Press
- Miranda S
- Nov 21
- 4 min read
Updated: Nov 22
Boumlik, Habiba. “Global Trajectories, Local Roots: A Personal Journey into Amazigh Cinema.” Ad Astra: Undergraduate Research Newsletter, LaGuardia Community College, 2025, www.adastraletter.com/2025/2/global-trajectories-local-roots-amazigh-cinema.
"The films screened at NYFAF are not museum pieces or ethnographic curiosities. They are living interventions in ongoing debates about identity, belonging, and justice. They are acts of resistance and imagination. And they remind us that even in our globalized world, local stories – told in languages many have never heard, rooted in histories many have never learned – still have the power to move us, challenge us, and change how we see ourselves and others... Whether we call it Amazigh cinema, Amazigh-speaking cinema, or cinema of Amazigh expression – the work continues. Filmmakers keep creating despite funding limitations, institutional obstacles, and political marginalization. And scholars like myself keep documenting, analyzing, and advocating – bearing witness to this remarkable moment when an ancient people use the most modern medium to assert their right to be seen, heard, and remembered on their own terms."
Wikipedia. “Berber Americans.” Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berber_Americans.
"The New York Forum of Amazigh Film (NYFAF) is one the main cultural initiatives representing the Amazigh community in New York City, founded in 2015 by Habiba Boumlik and Lucy R McNair."
Events
CUNY Graduate Center. “Book Talk: Amazigh Cinema.” CUNY Graduate Center Events, 6 Nov. 2025, www.gc.cuny.edu/events/book-talk-amazigh-cinema.
LaGuardia Community College. “NYFAF at 10–Virtual Edition.” LaGuardia.edu, 16 May 2025, www.laguardia.edu/event/nyfaf-at-10-virtual-edition/.
LaGuardia Community College. “The New York Forum of Amazigh Film (10th Edition).” LaGuardia.edu, 24 Apr. 2025, www.laguardia.edu/event/the-new-york-forum-of-amazigh-film-10th-edition/.
LaGuardia Community College. “New York Forum of Amazigh Film.” LaGuardia.edu, 18 Apr. 2024, www.laguardia.edu/event/new-york-forum-of-amazigh-film/.
LaGuardia Community College. “The Fifth Edition of the New York Forum of Amazigh Film Festival.” LaGuardia.edu News, 9–10 May 2019, www.laguardia.edu/news/the-fifth-edition-of-the-new-york-forum-of-amazigh-film-festival/.
NYU Press. “Renaissance Amazigh: Dounia Benjelloun, Morocco, 2004 (18 min).” NYU Press Events, 24 Apr. 2025, nyupress.org/event/renaissance-amazigh-dounia-benjelloun-morocco-2004-18-min/.
"A documentary on the successful resistance movement of Moroccan Amazigh people and celebration of our book: Amazigh Cinema: An Introduction to North African Indigenous Film (Eds. Lucy R McNair and Yahya Laayouni, University of Regina Press, 2025)."
Middle East Institute, Columbia University. “New York Forum of Amazigh Film (9th Edition) – Memory & Resilience.” MEI, 18–19 Apr. 2024, www.mei.columbia.edu/mei-event/new-york-forum-of-amazigh-film-9th-edition-memory-amp-resilience.
Middle East Institute, Columbia University. “NY Forum of Amazigh Film, Film Festival.” MEI, www.mei.columbia.edu/mei-event/film-festival-new-york-forum-of-amazigh-film.
Tamazgha. “Events.” Tamazgha, www.tamazgha.org/events/.
Scholarship
McNair, Lucy R., and Habiba Boumlik. “Journeys of Discovery: The Case of the New York Forum of Amazigh Film (NYFAF).” African Film Festivals and Transnational Flows of Living Cultural Heritage, edited by Sheila Petty, Springer, 2025, pp. 57–77. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-88590-7_4.
McNair, Lucy R., and Yahya Laayouni, editors. Amazigh Cinema: An Introduction to North African Indigenous Film. University of Regina Press, Apr. 2025.
Laayouni, Yahya. “Review of Myopia. Akroud, Sanaa, Dir. L’Étoile du Canada, 2020.” Journal of Amazigh Studies, vol. 2, no. 2, 2024, doi:10.5642/jas.LQOZ1046.
Boumlik, Habiba. “(De)Constructing Identities Through Film: First Year Seminar–Liberal Arts Capstone Collaborative Assignment.” 2019.
Bahri, Wafa. NYFAF 2017: Une fête des films de tout Tamazgha. 8 May 2017, b0194348-e5e2-4e5e-9c53-bbb86dee19b9.filesusr.com/ugd/ae4589_b1c433746e62471683d25c6243d5d062.pdf.
HAL. “Amazigh Cinema / Film Studies.” HAL Campus, hal.campus-aar.fr/hal-03621591.
Humanities Research Institute. “Transnational Screen Media Practices – Participant: Habiba Boumlik.” Humanities Research Institute, www.humanitiesresearch.org/.../habiba-boumlik/.
Jadaliyya. “Amazigh Cinema.” Jadaliyya, www.jadaliyya.com/Details/43443.
Jadaliyya. “Morocco.” Jadaliyya, www.jadaliyya.com/Country/54.
Jadaliyya. “Author Page: Lucy R. McNair.” Jadaliyya, www.jadaliyya.com/Author/11137.
Moroccan Cinema (University of Exeter). “Habiba Boumlik and Lucy McNair Summary.” Moroccan Cinema, moroccancinema.exeter.ac.uk/en/habiba-boumlik-and-lucy-mcnair-summary/.
NECS. “Amazigh Cinema Book Symposium.” NECS, necs.org/news/calls-for-papers/amazigh-cinema-book-symposium.
Website Commons (CUNY). “New York Forum of Amazigh Film (NYFAF).” eng101fall20.commons.gc.cuny.edu/new-york-forum-of-amazigh-film-nyfaf/.
Petty, Sheila, editor. African Film Festivals and Transnational Flows of Living Cultural Heritage. Palgrave Macmillan, 2025. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-88590-7. OAPEN, library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/104176/9783031885907.pdf.
McNair, Lucy & Boumlik, Habiba. (2025). Journeys of Discovery: The Case of the New York Forum of Amazigh Film (NYFAF). 10.1007/978-3-031-88590-7_4.
Soussi, Houssine. (2019). Amazigh International Film Festivals and the Promotion of Amazigh Cinema.
Merolla, Daniela. (2021). Les films en amazigh « Grand écran » et « Amazighwood ». Études et Documents Berbères. N° 43. 67-89. 10.3917/edb.043.0069.
News
ohtadmin. “Annual Film Festival Explores North African Identities.” Queens Gazette -, Queens Gazette, 17 Apr. 2019, www.qgazette.com/articles/annual-film-festival-explores-north-african-identities/.
Amazigh World News. “New York: Free Two-Day Forum of North African Amazigh Film.” Amazigh World News, 11 Apr. 2018, amazighworldnews.com/new-york-free-two-day-forum-of-of-north-african-amazigh-film/.
"Commonly known as Berbers, the Imazighen are a diverse people originally from North and Sub-Saharan Africa — now spread out across Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, and the larger diaspora. NYFAF’s fourth edition will consider varieties of women’s experience: The Lock, a French-Tunisian documentary, looks at the struggle between tradition and emancipation as three young women experience the tasfih, a magical ritual that aims to protect them before marriage. Lidia Terki’s feature film, Paris la blanche, tells the story of 70-year old Rekia who leaves her Algerian village to bring back her husband, an immigrant in France for 40 years. Can intimacy survive economic displacement? Can love sustain us?"
LaGuardia Community College. “Film Festival about North African Women’s Perspective on Coming of Age During #MeToo & Other Topics.” LaGuardia.edu, 26–27 Apr. 2018, www.laguardia.edu/news/film-festival-about-north-african-womens-perspective-on-coming-of-age-during-metoo-other-topics/.
La production cinématographique amazighe du Maroc célébrée au 3ᵉ Festival du Film Amazigh de New York. Atlasinfo.fr, 6 May 2017, atlasinfo.fr/La-production-cinematographique-marocaine-celebree-au-3eme-Festival-du-Film-Amazigh-de-New-York_a81606.html.
Academia.edu. “New Texts Out Now: Amazigh Cinema – Editors’ Overview.” Academia.edu, www.academia.edu/144708569/Jadaliyya_New_Texts_Out_Now_Amazigh_Cinema_Editors_Overview.
"Interview with editors about the project of this first book in English on Amazigh cinema by Lucy McNair."
Social Media
Instagram. “NYFAF 2025 Program Announcement.” Instagram, www.instagram.com/p/DJkIFCrJmsQ/.
Facebook. Sound of Berberia. “On the Occasion of the New York Forum of Amazigh Film, We Release Our Film ‘Sound of Berberia’.” Facebook, www.facebook.com/soundofberberia/videos/on-the-occasion-of-the-new-york-forum-of-amazigh-film-we-release-our-film-sound-/2679556912217727/.
Facebook. “Tadiwennit Akked Massa / Habiba Boumlik – NYFAF.” Facebook, www.facebook.com/TQ5Media/videos/tadiwennit-akked-massa-habiba-boumlik-nyfaf/1004283146621521/.
Instagram. “Amazigh Film Festival Poster.” Instagram, www.instagram.com/p/DI9AieDPMvI/.
Instagram. “NY Amazigh Cultural Event.” Instagram, www.instagram.com/p/DQ0JKQQEbZC/.
Video
YouTube. “NYFAF 10th Anniversary Panel Highlights.” YouTube, uploaded by user, www.youtube.com/watch?v=8T1FHU2L4O8.
YouTube. ““What’s Going On?” With Hugo Fernandez S6, Ep. 4: New York Forum of Amazigh Film.” YouTube, www.youtube.com/watch?v=AM_FrtlCtwE.
Vimeo. “NYFAF: Amazigh Film and Cultural Memory.” Vimeo, vimeo.com/927105219.
YouTube. “Amazigh Film Interview – Cultural Perspectives.” YouTube, www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_dz_2kWuEA.
YouTube. “Amazigh Women in Film – Panel Clip.” YouTube, www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2yhd77QZ5o.
YouTube. “Berber Identity and Cinema Talk.” YouTube, www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAMTGuvZkPo.