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September
16: In My Father’s
House (Fatima Jebli Ouazzani’s 1997 documentary, 67 min., subtitles) “ In this beautiful, poetic and deeply personal film, Moroccan filmmaker Fatima Jebli Ouazzani investigates the status accorded women in Islamic marriage customs and the continuing importance of virginity. Ouazzani left her father’s house in Morocco sixteen years ago to escape the constraints her culture and its traditions have put on women. She returns now to confront those traditions, her own family and herself. Following three generations of women—her grandmother and mother’s arranged marriages, her grandmother’s subsequent attempts to divorce and Naima, a young woman who has returned home for a traditional wedding ceremony—she questions whether her choice for a life of her own was worth the loss of her father. Ouazzani offers us a rare glimpse of the shifts and changes in Moroccan and Islamic culture in this powerful, moving film.” (Women Make Movies) Post-Film Discussion Topics: Women and Change in Islamic Contexts, “Documenting” Women’s Lives Discussion Leaders: Mary Dalton (Communication) and Felicitas Opwis (Religion). |
September
30: Boujad: A Nest in the Heat & Whispers
(Two short films by Hakim Belabbes, 1992/1999, 45 min/15 min, subtitles) “ Boujad: A Nest in the Heat is a personal and anguishing look at issues of separation, independence and return. As director Hakim Belabbes chronicles his journey from his home in Chicago to visit his family in his hometown of Boujad in Morocco, his exploration of family relationships is self-conscious and at times painfully honest. We witness his most private moments with his family. Belabbes’ film intimately explores the domestic spaces and religious rituals of intra-family relationships, especially when compounded by one member’s break with traditional values. Hakim Belabbes’ Whispers follows a man’s obsessive search for his lost childhood through the dark alleyways and desolate cemeteries of the director’s Moroccan hometown, Boujad.” (Arabfilm.com) Post-Film Discussion Topics: Family Relationships, Aging, Individuals Crossing Cultures Discussion Leaders: Teresa Ciabattari (Sociology) and Ulrike Wiehaus (Humantities) |
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October 14: Ali Zaoua: Prince of the Streets (Nabil Ayouch’s 2000 feature, 90 min., subtitles) “ Director Nabil Ayouch draws on such earlier masterpieces as Luis Bunuel’s Los Olvidados and Hector Babenco’s Pixote for this memorable and moving portrait of the lives of street kids living in Casablanca’s abandoned lots. Ali, Kouka, Omar and Boubker, four young friends who are members of a gang, rebel against their cruel leader’s oppressive rule and strike out on their own, running away from “home” a second time. Although they are surrounded by crime, violence and degradation, the boys long for love and tenderness. Ali's fantasy is to escape to the seas and become a sailor. He wants to reach the island “where two suns set,” become a royal prince and “meet a lovely woman.” (Arabfilm.com) *Winner of over 40 international film festival awards* Post-Film Discussion Topics: Adolescence, Poverty and Imagined Homeplaces Discussion Leaders: Michaelle Browers (Political Science) and Batja Mesquita (Psychology) |
October
21: Women’s Wiles (Kayd insa’) (Farida Benlyazid’s 1999 feature, 90 min., subtitles) “Based on a traditional folk tale of Andalusia, Women’s Wiles tells the story of Lalla Aicha, a young woman who has learned to read and to write from her father. The son of the sultan is enamored of Lalla, but he doesn’t believe women are as intelligent as men. She tries to prove him wrong by sneaking into his home and shaving off his beard while he sleeps. However, the sultan is not so easily convinced and, after he makes her his wife, he decides to teach her a lesson by locking her in his cellar for three years. Lalla, however, soon finds a way to outwit him.” (Mark Deming, All Movie Guide) Post-Film Discussion Topics: Gender Relations and Stories Shared Across Cultures Discussion Leaders: Lisa Sternlieb (English) and Cynthia Villagomez (History) |
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November
4: Door to the Sky (Bab al-sama’ maftuh) (Farida Benlyazid’s 1988 feature, 105 min., subtitles) “ Nadia, a young Moroccan émigré, returns from Paris to Fez to visit her dying father. At his funeral, she is overcome by the voice of Karina chanting the Koran. A powerful friendship develops between the two women as they decide to turn the father’s palace into a Muslim women’s shelter. A Door to the Sky is a Sufi tale told in a metaphoric language. It is also the first North African film to address the social and economic changes as proposed by a spiritual Muslim woman on a quest to preserve her cultural and religious identity.” (Arabfilm.com) Post-Film Discussion Topics: Role of Women’s, Religious and Cultural Spaces in Identity Formation and Change Discussion Leaders: Stephen Boyd (Religion) and Bashir El-Beshti (English) |
November 18: Home, or Maids in My Family (Yto Barrada’s 2001 documentary, 25 min., subtitles) Description: “This film is devoted to one extraordinary Moroccan woman’s story. In it she confronts her family and their servants about the relationships between them, and what these relationships may reveal about Moroccan society and her own life. Yto was raised in a liberal bourgeois Moroccan family. They saw nothing wrong with expressing left-wing views at the dinner table while being waited on by servants, cooks and maids. This contradiction troubled Yto as she became older. The narrative spine of the films becomes Yto’s search for one of the maids who declared her independence to marry and left the family home.” (First Run/Icarus Films) Post-Film Discussion Topics: Women and Work, Class Politics, Intergenerational Change Discussion Leaders: Katy Harriger (Political Science) and Angela Hattery (Sociology) |
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