situation in which millions of people are like trapped by conflicts and live in a kind of an open air prison.
Algerians are under the pressure of a political regime which is not ready to concede any margin of change unless it comes from it. The opposition would have tried to make the population move but had no success.
In morocco, Mohamed VI, made a big effort by announcing a big political reform daring even to give the executive power a bigger margin.
Still a big part of the opposition considers it not enough. Some radicals are even calling for a continuous uprising. The country is divided but the majority stands after the beloved king.
In Libya , where the revolution is still going on with the very problematic help of the NATO, the holy month will be a month of fight and war. Gaddafi and his clan are more and more weak.
The end of the Libyan leader is probably coming within the end of the holy month. Insurgent are already dreaming of a double celebration: the religious fete and the fall of the dictator.
Countries like Tunisia and Egypt, where dictators belong already to a bygone era, are not necessarily privileged. It seems that the mechanics of change are facing some dysfunction.
After Mubarak en Ben Ali left the power, interim government were established in both of the two countries. Their mission is to watch after the democratic transition.
It doesn’t simply work. People are back to the streets. They call for the justice and for the change which they are not seeing any concrete sings.
There are elections planned is September for the one country and in October for the other. A process is going on with the international dubious financial sustain despite demonstrations, despite screams from here and there.
There will be elections, but only a small part of the population believes in it.
Less than two million Tunisians are officially registered in the elective lists until now. The deadline of inscription was postponed in order to get more people in.
In Egypt , people are back to the streets to force the highest military institution in charge of the country to act according to the promises made right after Mubarak stepped out.
There is one common point to all these situations: the politics are doing without that the people gets really involved in the process.
Politic doesn’t really have a direct connection with the real and daily life of the people. This latter is aware of it.
Politicians are debating and going on with a process despite the suffer of the poor, the despair of the youth, the anger of the intellectuals and the frustrations of those who naively believed in a possible and fair change.
If change there will be, it will never be the one of politicians. The main important thing remains the change of the way people from now on are going to think.
Until this is going to have any influence on the politic, these societies are going to waste one or two generations .... at least.

COMMUNIQUÉ DE THALA DE SOUTIEN AU PROJET DE FONDS PANAFRICAIN DU CINEMA

Les organisations cinématographiques et culturelles tunisiennes soussignées présentes aux 7eme rencontres cinématographiques de Hergla, invitées de Thala en Tunisie (27-31 juillet 2011) et la direction des rencontres ont décidé, à partir de cette ville phare de la révolution tunisienne, de saisir cette occasion pour réaffirmer leur soutien au Projet de « Fonds Panafricain du Cinéma » .
Ce fonds dont l’initiative a été lancée conjointement par l’OIF, la FEPACI et le syndicat des producteurs de films tunisiens à l’occasion du Festival de Cannes 2010, répond à une demande de longue date de la Fédération Panafricaine des Cinéastes (FEPACI) née sur le sol tunisien en 1970 à l’occasion de la 3ème session des « Journées cinématographiques de Carthage ». Ce projet vient couronner les efforts et la vision de Tahar CHERIAA élu cette année là Président d’Honneur de la FEPACI en tant qu’ inlassable militant tunisien qui a voué sa vie à la promotion du cinéma panafricain.
Ce projet a pu commencer à prendre corps grâce au soutien de son excellence Monsieur le Président Abdou Diouf, secrétaire Général de l’Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) qui, répondant à une demande de la FEPACI a accepté, bien que le champs prévu pour ce Fonds soit plus large que celui de ses états membres, que l’OIF , forte de son expérience dans le soutien aux cinémas africains, apporte son appui logistique à la mise en place de ce « Fonds Panafricain ».
C’est ainsi que l’OIF a pris en charge entre autres les frais d’une « étude de faisabilité » qui a été présentée conjointement par la FEPACI et par l’OIF aux dernières « Journées Cinématographiques de Carthage » en octobre 2010.
C’est ainsi que lors des JCC 2010 a eu lieu une première assemblée avec les cinéastes africains et de futurs sponsors et possibles partenaires du Fonds, organisée par L’OIF et La chambre syndicale nationale des producteurs de films, où une première étude du Fonds a été présentée aux intéressés.
A l’étape suivante, en mars 2011, à l’occasion du Festival Panafricain du Cinéma et de la Télévision (FESPACO) de Ouagadougou, les représentants de la FEPACI ont alors lancé un appel à l’implication directe du Président Abdou Diouf, pour qu’il veuille bien accepter d’être leur ambassadeur auprès de plusieurs chefs d’Etat africains, pour proposer que leurs pays soient parmi les premiers donateurs de ce Fonds.
Pour concrétiser cet appel le Président de la FEPACI, feu Charles Mensah, accompagné de Monsieur Ferid Boughedir, historien du cinéma africain, membre fondateur de l’Association des Cinéastes Tunisiens, (elle même fondatrice de la FEPACI) ont été alors reçus le 26 mai 2011 par le président Abdou Diouf au siège de l’OIF pour lui remettre une requête écrite en ce sens. le Président Abdou Diouf l’avait acceptée avec une généreuse motivation en tant que Promoteur de toujours de la culture et de la création artistique en Afrique.
Pour toutes les raisons citées plus haut, nous basant sur le fait que la Tunisie est historiquement à la fois membre fondateur de la FEPACI et membre fondateur de l’OIF , les organisations cinématographiques et culturelles tunisiennes soussignées, souhaitent présenter leurs plus vifs remerciements au Président Abdou Diouf pour son appui à ce projet, qui représente une extension Panafricaine à l’actuel effort que fait la Tunisie au lendemain de sa révolution, pour organiser le soutien à son cinéma et son audiovisuel sur des bases industrielles protégées et viables, en développant l’auto –suffisance financière et la nécessaire coopération Sud-Sud.
A cette occasion, les organisations cinématographiques et culturelles tunisiennes présentes à Thala en ce mois de juillet 2011, proposent que, pour les multiples motivations évoquées précédemment, et conformément aux recommandations de l’étude de faisabilité, la Tunisie puisse accueillir le siège officiel du Fonds en terre africaine, sachant que l’unité autonome de gestion du fonds sera basée à Paris, à proximité de l’OIF qui en assurera le contrôle financier. Aussi, les organisations cinématographiques et culturelles tunisiennes soussignées s’engagent à mettre tous leurs efforts en commun pour l’organisation et la mise sur pieds de cette future représentation officielle qui ne peut qu’être utile aux cinémas de notre continent.

Vive le projet de Fonds Panafricain du cinéma,
Vive le Cinéma tunisien,
Vive la Fédération Panafricaine des cinéastes
Signé :
Pour le Syndicat National des Producteurs de films, Lotfi Layouni
Pour l’Association des réalisateurs de films (ARF), Khaled Barsaoui
Pour l’Association des cinéastes tunisiens (ACT 2011), Amine Chiboube
Pour le Syndicat des Techniciens Intermittents de l’Audiovisuel, Habib Mestiri
Pour l’Association tunisienne des jeunes de l’audiovisuel, Manel Balti
Pour l’Assocition tunisienne des techniciens intermittents du cinéma et de l’audiovisuel, Khaled Ben Aziza
Pour la Fédération tunisienne des cinéastes amateurs, Adel Abid
Pour l’Association tunisienne pour la promotion de la critique cinématographique, Soundess Zarrouk
Pour L’Association culturelle Afrique -Méditerranée, Mohamed Challouf
Pour l’Association Thala Solidarité, Noureddine Bourogaa

Hergla à Thala

Rencontres Cinématographiques de Hergla
7° Session à Thala du 27 - 31 Juillet 2011
Programme
Mercredi 27 juillet 21.30
Soirée d’Ouverture
Projection des films :
VERS LE NORD court métrage fiction de Youssef Chebbi (Tunisie-France 2010, 16 min)
ISTANBUL court métrage animation d’ Idil Ar (Turquie 2010, 3 min 15’’)
LEZARE court métrage fiction de Zelalem Woldemariem (Ethiopie 2010, 14 min)
Concert du groupe de DIDIER AWADI (Sénégal, Congo, Cameroun, Gabon)
Jeudi 28 Juillet 21.30
- Performance Musicale de Thala
-Sélection 2011 de courts métrages africains et méditerranéens de Tunisie, Turquie, Italie, France, Albanie, Liban, Espagne, Algérie.
Vendredi 29 Juillet 21.30
Soirée documentaires
1- Projection du film INDOCINE, SUR LES TRACES D’UNE MERE (Benin, France, 2010, 71 min) d’Idrissou Mora Kpai en présence du réalisateur invité spécial des Rencontres et responsable de l'atelier de formation documentaire.
2- Hommage à OMAR AMIRALAY, documentariste syrien, disparue en janvier 2011.
Projection de VIE QUOTIDIENNE D’UN VILLAGE SYRIEN (1974, 85 min) de Omar Amiralay, et Saadallah Wannouss film censuré pour plus de 30 ans.
Samedi 30 Juillet
Soirée spéciale FEDERATION TUNISIENNE DES CINEASTES AMATEURS
1- Projection de films courts métrages produit par la F.T.C.A.
- LE TUNNEL de Ridha ben Hlima
- SANS PLOMB de Samy Tlili
- Le MUR de Fathi Ben Slama
- LA GAMELLE de Maher ben Khlifa
- La CARAPASSE de Sabrine Hrira
- Grain de Lait Grain de Vie d’Imen Nafti
-
2- Projection en présence de l’auteur du film IMAGES SACCADEES (Tunisie, 2011, 87 min) de Habib Mestiri produit Par Multimédia 2000
Dimanche 31 juillet
Soirée hommage à la Palestine
En la mémoire du pacifiste italien VITTORIO ARRIGONI assassiné a Gaza par des extrémistes.
1- Projection du documentaire RESTONS HUMAINS (Palestine, Qatar, 2011, 55 min) Al Jazeera Documentary.
2- Projection du film AISHEEN (Suisse, Qatar, 2010, 85 min) de Nicolas Wadimoff sélection officielle au Festival de Berlin 2010, Prix du jury œcuménique.
3- Lancement de 50 montgolfières lumineuses en hommage aux martyres des révolutions arabes.
La manifestation prévoit aussi des ateliers de formation pour enfants et pour jeunes dans le domaine de l’image, elle propose des rencontres et discutions autour du petit déjeuner entre les participants au festival et les invités de la manifestation : Dominique Wallon ancien directeur du CNC, Didier Awadi musicien et cinéaste, Idrissou Mora Kpai cinéaste, Olivier Barlet critique de cinéma, Kamel Regaya documentariste, Habib Mestiri cinéaste et producteur.

Saint-Petersburg Best of the best

ST. PETERSBURG INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL “KINOFORUM”

JULY 10-15, 2011

During the magnificent period of white nights from July 10 till July 15 St. Petersburg will host the St. Petersburg International Film Festival “KINOFORUM” with the support of the government of St. Petersburg. It will be a world-scale film festival. The president of the Film Festival is the People’s Artist of Russia, film director and script-writer Alexey German. He is the author of the world-renown, absolutely brilliant films.

114 films from 27 countries were included in the Kinoforum program. 57 films at the Kinoforum were represented by their directors and film crews.

About 40 000 people came to the cinemas and halls where the Kinoforum films were screened. The screenings took place in 6 cinemas, Mikhailovskiy theater and special venues, including an open theater at Arts Square.
Kinoforum was covered by 750 journalists from all over the world.

More than 700 guests attended the Kinoforum: directors, producers and actors from more than 50 countries.



Saint Petersburg prize for the contribution to the cinematography was awarded to classic of the Soviet and Russian cinema, director Marlen Khutsiev.

The prize was given by chairwoman of the Kinoforum organizing Committee Alla Manilova.


FIPRESSI (International Federation of Film Critics) prize for outstanding contribution to the world’s cinematography at the 2nd Saint Petersburg International Kinoforum was awarded to Marlen Khutsiev
The prize was given by program director Andrey Plakhov.


Members of the competition Best of the Best jury distinguished film “Le Havre” of director Aki Kaurismiaki for the humanism of director’s intentions and high-level artistic performance.

Grand Prix of the 2nd Saint Petersburg International Kinoforum was awarded to Irani director Asgar Farkhadi for film “Nader and Simin, a Separation” .

The prize was given by the chairman of the competition jury, writer and scriptwriter Rustam Ibragimbekov.

In 2011 this film was awarded Golden Bear and Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at Berlin International Film Festival.

According to the results of audience voting films of the competition program Best of the Best Audience Choice Awards were given:

The third award was given to film “The Hunter” of director Bakur Bakuradze.

The award was given by member of the jury, president of non-commercial company Toronto Russian Film Festival Valeriy Kogan.

The second award was given to film “Por el Camino/Beyond the Road” of director Charlie Braun.

The award was given by member of the jury, director of Russian department of The Walt Disney Company Maria Zhigalova-Ozkan.

The first and main Audience Choice Award was given to Aki Kaurismiaki for film “Le Havre”.

The award was given by member of the jury and journalist Svetlana Sorokina and artist Vadim Zakharov
In the competition program «New Territories» Best Film Award was given to film «Black Blood» of Chinese director Miaoyan Zhang.



The award was given by members of the jury: founder of Berlin International Film Festival Ulrich Gregor and actress Dinara Drukarova.

Best Director Award in the competition program «New Territories» was given to director from Sri Lanka Sanjeewa Pushpakumara for his film «Flying Fish».


The prize was given by member of the jury: director Ios Stelling and producer Natalia Mokritskaya.
Special Award: Choice of the Jury in the competition program «New Territories» was given to film «Gesher» from Iran, director Vakhid Vakilifar.


The prize was given by members of the jury: artist-decorator, Oscar winner Rodger Kristian and actress Ornella Muti.


The organizing committee of the 2nd Saint Petersburg International Kinoforum awarded a special prize to film from non-competition program «Devil’s Double» of director Lee Tamahori.

Fairouz - HOLLANDFESTIVAL

Fairouz - HOLLANDFESTIVAL

Fairouz in the Koninklijk Theater Carré Amsterdam

The Holland Festival 2011 gives honor to whom honor is due, after the legend Fela Kuti, the libanese Angel, Fairouz.
In March the 2nd, in one single hour, the concert was sold out. In the black market, prices reached 300 euros.
The Libanese Diva "... is widely known as the Angel of Lebanon. Legendary singer Fairouz is revered throughout the Middle-East and beyond. She performed in all the major cities of the Arabic world, in world cities such as London, New York and Paris, but never before in Amsterdam. Fairouz is unique in weaving together the diverse traditions of the Arab world with her passionate songs of love, loneliness and longing. She is heard in the shops, taxis and tea houses from Bagdad to Casablanca, from Rabat to Rotterdam and from Jerusalem to Paris. Fairouz is with¬out a doubt the most famous and popular singer in the Arab world. A classic concert in the making." dixit Carré

http://www.hollandfestival.nl/page.ocl?pageid=43&show=4456

Odious aid to Tunisia and Egypt!

It is certainly not a pure coincidence that the Tunisian Prime Minister went to France and met President Nicolas Sarkozy few days only before the G8 in Deauville. This was part of the preparations for the summit that decided to grant 14 billion to Tunisia and Egypt as a financial aid to the transition process in which both countries are engaged. However, this aid is part of an international policy based on the mechanism of the so-called "odious debt" and has always been an instrument of support to the former regimes. I am against this aid to Tunisia ... Why?

- Because I think that this is an intolerable contradiction: the G8 does not intend to change its policy toward these two countries and review the logic of the international debt, it accordingly cannot be consistent with itself and support any change as their populations are claiming? The G8 has in fact never listened to the people, it always lent ear only to corrupted regimes as far as they serve its interest.
- Because all economists around the world say it: international debt is odious in the sense that it is an instrument against the development of those countries that perceive it, whereas it is supposed to help them emerge and prosper. It is rather a non-equitable investment under the laughable label of development assistance; International community takes with one hand much more than what it gives with the other.
- Because it is so absurd to appear as a benefactor when one asks Tunisia to pay installments according to an agreement contracted with the former regime from which the West, now, dissociates itself and behaves as if it has never been its accomplice neither had it supported while being perfectly on the lookout of its corruption. According to what kind of common sense can a country, which economy is almost on its knees, be asked to pay 411 million US dollar? It is even more absurd when everybody admits at the same time that it needs much more consistent financial assistance to go over the transition period that will lead to a new era of democracy and economic recovery.
- Because the one who negotiate this "aid", in this case the Tunisian prime minister whose nomination is not the result of democratic elections. It is a remnant of the old regime with which the "democratic forces" the world's most powerful and richest countries of the West had made a deal in order to plunder the riches of the Tunisian people.
- Because it is an absurd contradiction to go on negotiating with a government that still practices the censorship of the press, arrests protesters, refuses still to handle cases of corruption involving officials of the former regime and continues to repress peaceful demonstrations with violence using batons and teargas,...
- Because the West still chooses the policy of the ostrich and prefers to be deaf and blind. It still refuses to listen to the voice of the Tunisian people, not even being fairly consistent with the reports of its own secret services on the actual situation of this people and still prefers to deal with political elite just for that it provides an order in favor of its own benefit. No matter the Youth and its aspirations, neither the real and true development. Whatever the reason for which young people died, it doesn’t really matter. No matter what the streets of Tunisia says about the transitory government accusing it of betraying its revolutionary aspirations and its trust.
- Because what matters first and foremost is to stop the flow of emigration and illegal immigration. What matters also is the voracity of multinational corporations continuing pump with impunity, like blood-leeches, the money of poor people.
- Because the world politics has its hands tied by corporate power and lobbies. Western governments have elections and must above all be thinking about financing their companions. Because after all, each is firstly interested in cleaning its own porch and what utterly counts for everyone is the next election.
- Because what counts is a arrangement between an international policy committed to serve multinationals of the most powerful and richest countries and the political elite of the “poor” ones who, either voluntarily, corruptly or even by necessity, is forced to play a role in the farce of post colonialism and serve as a simple instrument to an international order necessarily crappy and unfair.
- Because it is unfair that the French government, which hosts the G8, wants to still play the role of protector of the Tunisian people. The same government was surprised not long ago in the act of giving yet another stab in the back of Tunisians supporting logistically Tunisian police to quell the protesters, many of which were dying in the streets of Tunisia. And is thought right that wrong by appearing in the role of one who stands up for those with Tunisian creditor who seek to actually push this country further in debt he could never fulfill.
- Because guardianship, we know from the Protectorate of 1881 [1] which legalized the settlement, has never served if the guardian himself. Even with the old regime, support was falsely hypocrite because he has never relied on aid real desires but on common interests of small and even small stones too Catholic: Southern elites s enrichment at the expense of their populations, the North on the back of everybody. The former are eventually reduced ultimately to the status of small bundles villains thieves hiding in the secret drawer of the libraries they probably do not read books, others are misrepresenting as benefactors of the disadvantaged people and support them in their uprising .
But I'm mostly against this international assistance to Tunisia because he does not seem to me equally clear that Tunisia needs, the least we can say that more aid is malicious if:
- Because a simple arithmetic operation has shown how it is despicable. The G8, "no matter how generously say" decides to unlock $ 14 billion for Tunisia and Egypt. However, the property of the two fallen dictators, Ben Ali and Mubarak and their families, located mainly in Europe, would amount to 50 billion for the first and 70 for the second. A student's base school will not have to think twice to say without hesitation and that the account is not there.
- Because of the $ 411 million that Tunisia is required to pay (half of each please) to these creditors, mainly the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and the European Bank, the Tunisian people can easily recover its economy after two or three years no more.
- Because in spite of this unjust debt and despite the economic and financial hemorrhage which was due to the corruption of its political elite, Tunisia succeeded in developing a rate of around 6% per year [2]. Imagine a time after the revolution, these two burdens are gone. This rate is just going to triple. I am certainly not an economist but the computing operation is again a blindingly obvious.



[1] Date of commencement of the French protectorate in Tunisia.
[2] Almost the same rate as the Brazils or India.

Sembène : l’éternelle leçon

Il fallait bien qu’un livre soit publié en hommage à Sembène Ousmane. Il y en a eu d’autres certes, mais celui qui vient de paraitre en ce début de 2009 publié par l’association Africultures chez l’éditeur L’Harmattan est bien particulier. Moins de deux ans après la disparition, en juin 2007, du cinéaste et romancier sénégalais, ce livre vient rendre un hommage digne de sa valeur.
L’équipe qui se cache derrière cette initiative a bien tenu le pari. On savait qu’à l’occasion du fespaco (février dernier) un hommage allait être rendu à Sembène. Le livre aura été au rendez-vous. Une effigie grandeur nature lui aura été érigée sur la place des cinéastes de la capitale du Burkina Faso. La même ville éternisera son nom en baptisant l’une de ses grandes artères en son nom. Qu’y a-t-il de mieux pour saluer un romancier et un cinéaste qu’un livre ! C’est toute l’idée de ce projet. Simple symbolique, mais surtout digne.
Coordonné par Thierno Ibrahima Dia, universitaire et critique de cinéma sénégalais basé à Bordeaux, le livre fait intervenir plusieurs plumes. Objectif, essayer de cerner la vie et l’œuvre de celui qui aura marqué l’histoire et la culture africaine et mondiale. Les différentes contributions paraitront à l’évidence comme une multiplicité de regards, autant les facettes du personnage sont difficile, voire même impossible à cerner.
Intitulé tout simplement Sembène Ousmane (1923-2007), le livre dit beaucoup sur son sujet. Il contient des témoignages de ceux qui auront connu Sembène de près. Ce sont des collaborateurs comme Clarence Thomas Delgado. Ce sont des écrivains qui ont été témoin de la gestation de son œuvre littéraire comme Boris Diop. Ce sont des universitaires qui connaissent son œuvre et l’enseigne en guise de reconnaissance Keyan G. Tomaselli, Sada Niang, Maguèye Kassé. Ce sont des critiques de cinéma qui ont accompagné ses films par le monde entier tel Virginie Andriamirado, Giuzeppe Gariazzo, d’autre qui avaient appris beaucoup sur son art en assistant à ses leçons de cinéma comme Thierno I. Dia qui rend compte de la rencontre de Dakar 2004 ou Olivier Barlet rapportant le contenu de la célèbre leçon donnée du haut de la tribune du festival de Cannes 2005.
Par le roman ou par le cinéma, Sembène aura été celui qui aura donné la parole à l’Afrique. Non seulement il puise dans son imaginaire qui prend ses racines dans Casamance, cette région du Sud du Sénégal qui devint le centre du monde, mais son engagement ira jusqu’à vouloir imposer la langue wolof comme langue de littérature. Il en a été de même au cinéma. Après un début en langue française Borom Sarret et La noire de… qui le propulsent sur la scène internationale du septième art, il s’engage dans un travail titanesque de revalorisation des langues locales comme bastion de lutte pour la cause de la culture africaine.
Jusqu’au dernier élément de sa filmographie Sembène aura tenu ce cap : porter l’Afrique sur les scènes du monde. C’est dans ce sens que Molaadé, son dernier film a été compris en tout cas. Son dernier projet portait le nom de Samoury, le film dont il a toujours rêvé et qui devait éterniser l’un des symboles de l’Afrique combattante. Il l’aura laissé comme testament à la postérité pour qu’elle le concrétise. Il aura laissé certes une œuvre encore plus riche. Mais il aura laissé surtout un souffle que les jeunes générations pourront découvrir dans ses films ou dans ses romans. Pour cela, il est peut-être temps que l’école, que Sembène a connue d’une manière inhabituelle, fasse de la place à « l’ainé des anciens ». Il aura pour toujours des leçons à donner et des meilleures…

http://www.scribd.com/doc/57276456/Sembene-Ousmane-1923-1007

Pour une sémiologie de la Trouille.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/57150285/Pour-une-semiologie-de-la-trouille

What could be anti-religious in La Ricotta, a short film by Italian filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini? This film, such as a lot of other works of art and act of thinking, is in the realm of the a-historical conflict between the "Religious" on the one hand and the freedom of Artisitc expression and thinking on the other hand.
I form the plan to consider this a-historical conflict between Religion and Art, as a question of semiotics and I situate it in the frame of the theory of interpretation applied to one theme: the wholly figure of three monotheist religions. At the center of this debate stands the opposition between tow semiotic demarches that Umberto Eco formulates in two terms: "in verbis" and "in in factis".
This is how the Italian semiologist points at what he considers the two phenomenons of the semantics of the conditions of the “Truth”. The former covers statements that are true under a set of postulates of meanings; the latter those which are true in virtue of what it is being. (The Limits of interpretation, p.292)
I will analyze the two demarches focusing on the connection they have with the notion of "L'oeuvre ouvere" or “The open work” . My purpose is therefore to demonstrate that the conflict comes from the fact that the debate shifts from aesthetics and even theology in stricto senso to politics and turns around a certain margin of tolerance given (or not) to different kinds of alterities.

voordekunst: Juni Nieuws

voordekunst: Juni Nieuws: "voordekunst in de pers Op maandag 30 mei om 18.15 had EenVandaag een item over voordekunst. Hier kwamen de projecthouders van OerolTube,..."

From the South: No awards for Africans in Cannes, but new hopes

From the South: No awards for Africans in Cannes, but new hopes

No awards for Africans in Cannes, but new hopes

No awards for African cinema at the 64th Cannes film festival. This should not be surprising if we consider the participations coming from the black continent. They are indeed few but it says a lot about a new generation of directors.
Three films only were running for prices : Skoonheid by Oliver Hemanus from South Africa for the Un Certain Regard section, No more fear by Tunisian filmmaker Mourad Ben Cheikh fo the Golden Camera and the Moroccan young filmmaker Leila Kilani was in the competition of the Directors Fortnight.
New generation to take over
It is not necessarily a problem of quality of these films, but it is logic : less you have films less you have a chance to get any price.
The Tunisian film is selected more because it is about the last events in the country. It is in fact part of a tribute to the Jasmine Revolution, but since it is a debut it could run for the price of this category, the Golden Camera.
The two other filmmakers mentioned above are also young. Hermanus and Kilani presented their second features only.
This is a good sign even though none had a price. If these directors could make it and be at that level in this big festival, they still have more chance in the future to go further.
The sections where they are selected, are considered as different entrances to the official selection. It is logic that everyone needs some time to be mature. One day we will see them in the competition, like their elder African filmmakers such as Cissé, Haroun, Cissako and so on.
Highlighting the mood for revolutions
But Cannes is not only a competition. It is a huge platform for the whole world cinema. That’s why out of these participations it was talked about Africa in many other promotional events.
The first attraction was the homage given to Tunisia and Egypt. This latter was the invited country this year. It opened a new program consisting in inviting a country every year as Guest of the festival.
In addition to that, the festival wanted to give a tribute to the Egyptian revolution via a special screening of 10 shorts telling the story of the 18 days of the sit in of tahrir square (centre of Cairo) and which lead to the fall of the former president Hosni Moubarak.
Some Tunisian shorts were also screened for the same reason. Few young directors were invited to present their films in the so-called Short Film Corner, a section intended to promote short films from all over the world.
Homage’s
Two Tunisian personalities were honored at the occasion of the 64th Cannes Film Festival. These are the kind of activities organized somehow by official institutions to make their show in fact.
The first one is the Tunisian director Nouri Bouzid. He received the medal of arts and culture from the French minister of culture, Frederique Mitterrand. He succeeds to people like Sotigui Kouyate, Mustapha Alassane....
The second, Mr. Tahar Cheriaa, is a pioneer of African cinema who fought for united Africa and who passed away last November. The ceremony was organized by the International Organization of the Francophonie because he was one of its employee for many years.
He is the founder, together with Ousmane Sembene, of The Carthage Film Festival in Tunisia (1966) and the FESPACO in Burkina Faso (1969). They shared the dream of a prosperous African cinema.
During the ceremony of the homage, people could discover the portrait of the man in a documentary called Tahar Cheriaa ander the shadow of the Baobab by Tunisian photographer and director Mohammed Challouf.
The film focuses on the ideas of the man and the projects he was involved in. Via interviews and archives, it gives a complete portrait of the man and his fight for African cinema and for the whole cinema of the South.
Promotion spaces
Far away from the tributes and official ceremonies, one could meet African professionals in many spaces.
One of them is the “Village International”. It is a huge park on the very beautiful beach of the cote d’azur where delegations can set their pavilions (tents) and proceed to promote the cinema of their countries.
Few African countries used to be represented there, but the number is diminishing. You could still find the pavilion of Tunisia, Egypt, South Africa and Morocco, but there is no more Nigerian pavilion for instance.
In the Cinema of the World Pavilion, African space is also getting smaller and smaller. We used to meet more professionals from Africa when it was called Cinema of the South pavilion.
The concurrence is bigger when, in addition to south Americans, you have to face the Eastern and Central European cinemas. You can never be at the same level of competitiveness.
Few projects were selected to participate to the workshop organized by the pavilion such as Indochine trace of a Mother by Idrissou Mora Kpai from Benin, Ashes of Pardon by Gilbert Ndunga Nsangato and Jhonny Hendrix Hinestroza from Congo and Dakar Trottoirs by Hubert Laba Ndao from Senegal
The idea is that these authors can meet producers and financers to pitch their projects with a very minor hope that they get some pecuniary help.
Some others have more chance and could profit from the pavilion of the world cinema and have some screenings in the market. This is the case of the Lion’s point of view a documentary made by the Senegalese rapper Didier Awadi about the neo-colonial position of the black continent.
The Business platform
Africans come to Cannes to look for possible financial partners whereas those from other parts of the world come to sell their production and make money. There is no balance.
In the market which is the biggest part of the festival, out of 600 exhibitors only three are coming from Africa : Department of Film Services - Kenya, Film Clinic - Egypt and Sindbad Productions - Tunisia.
Other initiatives show how difficult for Africans to be part of this huge fete. That’s the challenge of the professionals from Cameroun by organizing a special event dedicated to promote the image of their country.
The minister of culture of Cameroun and a delegation of professionals like the well known Bassek Ba Kobhio, invited the world press to a presentation of their national plan called “shooting in Cameroun”. The idea is to invite productions to use the landscape of the country as shooting sets for their films.
“The government of Cameroun is willing to make all kinds of facilities to foreign productions in order to help them shooting in the most optimal conditions”, declared the minister of culture.
As for Bassek Ba Kobhio, filmmaker and director of Black Screens Film Festival, he highlighted the fact that shooting in Cameroun is an opportunity to foreign productions and it is also meant to help the local productions.
Ba Kobhio is in fact talking on behalf of all the African professionals. When African countries are not willing to take seriously the film industry and invest in it, only foreign investments are able to bring some hope to make some African films possible.
Unfortunately as far as we count on this hope, we keep on depending from the North and this is definitely not fair.
The new generation will have unfortunately to face this handicap also.

From the South: Pourquoi je suis contre l’aide internationale à la Tunisie

From the South: Pourquoi je suis contre l’aide internationale à la Tunisie

Pourquoi je suis contre l’aide internationale à la Tunisie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhkqN6KTtJI


Ce n’est certes pas par hasard que le Premier Ministre Tunisien (du gouvernement provisoire) s’est rendu en France pour rencontrer Nicolas Sarkozy quelques jours seulement avant le G8 de Deauville. Cela faisait partie des préparatifs du sommet dont l’une des décisions aura été l’octroie d’une aide de 14 milliards à la Tunisie et à l’Égypte pour financer le processus de transition dans lequel les deux pays sont engagés. Or, cette aide participe d’une politique internationale fondée sur le mécanisme de la « dette odieuse » qui a toujours soutenu, légitimé et renforcé les anciens régimes. Je suis donc contre cette aide à la Tunisie …
- Parce qu’il me semble qu’il y a là une contradiction insoutenable : le G8 ne veut pas changer sa politique à l’égard de ces deux pays et revoir la logique de la dette internationale, il ne peut donc aucunement être cohérent avec lui-même et soutenir le changement que leurs populations réclament ? . Le G8 n’a en effet jamais écouté les populations, il a toujours prêté oreille seulement aux régimes corrompus tant qu’ils servaient ses intérêts…
- Parce que tous les économes du monde entier le disent (et on le sait depuis Thomas Sankara qui en a payé le prix de sa vie) : la dette internationale est odieuse au sens où elle est un handicap majeur contre le développement des pays qui la perçoivent alors qu’elle est supposée les aider à progresser. C’est plutôt un investissement non équitable sous l’étiquette risible de l’aide au développement ; on prend par une main beaucoup plus que ce que l’on donne par l’autre..
- Parce qu’il est absurde de se montrer comme donateur au moment même où on demande à la Tunisie de payer une tranche de la dette contractée par l’ancien régime dont l’Occident maintenant se dissocie comme s’il na jamais été son complice ou qu’il ne l’a jamais soutenu tout en étant parfaitement à l’affut de sa corruption. Cette tranche s’élève à 411 millions de Dollars. Selon quel bon sens alors demanderait-on à un pays, dont l’économie est presque à genoux, de payer un tel montant alors qu’on estime par ailleurs qu’il a besoin d’une aide financière encore plus consistante pour pouvoir dépasser la période de transition qui le mènera vers une nouvelle ère de démocratie et de redressement économique.
- Parce que ceux qui négocient cette “aide”, en l’occurrence le premier ministre tunisien, n’est pas élu, n’est pas choisi suite à des élections démocratiques. Il est un reste de l’ancien régime avec lequel les “ forces démocratiques” les plus puissantes du monde, et donc les pays les plus riches de l’Occident, avaient pactisé pour qu’il spolie les richesses du peuple Tunisien.
- Parce qu’il est d’une contradiction absurde que de continuer à négocier avec un gouvernement qui pratique encore la censure de la presse, les arrestations des manifestants, qui refuse de traiter les dossiers de corruption impliquant les responsables de l’ancien régime, qui continue à réprimer les manifestations pacifiques par la violence à force de matraques et de bombes lacrymogènes,…
- Parce que l’Occident choisit encore la politique de l’autruche et préfère être sourd et aveugle. Il refuse encore d’écouter la voix du peuple tunisien, il ne veut pas encore être honnêtement conséquent ne serait-ce qu’avec ce que ces propres rapports secrets lui disent sur la situation réelle de ce peuple et préfère encore avoir affaire à une élite politique rien que pour qu’elle assure une forme d’ordre qui lui profite. Peu importe alors la jeunesse et ses aspirations. Peu importe le développement réel. Peu importe ce pourquoi des jeunes sont morts. Peu importe ce que la rue tunisienne dit au sujet de ce gouvernement provisoire l’accusant de trahir et sa confiance et ses aspirations révolutionnaires.
- Parce que ce qui compte au premier chef c’est d’arrêter le flux de l’émigration et de l’émigration clandestine. Ce qui compte c’est la cupidité des multinationales qui iront pomper continument et impunément l’argent des pauvres comme des sangs-sues.
- Parce la politique mondiale a les mains liées par le pouvoir des multinationales et des lobbys. Les gouvernements occidentaux ont des échéances électorales et doivent avant tout penser à se faire financer leurs compagnes. Parce qu’enfin de compte, chacun est condamné à nettoyer devant chez soi et ce qui compte d’abord ce sont les prochaines élections de chacun.
-Parce que ce qui compte c’est un pacte entre une politique internationale au service des multinationales des pays les plus puissants et une élite politique qui, soit volontairement, soit par corruption, soit encore par nécessité, contrainte à jouer le jeu du dispositif postcolonial et servir de simple outil pour le compte d’un ordre international nécessairement foireux et injuste.
- Parce qu’il est injuste que ce gouvernement français qui accueille le G8 veut encore jouer le rôle du protecteur de ce peuple tunisien. Ce même gouvernement a été surpris il n’y a pas longtemps en flagrant délit de donner un nième coup de poignard dans le dos des tunisiens en soutenant logistiquement le régime policier à réprimer les manifestants dont plusieurs perdaient la vie dans les rues tunisiennes. Et on croit réparer ce tort en paraissant dans le rôle de celui qui défend la cause de ces mêmes tunisiens auprès des créanciers qui, pire encore, ne cherchent en fait qu’à enfoncer ce pays davantage dans une dette dont il ne pourra jamais s’acquitter.
- Parce que la tutelle, on le sait depuis le protectorat de 1881[1] qui légalisait la colonisation, n’a jamais servi sinon le tuteur lui-même. Même avec l’ancien régime, le soutien était faussement hypocrite parce qu’il ne s’est jamais appuyé sur des volontés d’aide réelles mais sur des petits intérêts communs, et même de petits calculs pas trop catholiques : les élites du Sud s’enrichissaient sur le dos de leurs populations, celles du Nord sur le dos de tous le monde. Les premières sont finalement réduites au statut de petits vilains voleurs cachant les liasses de devise dans les tiroirs secrets des bibliothèques dont ils ne lisaient probablement pas les livres ; les autres se présentant faussement comme les bienfaiteurs des peuples défavorisés et les soutenants dans leurs soulèvements.

Mais je suis contre cette aide internationale à la Tunisie surtout parce qu’il ne me parait pas aussi évident que la Tunisie ait besoin, le moins que l’on puisse dire, d’une aide qui plus est si malintentionnée :
- Parce qu’une simple opération de calcul montre à quel point elle est ignoble, cette aide. Le G8 décide, «soit-disant généreusement” de débloquer 14 milliards pour la Tunisie et l’Egypte. Or, les biens des deux dictateurs déchus, Ben Ali et Moubarak et leurs familles, se trouvant pour l’essentiel en Europe, s’élèveraient à 50 milliards pour le premier et 70 pour le second. Un élève de l’école de base n’aura pas a réfléchir deux fois pour dire sans et hésitation que le compte n’y est pas.
- Parce qu’avec les 411 millions que la Tunisie est tenue de rembourser (chaque semestre s’il vous plait) à ces créanciers, qui sont essentiellement la Banque Mondiale, le Fonds Monétaire International et la Banque Européenne, le peuple tunisien pourra facilement redresser son économie au bout de deux ou trois années pas plus. Ce n’est qu’un petit pays de 11 millions d’habitants à peine.
- Parce que malgré cette dette injuste et malgré l’hémorragie économique et financière qui était due à la corruption de son élite politique, la Tunisie parvenait à un taux de développement autour de 5/6% par ans[2]. Imaginons un moment qu’après la révolution, ces deux fardeaux n’existent plus. Ce taux va tout simplement tripler. Je ne suis certes pas un économiste mais l’opération de calcul est encore une fois d’une évidence aveuglante.


________________________________________
[1] Date du début du protectorat français sur la Tunisie.
[2] Presque le même taux que celui du Brésil ou de l’Inde.

„Der Sicherheitssektor frisst sich selber auf“ Interview mit Hassouna Mansouri

Der tunesische Filmkritiker und Autor des Buches „L’image confisquée“ (2010) Hassouna Mansouri spricht in diesem Interview vom 19. Februar mit AfricAvenir in Berlin darüber, wie das tunesische Kino die „Jasmin Revolution“ vorhergesehen hatte und präsentiert dabei seine persönliche Sicht auf die Ursachen und Folgen der aktuellen Entwicklungen in Tunesien und der arabischen Welt.

http://www.africavenir.org/de/news-archiv/newsdetails/browse/weiter/datum/2011/03/04/le-systeme-securitaire-se-mange-lui-meme-interview-avec-le-critique-de-cinema-hassouna-mansouri.html?tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=12&cHash=99fb2b5262b95f3221523dd10f11ae9b

Mama Africa, the paradox of the african absence

The 64th Cannes film festival is presenting two films from a Nordic country referring to Africa. Or, it is quite evidence that tow subjects can be directly connected to our continent: illegal emigration and Music.
The first film is the tragedy of our young peoples dreaming of a better life. The second is about the legendary singers and musicians who served as a standard bearer of our continent.
When the north looks to the South
That’s what the two brothers filmmakers from Finland, Aki and Mika Kaurismaki, chose to talk about. One is questioning the present; the other is trying to resuscitate the past.
The first imagines a fiction where an underage African immigrant meets a French writer in the Havre, a city in the north of France. Together, they rise against “the cold wall of human indifference” and against the “blind machinery of the Western constitutionally governed state”.
This is the story of The Havre, the finish film in the competition made the older brother Aki Kayrismaki.
As for the younger, he chose to trace the life of Miriam Makeba who was so associated to the continent that she was called Mama Africa, and this is simply the title of the documentary.
"Mama Africa" is the homage to this extraordinary and impressive artist who incarnates the voice and the hope of Africa, writes the filmmaker.
In fact everybody knows the talent and the hard fight of this woman who, in her exile, went around the world spreading wherever she performed, the deep voice of her motherland and mother continent.
When she was not on the stage, she was reading letters to the United Nations claiming her people’s rights to live free and equal.
Since 1959 she was banned from South Africa after her participation in an anti-apartheid film Come back, Africa shot secretly in her country and was a big success in Venice the same year.
When in the 1990’s Nelson Mandela, was freed and the apartheid came to its end, she went back after having received all kind of honors from all over the world and even the French nationalitie. But she went back home after more than 30 years of exile.
Your story is never better than when you tell it yourself.
It happens that the northern filmmakers are interested into Africa. But it is not sure that a lot of finish ones did. It is not bad, but…
One should admit that it is paradoxical that there is none African film in the competition but there is well place for films about Africa made by European filmmakers.
If we can understand that, in a fiction, a filmmaker is free to imagine an African character, there are few things that we can’t forgive to a documentary about an icon of our countinent like Miriam Zensi Makeba.
The filmmaker, Even if he could manage to access to a lot of archive material, seems not to know few important things about Mama Africa.
He forgets for example that she was the first black woman to win (with Harry Belafonte) a Grammy Award in 1965. It was for their album An evening with Harry Belafonte and Miriam Makeba.
He forgets also the fact that she sang also in Arabic when she was invited in a black-South African delegation to the Pan African Festival in Algiers in 1969. That’s how he doesn’t mention that she got also the Algerian citizenship from Hawari Boumedien after the Guinean nationality offered by Sekou Toure.
Doing this the documentary omits an important aspect of the fight of the Diva: she was calling for the peace in her country, but also for the unity of the whole continent.
But you need to be African to understand how important this is. But still in Cannes it is as if she is around and this is really something.


See also : Nationa Media Group
http://www.africareview.com/Arts+and+Culture/Miriam+Makeba+reappears+in+Cannes/-/979194/1164986/-/kuhm3pz/-/index.html

From the South: «Esse est percipi vel percipere »

From the South: «Esse est percipi vel percipere »

From the South: Cinema tegen fundamentalisme in Tunesië

From the South: Cinema tegen fundamentalisme in Tunesië

From the South: Death Threat in Tunis, medal in Cannes

From the South: Death Threat in Tunis, medal in Cannes



http://www.africareview.com/Arts+and+Culture/Death+threats+in+Tunis+a+medal+in+Cannes/-/979194/1163356/-/kifgc9/-/index.html

Le cinéma bat la politique

Impossible mais vrai. Jafar Panahi et Mohammad Rasoulof, choses inimaginable il y a quelques semaines, participent au festival de Cannes qui se tient du 11-22 mai 2011.
Cette présence et extraordinairement exceptionnelle après des efforts réguliers de tous les grands festival pour les soutenir et réclamer leur liberté, ne sont pas libérés mais ils sont libres. Les deux cinéastes proposent au Festival de Cannes deux films qu’ils ont pu réaliser malgré la situation kafkaïenne dans laquelle ils se trouvent : un jugement de six ans de prison ferme et vingt ans d’interdiction de toute activités professionnelles ni de contact avec les media.
D’aucun seraient tentés de s’interroger sur la manière dont les deux films sont parvenus au festival. Le plus important reste la volonté des deux cinéastes de continuer à en faire parce qu’ils savent que c’est leur raison d’être. Comment ont-ils pu tourner les films et les produire afin qu’ils soient présents à Cannes ? c’est le sens d’une volonté de fer d’une part et c’est le signe qu’ils ne sont pas seules et que certainement des collègues les ont rejoint d’une part. Mais de toute façon il faut surtout penser s’ils ont vraiment le choix.
Quelle que soit la situation, et quels que soient les éléments impliqués dans cette affaire, il reste qu’il y a un bras de fer historique entre deux volontés aussi fortes l’une que l’autre. D’une part nous avons une machine de répression et un Etat théocratique aveugle dont l’art est l’ennemi à abattre ; de l’autre des artistes qui ont appris à survivre sous la dictature et ont fait du cinéma leur vie, et la liberté d’expression l’air qu’ils respirent. La théocratie a dit son mot, l’art à travers cette présence laisse entendre sa voix malgré.
Entre deux jugements, et dans l’attente de l’appel, les deux hommes signent-là peut-être leurs derniers ouvrages. Mais ce sera peut-être aussi le geste qui les sauvera à jamais et montrera que la machine de l’oppression ne peut tenir face à une telle absurdité. Du reste, la présence de ces films et leur disponibilité pour la presse mondiale est une victoire en soi au-delà de toutes considérations.
David vaincra toujours Goliath.

Death Threat in Tunis, medal in Cannes

Every year at the occasion of the International Film Festival of Cannes, the French minister of culture gives some honorary medal to some distinguished filmmakers, actors, artists…
This year, certainly because of the revolution, it had to be a Tunisian who is going to get it. In fact, the filmmaker Nouri Bouzid was honored last Thursday by the French minister of culture Frederique Mitterrand who made him “Chevalier de la Legion d’honneur”.
Since the 70’s Nouri Bouzid was a political engage artist. He was very active and was in jail for 5 years.
During the 80’s he was one the most important filmmakers in Tunisia and in Africa and he participated many times to Cannes Film Festival.
His last film, Making of Kamikaze (2008) was a big success and is considered right now as the film of the revolution which led to the big change in Tunisia before it spread to other countries in North Africa and in the Middle East.
Death Threat,
Artists fought against dictatorship, now they have to fight against intolerance.
Few weeks ago, Nouri Bouzid received a death threat from the Tunisian Islamists. In a meeting organized by Ennahdha, an Islamist party banned by the former regime for more than 20 years because it is accused of terrorism, a young rapper on the stage mentioned explicitly his name saying that he deserves the death.
The reason of that threat is that Nouri Bouzid is a defender of secularism. This later is not atheism, but considers secularism as a personal issue and should not interfere with politics.
In his last film, he explains that Islam should not be a call for violence. But this is really what he got back, in a physical sense of the term.
Recently, after a debate about the actual context in Tunisia and the political possibilities of transition, he was aggressed in the street by a religious fanatic who hit him on his head with a bottle of glass calling: Allahou Akbar (God is Big).
Nadia Fani is another filmmaker who is facing the same kind of violence. She received on her Facebook page and by phone calls threats of death because of her new documentary No God neither Master.
Screened recently in Tunis, the documentary was made since before the revolution. It is about the ambiguous relationship people have with the religion and takes as example the fact that a lot of people don’t fasten during Ramadan (wholly month in the Islam) but they eat and drink secretly.
Earlier this year, few actresses and TV animators where attacked on Facebook in some rap clips. They were accused of not respecting the religion and insulted publically.
Debates
The revolution was made because of lack of freedom. What one could witness until now is an abuse of it. No freedom is bad but when it turns to chaos it is not that much good.
What is happening is connected to the debates taking place now in Tunisia about kind of society there should be after the fall of the old regime.
One the most complicated discussion is about secularism.
Some people think that it is separation between religion and politics. And everybody is free to have his or her own belief as a personal issue.
Others, think that Tunisia is a Muslim country and must stick to the religion as s source of it constitution.
The problem is coming from the fact that the latters consider the former ones as atheists and then should be punished or even killed.
That’s when the situation turns to violence and to a drama. Let’s hope that it doesn’t go further to a tragedy.

See also : Nation Media Group
http://www.africareview.com/Arts+and+Culture/Death+threats+in+Tunis+a+medal+in+Cannes/-/979194/1163356/-/kifgc9/-/index.html

NEW AFRICAN FILMS METHODS OF PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION

Once again many persons gathered in Cannes to talk about African cinema and its difficulties. While the official selection shows only two titles one from South Africa and the other from Morocco, professionals were invited to the Cinemas of the world pavilion in the village international to make the same diagnostic of many years already: African cinema doesn’t feel good.
The topic is so general and so repetitive that one could guess already that there will be no practical solution coming out of such a meeting.
The title of the conference is: The development of new technologies offers new perspectives on African production in terms of its diffusion and visibility internationally and in its loyalty to its local public.”
This is the same tragic question that all professional are fighting to answer since years, decades even. What now? Are there any perspectives?
Mane Cisneros (Festival of Tarifa- Spain) suggested one of the new possibilities. Ibermedia is a program that could be an example to follow in Africa.
Ibermedia is a Spanish program to promote cinema and visaual arts in South America. The idea is to create a network of TV channels and impose a kind of Quota to each of them to broadcast South African films. It seems that it works why not in Africa then.
As for Kenya, Mr. Monsieur Mutie Film Commission Director, he thinks that the problem of Africans is that they look too much abroad while they should think first to local audience.
IN Kenya, he argues, there are 15 TV channels. With a minimum of broadcasting quota, there will be market big enough made of the national consumption. But this should not be only national. The whole continent should speak with the same voice.
The same idea of networking was suggested by the South African Darryl Els. He is co-founder of the independent cinema, The Bioscope in South Africa. He goes out of the mainstream circuits and finds an interesting audience for independent films.
His plan is in addition to be connected to the world network of independent cinemas, to create an African network for independent cinema, like in Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania as a first step.
In Western Africa, there is another program of distribution. One of its promoters joined the debate. Bénédicte Boursier presented Mobiciné which is a method to bring cinema to the slums of the big African cities.
If the audience doesn’t go anymore to cinemas, they will be able to receive it wherever they are. Doing this there is a hope that piracy would step back, especially if the mobicine ticket doesn’t exceed the price of the illegal “video-booth” (300 FCFA)
The first prototype of Mobicine was presented last fespaco in Ouagadougou in March, and the cities of Bamako and Dakar are, until now the first to take the plunge.
Despite all these initiatives, the situation of film distribution in Africa is getting from bad to worse.
Still two initiatives can bring a ray of hope. The International Organization of Francophony is planned to enlarge its space of activity to involve the whole black continent not only the traditional French speaking countries.
Copying Iberiamedia, the IOF plans to push the African countries to adopt a strategy of quota to promote the local consumption of African films.
General Secretary Mr. Abdou Diouf, according to Madame Souad Hussein in charge of film department of the organization, has already sent a brief to the OUA and the African government to invite them to put this plan in their agenda.
The same idea inspired the French government. An international symposium is planned for the upcoming September. Africans and the financers of African cinema are supposed to discuss new tools to finance African cinema in this time of crisis.
Having said this, it seems that the solution is found to the decease of African cinema. Let’s don’t count our chicken before they are hatched. It is too early to be really optimist.

See also : Nationa Media Group

Apology of the glorious past

A French-American mélange kicks off the 64th Cannes Film Festival. Midnight in Paris by Woody Allen, the most French film made by an American director, was screened on Wednesday in the opening program with attendance of the author and the main cast.
Coproduced by USA and France the film is shot in Paris. It is a tribute to the city not only as a décor but also as a place where art and culture are always florescent.
However the filmmaker is not really talking about the present days. He goes back to the twenty’s via the story of an American writer who is looking for inspiration that he finds when he meets the famous artists of that time: Ernest Hemingway, Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso, etc.
The “Mad years” (in French “Les années folles”) were indeed an epoch of cultural and intellectual effervescence. Paris was the place where to be for the most important artists of the world.
Midnight in Paris is an adaptation of Hemingway’s novel inspired by the same city that he called A Moveable Feast. A conversation is then engaged between the two artists beyond the fantasy.
It is also the story of Woody Allen himself. Gil (Owen Wilson), the protagonist is a successful Hollywood writer, but he is not feeling any satisfaction in his work for this industry. His future wife wants him to live in Malibu, but he is fascinated by the French capital where they are for vacation.
One night, after a diner with friends he is alone, drunk and lost in the streets of the city. Uninspired, and not sure about his own talent as writer, he dreams about meeting geniuses of another time.
A mysterious car from the twenty’s comes out of the darkness and stops in front of him. He gets in ends up in a feast where he meets first Ernest Hemingway, then Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Salvador Dali, Luis Buñuel, Henri Matisse, etc.
He is attracted by the discussions he is having with these geniuses which provide him a big inspiration. Since then his days are limited to waiting for the night. Whatever his fiancée does, doesn’t work to bring him back to the present.
At the end, he finishes his book. He is having good feelings about it, but he loses his fiancée. Is it worth it? That’s the question. Where is the truth: in the concrete reality or in the dreams?
Gil leaves the fake and bourgeois life made of artifice and stereotypes where his relation with his fiancée was leading him. He prefers the world of fantasy represented by a fauna of persons from another time. There he can enjoy a sort of poetic Delirium.
Woody Allen also leaves Hollywood for Paris. This is not the first time that the Director is working out of the USA. He was in London for Match point (2005), then in Barcelona for Vicky Christina Barcelona (2008). He is indeed well known as the most European filmmaker of America.
Still the Paris he ends up in is obviously not the one of the 2010. The Paris he is dreaming about is the city where artists where enjoying life all the time discussion the sense of poetry and ideas of films and paintings.
The question is then if it is still the same nowadays? By choosing to go back in the time, isn’t a way to him to say that Paris is not the same, and that our time is not as attracting as the glorious past.
Woody Allen confirms again that he is always an outsider. He never accepted to be in a competition in any festival. Is it because it is too real for his fantasy? But at the same time, opening a festival like Cannes is like putting him above the fray.

http://www.monitor.co.ug/LifeStyle/Entertainment/-/812796/1163094/-/4a6ekj/-/index.html

Cinema tegen fundamentalisme in Tunesië

Een van de laatste nieuwsberichten over Tunisie is over Nouri Bouzid, de beroemde filmmaker. Wij hebben in de Balie op 9 februari een clip van zijn film vertoond. Hij is door de Tunesische islamisten met de dood bedreigd. Dit is niet de eerste keer. Vroeger was het informeel, op Facebook, door onbekende personen. Maar dit keer is het publiek en met de steun van de islamitische partij Ennahdha. Nu is het een vecht/polemiek tussen hem en de genoemde partij. Dit komt omdat hij de idee van scheiden tussen religie en politiek in zijn cinema verdedigt.
Een van zijn projecten, tijdens de revolutie, was een workshop met studenten van een filmschool. Het resultaat is heel interessant. In de korte films (van 7 tot 10 minuten) zien we de atmosfeer van een paar dagen voor de 14e januari en de dagen van net daarna. Je hoort wat voor debatten in de straten van Tunis en in de media worden gevoerd, en hoe het was om de tong opeens vrij te voelen. Over welke onderwerpen discussieerden mensen? Politiek, moraal, vrijheid, media, toekomst… alles. Maar wat ik echt bijzonder vond, is dat alles is gezien door de ogen van de jeugd .
In de films kunt je zien wat er nu in Tunesië gebeurt voor de deadline van de verkiezingen van Juli waar een heel nieuwe grondwet zou worden geadopteerd. Wat kunnen we verwachten? Wordt Tunesië een voorbeeld van een echt nieuw politiek system? Waar gaat het heen? Naar een retrograde regime en een obscurantist gemeenschap of een progressieve en post-islamitische republiek?

«Esse est percipi vel percipere »

More than ever can we say that the world is put upside down by the tunisian revolution. While F16 of the NATO is bombarding Libya at the southern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, few thousands of refugees from Tunisia reach the northern coast on board of makeshift boats. How the world can still not see that the later movement is a replica to the first one? It is the same blindness towards the economic injustice that governs the world order. For how long humanity will refuse to admit that emigration, the trauma of the North, is not the problem of the South but the result of the arrogance of the imperialist attitude of the North?
The world was somehow under considering the claim of human rights and democracy in Tunisia. It didn’t want to believe in it and take it seriously until it became a revolution. At that time the fear was that it is going to be spread to the region. We started to talk about a domino effect. It was not that much wrong. The infection went indeed to other countries in North Africa like Egypt and Libya and reached even those of the Golf and the Middle East. Yemen, Bahrain, and Syria will not be spared. But nobody thought really to the way these domino were settled or established. They were in fact exposed to the failure because they were mined by the same illness.
The domino effect works when the game is arranged to work in a determined way. Or, who arranged the regimes which are governing these countries? Wikileaks first and the no more controlled societies then came to denounce the unmoral international policy condemning populations to poverty and humiliation for the only benefit of the multinationals of the North and the political elite of the South. Complicity worked for too much longtime already. It had to end.
Rather than a domino effect, the images of the emigrants boarding on Lampedusa show that it is a butterfly effect. The Italian island halfway between Africa and Europe becomes then the epicenter of a human tsunami. A butterfly moves on the hills of the Atlas and the Alps shake.
The North African youth organizes a Sit In in the Kasbah place in Tunis or the Tahrir square in Cairo and the pillars of The European Union tremble. The effect of the youth uprising doesn’t work in a horizontal way going from the West to the East and vice versa, but in a vertical one going from the South to the North. And this is the proper of the butterfly theory of the chaos: it is not predictable. The Tunisian and Egyptian regimes were considered as fortifications strong enough to hold their societies under control, and it doesn’t matter if they don’t fit with the universal values of democracy and human rights. The arrogance of these regimes and their protectors kept them in a kind blindness preventing them from seeing the fatal ferment. It is then logic that a reaction to any pressure goes right at the opposite direction from where this one is coming.
What happened in these two countries (until now) was a result of a time bomb produced by the global policy based on security. The most sophisticated technology of surveillance and the biggest investment in security measures were not and will never be able to hold a population under eternal control. The reaction of the Tunisian and Egyptian populations is not only against their political leaders, but also against a global postcolonial mechanism. It was boiling since years, artists witnessed this, and social networks accelerated it.
For short, by making themselves seen Tunisian and Egyptian youngsters jumped from being nothing, when nobody looked at them really or ignored them, to stand as an All, because they challenged the whole global system and not only their rulers. It took some time for the world to understand that and to admit that the whole world is concerned, not to say targeted, by the uprising. It would be too perfect that the unrest stays an inside conflict between a third world regime and its population. But, when this regime was for decades supported to keep its population in a kind of natural reserve, when it is used to get its legitimacy only from serving the interest of the northern multinationals, it is then very natural that the uprising target also the source of the evil : the western cupidity.
It is irony of the history that the movement of the Tunisian emigrants doesn’t stop in Italy but precisely at the border of France. One could see in this an answer to the attitude of the former French foreign affairs minister who offered to help the Tunisian police overflowed by an irresistible angry youth. Isn’t it a revenge of an oppressed people against the former colonial power which is still continuing to behave with arrogance and impunity, not only in Tunisia but also in other countries like Libya and Ivory Coast?
No, the few thousands of immigrants boarding on the coast of Italy are in fact a symptom of a deep problem. Nevertheless, the origin of the crisis is not to find in Tunisia, or at least not only in this small country on the north of Africa, it is to find in the deepest point of the occidental mentality that still has a residue of colonialism. Why does Europe drive back these young people, while it accepted other people from the same origin, the former rulers and their families?
Morally speaking, isn’t there legitimacy to this movement? Isn’t it a reaction to the hopeless gesture of Mme Catherine Ashton, Vice-President of the European Commission, offering 258 millions of Euros as a European support to the transition process? Wasn’t it a kind of a confession of a guilty consciousness? Wasn’t it enough? Of course not, says the youth.
Times of “One cries, one is given a feeding bottle; one keeps quiet" are definitely over. They don’t want to be those who are eternally in need of help. They are asking for equality nevermore for charitable help. A real generous gesture would not be anything else but to recognise their rights and their goods. They want Europe to give up with its contradiction: why offering a financial help of hundreds of thousands of Euros while billions of Euros stolen from their countries by the former rulers are sleeping in the European bancs? How can they accept a donation while the Swiss banks refuse to give back the Tunisian state the money they, perhaps legally but for sure unmorally, accepted from the former dictator and his family knowing very well its origin and the price of suffering and humiliation it cost this same youth now knocking at its doors.
Furthermore, what these young people want is not more than what the western used to show as a model of modern, human and economically viable society. The problem starts when they are not given the chance, the time and the means to build it themselves. It starts also when the powerful world thinks that it is possible to impose a model of democracy to the rest of the world. It starts when these young people understand that the real purpose of the western world is to keep them eternally dependent of its aid because its wealth is depending of the weakness of the rest of the world.
This is precisely what the Tunisian youth evinces through its uprising and through its claim weather it is expressed in Tunisia or in the border between Italy and France. And this is exactly what Alain Badiou, the French Philosopher, denounces as a “...moral and humanitarian pretexts that have been used ever since the first colonial conquests” . In other words, as far as the world is divided and as far as it doesn’t see that the problem is not limited to theses societies but it is a crisis of the global world order, as far as the citizenship is not based on a kind of criticism towards the continuously growing power of multinationals without caring about the human dimension of development, there is a very small hope that these flux of young people seeking a better life will stop.


1- «Esse est percipi vel percipere », George Berkeley (1685-1753) in Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge.
2- In an open letter to Jean-Luc Nancy reacting to his article “What the Arab peoples signify to us” in the French daily newspaper Libération of April the 28th, 2011.

A new colonial conquest

The most important particularity of the Tunisian revolution is that nobody prepared it and nobody could guess it because it was not in any agenda. One could remember how the world wanted to establish democracy in Iraq or in Afghanistan and how it didn’t succeed. France and Great Britain are trying obstinately and blindly to achieve in Libya what the United States and its allies could not do in Iraq nor in Afghanistan on the name of what Alain Badiou denounces as a “...moral and humanitarian pretexts that have been used ever since the first colonial conquests” . Tunisian people showed how the uprising of a population can put a regime upside down. The youth refused to be manipulated from any force, not even the western world. The little body of Bouazizi will be the flame that put the fire of purification in the Tunisian society first, then the Egyptian and further to the whole region.
This is a very important moment in the History. It doesn’t concern only the region. The whole world system is based on the way one part of it looks at the other. There was a moment when some people were considered as beasts. The “civilized” world used them as slaves. Then came another moment when they were seen as human being but not civilized enough. They needed to be protected, colonized. After what was called “de-colonization”, they needed to be helped via a world process of development. All this was nothing else but different forms of perverse and vicious tutorship.
During all these phases of the human evolution, there was always a connection between the image we make of the other, and the way we despoil it. These where the two face of the same coin of the “Orientalism” would say Edward Saïd . The system consists of reducing the other to the situation of subaltern in order to control it: “They cannot represent themselves; they must be represented”, dixit Karl Marx talking about Labour class in the 19th century.
What is happening now is that the snake is biting its tail. The western world provides internet and all kinds of technologies to its accomplices regimes. It provides them also with the necessary programs to control their populations and to spy at users. The same technology which was sophistically developed in order to control the subaltern is used by this one to put the system upside down. And this worked well mainly because it gave the populations the possibility to make its own image and not let it anymore made by others as was the case for a long time. The Tunisian/Egyptian revolution was made possible thanks to the democratization of the image.

The Arab spring: rather an ongoing process

The Tunisian and Egyptian Revolution is not as surprising as it seems. It is the result of a progressive process that was going on for a while. The uprisings are only the emergent part of the iceberg. During decades frustration was growing until the point of no-return. In the cultural field for example, things were already going on for years. The world re-discovers now, what the youth was trying to build in the underground and what associations and corporations where trying to make, despite deaf dictatorships. A demand of change was formulated by the people and artists did listen to the youth and tried to give it the voice it was denied.
Cinema is the most obvious example of this process. The crowds of young people that the world suddenly saw in the streets and the central squares of Tunis, Cairo and Alexandria are the same ones that you could see in recent films made by Nouri Bouzid, Fadhel Jaibi, Ahamad Abdalla and Ahamad Rashwan. These filmmakers witnessed the grumbling of the volcano before it erupted. They witnessed the deep changes of their societies although they were ‘… occulted by the clichés the Western World developed about the Middle-East and North Africa’, writes Olivier Roy about what he calls ‘post-islamist revolution’. These artists were able to see what the world did not dare to see or did not want to see.
Mostly it is about independent productions focusing on the suffocating atmosphere, the youth’s frustrating daily life due to the power of the police. Young people were prevented not only from their political and civil rights but also from any possibility of artistic creativity. Poverty, frustration and marginalization of young people pushed them into the spiral of violence. This is what we can see in films like Making of… kamikaze (2006) by Nouri Bouzid, Junun (2005) by Fadhel Jaibi, Microphone (2010) by Ahmad Abdalla, Basra (2008) by Ahamad Rashwan and Hawi (2011) by Ibrahim El-Batout.
Looking at these films now, after the eruption of the societies in Tunisia and Egypt, completes the full image of the Tunisian and Egyptian youth who made the change. Bahta in Bouzid’s film blows himself up after being involved in a kind of vicious circle made of unemployment, police oppression and fundamentalist brainwashing. In Microphone the icon of the power, the director of the cultural center who refuses to finance performances unless they fit into the ‘politically correct’, is turned into irony by groups of young artists and has to face the signs of an uprising. Now, such films can be seen as prophecies of the uprising of these societies.
They are also the concrete product of a slow movement against a draconian system of censorship. In Tunisia, filmmakers were trying to change things using the rules of the cultural policy. In Egypt, where cinema is one of the most organized industries in the world, a new generation started to look for a renewal out of the traditional circuit of production: on the one hand they strength the critical tone of their films, on the other hand they seek an independent production process.
In Tunisia, same as in Egypt, we witness a big number of short films made by a new generation of filmmakers who are structurally independent from the traditional financing system of film production thanks to video technology. In Tunisia the record of 80 shorts could be reached in one year, while the average of the usual Tunisian potential does not exceed 10 films. The same phenomenon could be proportionally found in other countries like Morocco and Algeria.
The Egyptian filmmakers mentioned above are examples of this tendency of independence. They are relatively young, they make their first features and they adopt the spirit of small budget production. At the same time they are involved in a kind of informal groups of young filmmakers, recently coming out of film schools. This is what films like Microphone, Hawi and Basra are explicitly about. They depict a young generation of artists trying to find their ways despite the jungle of the mainstream film and art industry. All these phenomenon’s can be seen as signs of the deep change that these societies were facing.
In Tunisia, the policy of culture started already to move slowly a few months before the uprising. A reform of the film sector was put on the table of a National Commission for the Reform and the Development of Cinema and the Audiovisual Industry. The fact is that this plan was a way to outguess the real demand of the youth. They reacted by standing as a kind of ‘propositional force’. The idea was that a real reform can not come as an exclusive official policy without a real connection to the ground.
On January 25th, a big meeting of film professionals took place. Symbolically it was a revival act of Tunisian cinema: the filmmakers took possession/repossession of the Association of Tunisian Filmmakers which was for decades confiscated by a group of people helped by the former regime. Since that date the new team started to make a plan to work on a new policy of cinema in the country considering that: ‘The former regime has been the enemy number one of freedom. Among others, the freedom of creation, especially in cinema, has been oppressed. This oppression operated both on a creative and socio-professional level for the film workers who have been marginalized over the years, who have been demonized, censured, deprived of their rights, etc.’
This is the case in Tunisia, but it is also a perfect example of the mechanism of change in Arab societies. When King Mohamed VI of Morocco decides to engage a huge and deep political and social reform in the country, it is not a personal decision coming from a political will; it is a reaction to the demand formulated by Moroccan society, not only after the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, but for decades. The uprising of Arab populations is an ongoing process, not its beginning. The revolution is not a fact of a few days of ‘sit ins’ and demonstrations, it is a deep and long mechanism of claims of change.
It needs time to clean up the brainwashing operating for decades in these societies. Artists are continuing the work of change that started before the events. The big change already is that there is more hope and more trust in the future as far as it is under the power of the artists themselves. As a matter of fact, a new constitution is going to be voted in Tunisia in July 2011. The film and cultural policy should be on the agenda of the new government by then. And this is one of the victories.
To see also on th blog of Boekman Foundation: www.boekman.nl