Screening Morocco: Contemporary Film in a Changing Society

by Valerie Orlando, Valérie K. Orlando

Overview

Since 1999 and the death of King Hassan II, Morocco has experienced adramatic social transformation. Encouraged by the more openly democraticclimate fostered by young King Mohammed VI, filmmakers have begunto explore the sociocultural and political debates of their country whilealso seeking to document the untold stories of a dark past.Screening Morocco: Contemporary Film in a ChangingSociety focuses on Moroccan films produced and distributedfrom 1999 to the present. Moroccan cinema serves as an all-inclusive medium that providesa sounding board for a society that is remaking itself.Male and female directors present the face of an engaged, multiethnic and multilingual society. Their cinematographypromotes a country that is dynamic and connected to theglobal sociocultural economy of the twenty-first century. Atthe same time, they seek to represent the closed, obscurepast of a nation's history that has rarely been told, drawingon themes such as human rights abuse, the former incarcerationof thousands during the Lead Years, women'semancipation, poverty, and claims for social justice. Screening Morocco will introduce American readers to therichness in theme and scope of the cinematic production ofMorocco.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780896802810
Publisher:	Ohio University Press
Publication date:	05/05/2011
Series:	Ohio RIS Africa Series , #89
Edition description:	1
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Valérie K. Orlando is professor of French and Francophone Literatures in the Department of French and Italian at the University of Maryland, CollegeP ark.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

Preface xi

Acknowledgments xxi

Introduction: Moroccan National Cinema: The Making of an Industry 1

Chapter l Theories and Polemics: Moroccan Films as Social-Realist Texts 19

Chapter 2 Issues, Contexts, and "Culture Wars" Marocains Résidants à l'Etranger (MREs): versus Filmmakers at Home 37

Chapter 3 Bad Boys, Drugs, and Rock 'n' Roll: The Urban Stories of Morocco 71

Chapter 4 Prison, Torture, and Testimony: Retelling the Memories of the Lead Tears 101

Chapter 5 Women's Voices: Documenting Morocco through Feminine Lenses 122

Conclusion: The Future of Moroccan Cinema? 154

Notes 163

Selected Filmography 175

Bibliography 179

Index 185

Editorial Reviews

"This is a book to be cherished, applauded, and honored by the cinema community. Valérie Orlando immersed herself in the cinema of Morocco to write this book, and her commitment to the material, and to the filmmakers themselves, is apparent on every page."--Wheeler Winston Dixon, author of A Short History of Film

From the Publisher