NYFAF Program 2018
LaGuardia Performing Arts Center,
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THURSDAY, APRIL 26
10:30-11:30
Pedagogical Discussion: Coming of Age in the #MeToo Moment: North African Women’s Perspectives.
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With invited guest Dr. Fazia Aitel and LaGuardia students.
11:30-12:45
The Lock, Leia Chaibi and Hélène Poté (Documentary, France-Tunisia, 52 min).
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Houda, Mabrouka and Faouzia have in common the tasfih, a magical ritual that aims to protect young girls from penetration, desired or forced, before their marriage. The spell “locks” the girls in childhood and “opens” them years later on their wedding night. A reflection on a gendered cultural legacy and the struggle between tradition and emancipation.
Q&A Wafa Bahri, Habiba Boumlik and
2:15-4:25
House in the Fields, Tala Hadid (Documentary, Morocco/Qatar, 2017, 86 min).
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​An Amazigh community high in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco. Two sisters approach decisions that will mark them for life: Fatima, with mixed feelings, drops out of school and prepares for an arranged marriage. Khadija, her younger sister, is chosen to study and dreams of becoming a lawyer. The heartfelt process of coming of age and into the language of equal rights.
Q&A Lucy McNair, Cheri Carr and Yahya Laayouni
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4:35- 5:15
Music Performance with Yuba
Yuba was born in Dcheira/Agadir in the south of Morocco. He has been living in Germany for 20 years. He is a pioneer of modern Amazigh music. He started as a poet before he became a singer. He is also one of the founders of the Amazigh Cutural Movement in the late 80s and early 90s.
He has produced 2 Albums: Tawargit (The Dream) 1999 and Itran Azal (Day Time Stars) 2005. The 3rd Album will be released in summer 2018. His songs touch upon Amazigh identity, freedom and pluralism.
5:30-6:30
Reception
6:45-8:30
The Nouba of the Women of Mont-Chenoua, Assia Djebar (Lyric Documentary, Algeria, 1977, excerpt).
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​A grown, educated woman returns to her Amazigh village 15 years after the end of the Algerian war. Obsessed by the traumatic memories that defined her childhood, she seeks to reconnect with her roots and listens to the grandmothers’ stories as she questions how to transmit cultural identity without repeating the violence of past encounters. A classic documentary poem by the renowned Francophone writer Assia Djebar. In Arabic and Tamazight with English subtitles.
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Letter to My Sister, Habiba Djahnine (Documentary, Algeria, 2006, 78 min).
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​The story of the assassination of Nabila Djahnine, the filmmaker’s sister and the first feminist to be killed by Islamist bullets during the Algerian civil war of the 1990s. What lessons can be learned by her bravery ten years later?
Q&A Faiza Aitel, Wafa Bahri and Lucy McNair
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FRIDAY, APRIL 27
10:30-12:45
Tinghir, Aisha Jabour (Short, Morocco, 2014, 7 min).
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​An documentary look at the filmmaker’s family home on the days surrounding a cousin’s funeral.
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Thasakoorth, Miriam Sadoun (Short, USA, 2017, 6 min)
Kahina lives a quiet life in a cabin on the edge of the forest. She recalls the series of events that led to the death of her mother.
Barbary Fig, Bianca Boragi (Short, USA/Algeria, 2017, 18 min)
Ghalia’s daughter asks her to travel to Great Kabylie in Algeria to visit the grave of grandmother. Ghalia rejects the idea and starts to remember fragments of her difficult life growing up during the Algerian War of Independence (1954-1962).
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A Time of Freedom, Douglas McDowall (Short, 2016 UK, 22 min).
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​A young man and a young woman, both from the Souss Valley in Southern Morocco, prepare to play the figure of Bilmawn or “Goat man” during the Boujloud, an ancient carnival that takes place each year during Eid Al- Kabir, the Islamic ‘Festival of Sacrifice.”
Q&A Mustapha Akhoulou, Lucy McNair and Douglas McDowall
2:15-4:30
Pulsation, Iskandar Tlili (Short, 2017, Tunisia, 3min silent).
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​Old age, female power and powerlessness, the ancient past and the speeding present. An amateur Amazigh filmmaker observes an elderly Tunisian Amazigh woman in search of his own art.
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Tawnza, Malika El Manoug (Feature, 2013, Morocco, 90 min).
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In a traditional Sous village, Brahim, a son who works in the city, returns in search of a wife. He finds his friend Houssaine, a farmer, who is in love with Brahim’s sister. Who decides who marries whom? Meanwhile, an online love affair is born between Youssef et Zaina who decide to marry without telling anyone. Desire leads to deceit, desperation, and intergenerational healing as this generation - and Amazigh video - comes of age.
Q&A Caron Knauer and Habiba Boumlik
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6:00-8:00
Paris la blanche, Lidia Terki (Feature, France-Algeria, 2017, 83 min).
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​Rekia, 70, leaves her Kabyle village and crosses the Mediterranean to bring back her immigrant husband who has been living in France for 40 years. Can intimacy survive economic displacement? Can love sustain us?
Q&A Yahya Laayouni, Fazia Aitel and Kai Krienke
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