The 2nd Edition of the Amazigh/Berber Film Festival Presents:
BREAKING BORDERS AND BIAS
JUNE 2 AND 3, 2016
Little Theater, LaGuardia Performing Arts Center, LaGuardia Community College, NY
THURSDAY JUNE 2
FRIDAY JUNE 3
11:45 a.m. Call to Discussion Minority Rights, Human Rights & Artistic Expression Guest speakers: Jean-Philippe Morange, Mustapha Akhoullou, Hassen Bettaieb, and Wassim Korbi. Moderators: Dr. Habiba Boumlik and Dr. Lucy McNair, Festival Curators
11:00 a.m. Faces of Egypt: Siwa, Abdel Rahman Gabr (Short, Egypt, 2015, 6 min) Siwa’s architecture and male dwellers through the eyes of young photographer. Tuaregs: The Warriors of the Dunes, Jose Manuel Novoa (Documentary, 2013, 51 min) The Tuaregs’ strict rules of honor and hospitality determine the life of their different tribes Madugu leads salt caravans through the Tenere, a desert within a desert, known as the Anvil of the Sun.’ Q&A with Dr. Lilla Toke, Assistant Professor of English at LaGuardia Community College. Her research interests revolve around film and literature, feminist theory, and national cinemas.
2:15 p.m. Tamarthiw, Jihene Ayari (Short, Tunisia, 2015, 6 min) The story of Tunisian Berbers who were forced to leave Zrawa, a small Berber village in the south of Tunisia towards new and more modern zones. Azul, Wassim Korbi (Documentary, Tunisia, 2013, 43 min) Insights into the director’s personal journey to his father’s village, situated in an area where the culture of the Amazigh is still visible and alive. Q&A with the filmmaker and Dr. Lucy McNair, Festival curator, Assistant Professor at LaGuardia Community College and translator of Mouloud Feraoun’s novel, The Poor Man’s Son. 4:30 p.m. A Love Apart, Bettina Haasen (Documentary, Switzerland, 2008, 53 min) A charismatic teenager, Rhaissa, is about to marry a man she has never met. The marriage ritual demands that Rhaissa spend the week before her marriage in a wedding tent, where she cannot speak to anyone or leave its confines. Q&A with Mustapha Akhoullou, Adjunct Professor, University of Agadir (Morocco), poet, translator 6:00 p.m. Tunisian Rapper Marou César Performance via Skype 6:15 p.m. Reception 7:00 p.m. L’enfant endormi, Yasmine Kassari (France, Belgium, Morocco, 2005, 95 min) Soon after her marriage, Zeinab finds that she is pregnant but does not want to have the child while her husband is away in Europe. She consults a fqih, or white magician, who gives her an amulet put the child to sleep until the child can resume its growth toward maturity. Q&A with Dr. Habiba Boumlik, Festival Curator and Associate Professor, LaGuardia Community College
1:30 p.m. Afrak, Mustapha Abaid (Short, Morocco, 2014, 11 min) A talented and enthusiastic young man encounters challenges looking for an opportunity to express his talent and develop his skills. The lack of awareness or afrak in the community where he grew up represents a major hinderance. The daughter of Keltoum, Mehdi Charef (Drama, Algeria, 2001, 106 min) A young woman, Rallia, raised in Switzerland, travels to an isolated and barren Berber settlement located in the rocky Atlas Mountains of Algeria. Through her eyes, the viewer is immersed in a world virtually untouched by contemporary society, one that still clings to tribal mores and strict religious codes of conduct. Q&A with Wafa Bahri, Adjunct professor, Ph.D candidate, Sociolinguistics and endangered languages, the Graduate Center-CUNY Hassen Bettaieb, MA in International Studies, Arabic and French lecturer, Borough Manhattan of Community College 3:30 p.m. A Day in Siwa, Vincent Battesti Dahab (Documentary, France, 2014, 5 min) Hamza, a farmer in the village of Aghurmi, is busy with his palm grove garden during the harvest season. Adios Carmen, Mohamed Amin Benamraoui (Drama, 2013, Morocco, Berber/Spanish, 104 min) In a gossip-prone Moroccan village in the summer of 1975, an abandoned boy develops a life-changing bond with Carmen, the Spanish woman working at the local cinema. Q&A with Dr. Olga Aksakalova, Assistant Professor of English. Her research focuses on representations of exile in 20th century American autobiography and on teaching writing in global contexts. 5:00 p.m. Azi Ayima (Come Mother), Sami Chlomo Chetrit (Documentary, Israel, 2009, 77 min) The filmmaker embarks on a journey with his mother in search of classmates from her elementary school,the Alliance, which she attended in the 1940s in Morocco. A story of cultural crisis, social survival and dignity told by the first generation of Jewish Moroccan women to immigrate to Israel. Q&A with Dr. Linda Burdick Lautrec, filmmaker, photographer and writer, English Lecturer at LaGuardia CC who has created several global academic opportunities for collaboration using multimedia and digital stories.
