PriMed presented at Festival of Cannes
The CMCA, Mediterranean Center for Audiovisual Communication, presented the 17th edition of PriMed at the Cannes Festival ! Read more “PriMed presented at Festival of Cannes”
GUERRE D’ALGÉRIE, LA DECHIRURE – ÉPISODE 1
GUERRE D’ALGÉRIE, LA DECHIRURE – ÉPISODE 1
55 minutes, 2012
Réalisation : Gabriel LE BOMIN (France)
Production : Nilaya Productions, INA, France Télévisions (France)
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50 years after the Evian Accords and Algeria’s independence, the time seems ripe to tell the Algerian War as it really was, without taboos or silences. Using archival images, mostly never seen before and from a variety of sources (the French army, French television but also from British, Algerian and Eastern European television as well as some amateur footage), “Guerre en Algérie, la déchirure” attempts to show the conflict from every side, taking the diversity of viewpoints into account to try to understand what really happened.
Gabriel LE BOMIN is an author and film-director. He has several films to his credit, the most recent documentaries being: “Les Francs-Maçons et le pouvoir (2009, 52 minutes), “Histoire de l’Armée française” (2006, 2 x 52 minutes), “La Ligne Maginot” (2001, 3 x 15 minutes), “La 2ème Guerre Mondiale et la France Libre” (2000), “Le Colosse d’Alexandrie” (1999, 13 minutes) and “Rwanda, l’humanité nous appelle” (1995, 26 minutes).
PriMed 2013 SELECTION
Click on the title of category to access the video extracts. Read more “PriMed 2013 SELECTION”
The official selection of PriMed 2013 unveiled!
The PriMed pre-selection jury met in Rome between December 17th and the 21st last year. Thanks to the work and help of our Secretary General, Maria DU BESSE, they were able to use the facilities of RAI TV.
For this 17th PriMed, 440 films were received from 36 countries, a record for the festival.
The PriMed pre-selection jury included:
Mohamed Nadir AZIZA (Osservatorio del Mediterraneo), Elisabeth CESTOR (MuCEM), Zouhair LOUASSINI (RAI News), Fabio MANCINI (RAI3 /
Doc3), Lorenzo HENDEL (RAI3/Doc3), Leila MATTAR (translator), Mireille MAURICE (INA Méditerranée), Claire DECHAUX (INA Méditerranée), Carolina POPOLANI (producer/director), Sami SADAK (Babel Med Music), Simone SIBILIO (LUISS university in Rome), Vanessa TONNINI (Festival Rendez-Vous / MedFilm Festival), François JACQUEL (CMCA), Valérie GERBAULT (CMCA), Paola LANFRANCHI (CMCA), Franco REVELLI (CMCA) and Julien COHEN (CMCA).
The jury’s reactions at the end of this pre-selection week
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Lorenzo HENDEL (RAI3 / Doc3) : “The main criterion for making a selection for PriMed is the subject, in the sense that the boundary between documentary and investigative reporting, and between what is interesting and what is not, depends on the subject of the film, not its formal structure, language, or the strength of the story. My experience leads me to think that what makes the strength of a documentary which deserves be rewarded, which is likely to attract a wide audience, is not the subject but the strength of the dramatic structure and characters. Focusing on a problem area is a legacy of journalism, but inappropriate today for assessing the quality of a creative documentary on international markets. I hope in the future we will be able to modify this approach.”
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Leila MATTAR (traductrice) : “My first experience on a jury was particularly challenging. Because of my personal tastes and studies, I was fascinated by the biographies of artists, the use of archival images and the melancholic atmosphere of certain works. Working, selecting with experts from all walks allowed me to discover a set of high quality films which deal honestly with the Mediterranean’s problems, issues (from the environment to politics) and its art. For me personally it was hugely enriching.”
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Carolina POPOLANI (réalisatrice/productrice) : “I was struck by the enormous care taken over the pictures and the originality of the subjects in the PriMed documentaries. I thought I knew the Mediterranean, but I did not know for example, that in France, like the “pieds noirs”* there were also the “pieds rouges”**; that in Tunisia well before the revolt of 2011, there had been a major revolt of miners in the south. I knew that the Mediterranean is polluted, but not that it had become a real dumping ground. I watched with pleasure the whole incredible story of Algeria, the Lebanon, the beautiful stories told in Morocco, Serbia, Egypt, Bosnia… The themes are all interesting, from history to current social or anthropological questions, and the way they’re made shows a lot of professionalism. Which is why the choice was so difficult, and I think picking the winners will be just as difficult! Good luck to everyone!”
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Simone SIBILIO (Université LUISS de Rome) : “The First Film category gave us a very rich and diverse range of films. Selecting the best was a very challenging but fascinating task, firstly because of the overall quality of work presented, but also because of the complexity and poignancy of most of the problems dealt with in these films. It’s no longer a surprise that the most interesting work comes from the southern Mediterranean, which is once again a hotbed of artistic creativity, and where there is a continual need to understand and capture the changes happening around us.
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Zouhair LOUASSINI (RAI News) : “I realized that documentaries can really help you understand the Mediterranean. It’s fascinating to see not only the situation in countries such as Syria and Libya, where the news is aggressive and marked by war, but also issues such as the environment, with the situation in the Mediterranean extremely serious.”
Mireille MAURICE (INA) : “A capital year for PriMed at the very centre of a week of Mediterranean broadcasting! A week of rich and rigorous pre-selection to offer the jury and public films of very high quality for a special Marseille Provence PriMed in 2013, where questions of memory, so dear to INA, are more current than ever… A big thank you to the CMCA and to RAI for these moments of shared visual pleasures…”
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Vanessa TONNINI (Festival Rendez-vous / MedFilm Festival) : “I am thrilled to have been part of the pre-selection jury for the 17th PriMed. And I would like to warmly thank the CMCA: it has been a journey across the Mediterranean in all its aspects, one which involved a large selection of titles reflecting the wealth of documentary cinema in Mare Nostrum. The films chosen by the CMCA show us the complexity and contradictions of this magic space that is the Mediterranean, “the liquid continent, with solid borders and a mobile population”, as Bruno Etienne wrote.”
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Sami SADAK (Babel Med Music) : “The Mediterranean, which inspires a whole lifestyle, is also a complex entity where contradictions and tensions prevail, but where, despite that, there is a sense of belonging that gives life to the beings of the Mediterranean world. Being on the PriMed jury was, as always, a wonderful moment of discovery or rediscovery of this complexity, through films which achieve an unrivalled degree of richness and eclecticism. For me these day-long screenings have become such an intense time, immersing myself in Mediterranean reality that I cannot do without it anymore.”
GUERRE D’ALGERIE, LA DECHIRURE
GUERRE D’ALGÉRIE, LA DECHIRURE – ÉPISODE 1
55 minutes, 2012
Director : Gabriel LE BOMIN (France)
Production : Nilaya Productions, INA, France Télévisions (France)
____
50 years after the Evian Accords and Algeria’s independence, the time seems ripe to tell the Algerian War as it really was, without taboos or silences. Using archival images, mostly never seen before and from a variety of sources (the French army, French television but also from British, Algerian and Eastern European television as well as some amateur footage), “Guerre en Algérie, la déchirure” attempts to show the conflict from every side, taking the diversity of viewpoints into account to try to understand what really happened.
Gabriel LE BOMIN is an author and film-director. He has several films to his credit, the most recent documentaries being: “Les Francs-Maçons et le pouvoir (2009, 52 minutes), “Histoire de l’Armée française” (2006, 2 x 52 minutes), “La Ligne Maginot” (2001, 3 x 15 minutes), “La 2ème Guerre Mondiale et la France Libre” (2000), “Le Colosse d’Alexandrie” (1999, 13 minutes) and “Rwanda, l’humanité nous appelle” (1995, 26 minutes).
MEDITERRANEAN MULTIMEDIA AWARD
Retrouvez ici la sélection des œuvres Multimédias sélectionnées pour la phase finale du PriMed 2013 :
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17 OCTOBRE 1961, LA NUIT OUBLIEE
“17 Octobre 1961, La nuit oubliée” takes us back to the events which shook Paris on 17th October 1961: fighting broke out between police and a peaceful protest of French Algerian Muslims organized by the FLN. The content, mostly original (testimonials which combine videos, photos, sound and documents) is organized around four themes to give a comprehensive understanding of the event and its context (“dans la manifestation” – 6 eyewitnesses from the protest march; “en coulisses” – 4 men from the corridors of power; “un jour dans la guerre d’Algérie” – a day in the war; and “se souvenir” – remembering, with Jean-Luc Einaudi).
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DANS LES MURS DE LA CASBAH
“Dans les murs de la Casbah” leads the user through the maze of stairways which characterize the Algiers Casbah. At each intersection, at the corner of every alley, the user has the option of entering a café to listen to old-timers, or open the door of the women’s house or sit down with students talking about their dreams of future.
Three virtual tours to immerse the user in this slice of Algeria, allowing him to listen to the people of the Casbah talking. Echoing these testimonies, Algerian researchers help us understand the Casbah. “Dans les murs de la Casbah” is based on the work of academics at the universities of Algiers and Rennes researching urban socio-linguistics, that is studying urban characteristics in relation to both space and language. To be accepted in this difficult district, the director worked with Algerian sociolinguist Reda Sebih, who conducted all the interviews in Arabic.
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HOMS, AU COEUR DE LA REVOLTE SYRIENNE
Having entered Syria illegally in late 2011, Caroline Poiron, a photojournalist on Géopolis, gives an eye-witness report on the state of resistance in the heart of the rebel city of Homs. For 7 days, she criss-crosses Baba Amr, a district in rebel hands, from combat zones to makeshift hospitals. She meets Tlass, the rebellion’s charismatic leader. 3 weeks later, she goes to areas controlled by the regime and its militias.
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UN ETE A ALGER
“Un été à Alger” is a transmedia documentary shot in Algiers during the summer of 2012 – the fiftieth anniversary of Algeria’s independence. 4 young Algerian film-makers talk about the city they live in, each with his own point of view, in 6 episodes. Un-ete-aalger. com, 6 weeks of live cinema: Lamine Ammar Khodja makes a filmed diary in the first person, and questions the contradictions of her country; Hassen Ferhani explores the working class district of Cervantes, both its reality and its legends (including Tarzan and Don Quixote); Amina Zoubir imposes her femininity and her camera in places reserved for men; Yannis Koussim films Algiers at night, after the Maghrib prayer. Each director makes an episode a week. As it evolves, “Un été à Alger” draws a subjective, contemporary and multi-faceted portrait of the city.
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UNE JEUNESSE BOSNIENNE
20 years after the beginning of the war, the youth of Bosnia and Herzegovina is liberated from its past. Through several meetings, the web-documentary “Une jeunesse bosnienne” shows people facing their fate, struggling to take control of their lives, caught between political corruption and their country’s lack of prospects. Some criticize nationalism, others remember their war wounds, many dream of Europe. Most want to move on and flee the commemoration celebrations of the war. Young people from Bosnia and Herzegovina, from Banja Luka to Tuzla, from Sarajevo to Kupres, not forgetting Mostar, look clearly and honestly at the concerns of a forgotten people living at the gates of Europe.
THE BELL RANG
THE BELL RANG
22 minutes, 2011
Director : Salah EL-GAZZAR (Egypt)
Production : Egypt Media House (Egypt)
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“The Bell Rang” is about three Egyptian children who gave up school for different reasons. But they are each agreed on one thing. What is it? The film gives the answer.
Salah EL-GAZZAR was born in 1975 and has a degree in film-making. He has three films to his credit: “The curtain is up” (2009), “The sketch pad” (2010) and “The Bell Rang” (2011). He has also worked as assistant director and participated in Arab and international festivals.
RESTORED PICTURES
RESTORED PICTURES
22 minutes, 2012
Direction and Production : Mahasen NASSER-ELDIN (Palestine)
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A journey through the life of Karima Aboud, Palestine’s first professional female photographer. Using her letters and photographs the film looks at the life and work of a woman in the years before the Nakba.
Born in Jerusalem in 1976, Mahasen NASSERELDIN makes documentary and drama films. She studied film-directing at London’s Goldsmiths College. A university researcher and teacher in media production, she concentrates her work on mass communication, social change and women’s cinema in the Middle East.
LIVING IN THE NILE
LIVING IN THE NILE
10 minutes, 2010
Director : Mohamad EL WASSIFY (Egypt)
Production : High Cinema Institute – Academy of Arts (Egypt)
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« “The Nile…is my home…my work…for me it’s everything.” Fares.
Mohamad EL WASSIFY is an Egyptian director. He studied film at Cairo’s High Cinema Institute. “Living in the Nile” is his first film.
GARBAGE
GARBAGE
18 minutes, 2011
Director : Burak TÜRTEN (Turkey)
Production : Erciyes University (Turkey)
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“Garbage” is about the wretched life of the men who live off landfills. They collect recyclable waste for resale. They can make 10 Turkish Liras per day but have to give half of that pittance to the owner of the landfill. Public authorities and institutions remain indifferent to this inhuman situation.
Burak TÜRTENwas born in 1990 in Ankara, Turkey. In 2011, he completed his studies at the Communication Faculty of the Radio, Film and Television department at Erciyes University. He has made three short films as director. He worked for two years as a presenter on Kampus TV and as a presenter and editor on a national television channel.