MY SWEET CANARY

MY SWEET CANARY

by Roy SHER

90 minutes, 2011

Production : Sher Film and Music Productions, IBA, ARTE, ERT, TAU / Israël

In Greece and Turkey Roza Eskenazi is the most famous singer of the 1930’s, the “diva” of Rebetiko music. Following three young musicians from Greece, Turkey and Israel, the film tells the story of her life, of a world which no longer exists. Brought together by their love of her music, today’s musicians go in search of Eskenazi’s heirs and her musical, multicultural heritage.

Roy SHER is a producer and director of documentaries and dramas. Born in 1977 in Haifa (Israel) he studied film and television at the University of Tel Aviv. Back at Haifa he produced and directed the short drama “Mazal” (2008, 18′) which has received 5 awards and been shown in more than 40 international festivals. Roy Sher is a member of the Israeli Union of Directors and the Forum of Israeli Documentary Directors. “My Sweet Canary” is his first full-length film.

MOUSS ET HAKIM, CONTROLLED ORIGINS

MOUSS ET HAKIM, CONTROLLED ORIGINS

by Samia CHALA

52 minutes, 2011

Production : Alif Productions / France

Who could have imagined that people in French towns and in the deepest countryside, from the Vendée to Alsace, would boogie to the old Algerian songs of the 1940’s, 50’s and 60’s, re-modelled by two singers from the group Zebda? This film is partly about the rapport between Mouss and Hakim and their public, but by building the film around the two singers’ father, Si Mohand Salah, it is also about handing culture down from one generation to the next. What do we do with the cultural heritage of our parents? How do we live with it? Mouss and Hakim succeed where many politicians and intellectuals have failed: they make the immigrant culture of their parents not only known but loved – in Arabic, in Kabyle and in French. With “Monitored Origins”, Algerian immigration is no longer a political issue or a social problem, but a human story – and a rejoicing.

Samia CHALA was born in Algiers in 1964. Having studied as an engineer, she left Algeria in the middle of the civil war and arrived in France in 1994. Starting as a production assistant, then journalist and assistant director on many documentaries, she has been making her own films for the past seven years, amongst which “Bled-musique à l’Usine” (2006, 52′), “Chahinaz – Quels droits pour les Femmes ?” (2007, 52′), and “Lamine la Fuite” (2009, 90′). Her documentaries are about Algeria, women, exile and, more generally, the waves of migration moving from south to north.

FORTUNY AND THE WONDERFUL LAMP

FORTUNY AND THE WONDERFUL LAMP

by Claudio ZULIAN

8 minutes, 2010

Production : Acteon / Espagne

“Fortuny and the wonderful lamp” is a documentary about the way culture passes from the East to the West, as exemplified in this curious story of the creations of Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo (1871-1949), a Spanish fashion-designer and textile creator who was also a painter, photographer, architect, sculptor, engraver and stage-designer.

Claudio ZULIAN is a young director becoming known for his work in film, literature and music. Among his latest films “Fortuny and the Wonderful Lamp”, produced by Spanish televison (TVE) and “It Won’t Be The Same”, a drama set in the future with teenagers as the main characters.

DAMASCUS ROOF AND TALES OF PARADISE

DAMASCUS ROOF AND TALES OF PARADISE

by Soudade KAADAN

52 minutes, 2010
Production : Aljazeera Documentary Channel / QATAR

Syria has a strong tradition of stories and folk tales: full of colourful images – flying fish and friendly serpents, they are passed down from father to son. However, as the years go by these stories are being lost. In the old part of Damascus the familiar landscape of souks and casbahs, the backdrop of so many stories, is being modernised, raising the fear that the tales themselves will disappear.

Soudade KAADAN is a Syrian director, born in France in 1979. She studied theatre in Syria and film in the Lebanon. She has made films for the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme), UNICEF and Aljazeera’s Documentary Channel. In 2010 her first documentary “Looking for Pink” won the Martine Filippi Award at the 29th URTI Grand Prix. Her second documentary “Damascus Roof and Tales of Paradise”, won second prize in the Muhr Arab Documentary category of the Dubai Film Festival.

HYMEN NATIONAL

HYMEN NATIONAL by Jamel MOKNI

60 minutes, 2011

Production – A Bout de Souffle Production /Belgique

[easyembed field = “hymen”]

“National Hymen” tackles the delicate subject of the surgical reconstruction of the hymen, hymenorrhaphy, a practice becoming more and more common in Tunisia. In a country considered as a model for the rest of the Arab-Muslim world on how to change and modernise, it is still the essential for a bride to be a virgin on her wedding day. Loss of virginity will exclude her. Young women confronted with this problem have no choice: to avoid shame and build a future among her friends, she needs surgery. Hymenorrhaphy, painful and never mentioned, is a surgical operation to resew the hymen, thus guaranteeing bleeding during the wedding night. By following one particular case, with personal accounts of other young women in the same distressing situation, the film contributes to a real national debate. Intellectuals, religious leaders, liberated students or ordinary citizens of a country going through great changes, they all question the logic behind keeping this practice alive.

Jamel MOKNI
Jamel MOKNI was born in 1964, growing up in a poor family in northern Tunisia. After his baccalaureat, he studied science in Tunis, where he created a film club. In 1990 he went to Belgium to study cinema, graduating in Film Technique at INRACI then continuing his studies at ULB, reading Film Writing Analysis and Technique. He worked in broadcasting, making commercials, magazine programmes and video clips. He also made several short films, and in 1999 created a production company, A Bout de Souffle Production.

The 16th edition – Marseille 2011

Musique : Kevin MacLeod – Réalisation : Franco F. Revelli

Réalisation : Franco F. Revelli

The Award ceremony :

PriMed 2011 AWARDS !

Best documentary film – “MEDITERRANEAN ISSUES”category – Sponsored by France Télévisions (6000 €)
“WOMEN OF HAMAS” by Suha ARRAF

“MEDITERRANEAN MEMORY” AWARD – sponsored by Institut National de l’Audiovisuel (5000 €)
“Abdelkrim et la guerre du Rif” by Daniel CLING

“MEDITERRANEAN ART,HERITAGE AND CULTURE” AWARD – Sponsored by Ville de Marseille (5000 €)
“Damascus Roof and Tales of Paradise” by Soudade KAADAN

“FIRST FILM” AWARD – Sponsored by RAI RadioTelevisione Italiana (5000 €)
“Blagues à part” by Vanessa Rousselot

“INVESTIGATIVE DOCUMENTARY” AWARD – Sponsored by Radio France (5000 €)”
“Wolves Plate” by Mona IRAQI

SPECIAL JURY’S AWARD – Sponsored by Collectivité Territoriale Corse (5000 €)
“Paradise Hotel” by Sophia Tzavella

YOUNG PUBLIC AWARD – Sponsored by la Marseille Provence Métropole (5000 €)
“Blagues à part” by Vanessa Rousselot

BROADCASTING AWARD – VIA STELLA
“Abdelkrim et la guerre du Rif” by Daniel CLING

BROADCASTING AWARD – TV5 MONDE
“Abdelkrim et la guerre du Rif” byDaniel CLING

BROADCASTING AWARD – RAI
“Zelal” by Marianne KHOURY and Mustapha HASNAOUI

MEDITERRANEAN SHORT FILM AWARD – Sponsored by Marseille Provence 2013 (2500 €)
Mothers, 0.15 cent a minute” by Marina SERESESKY

MEDITERRANEAN MULTIMEDIA AWARD – Sponsored by Orange (2500 €)
“Il Viaggio di mohammed” by Debora SCAPERROTTA

photos of Anaïs Ginoux

Conference of 16th edition : “THE SCREENS OF ARAB SPRINGS”

The Mediterranean Audiovisual Landscape face of the news events of Arab Spring in 2011. Excerpts from documentaries, analysis and debateswith the presence of witnesses, experts and professionals of the Mediterranean audiovisual sector.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO OF CONFERENCE

___________

THE SELECTED FILM FOR PRIMED 2011

ENJEUX MEDITERRANEENS
Hymen National by Jamel MOKNI
The Human Turbine de Danny VERETE
Zelal de Marianne KHOURY et Moustapha HASNAOUI
Women of Hamas de Suha ARRAF

MEMOIRE DE LA MEDITERRANEE

70 years of silence – Spain, memory and transmission de Emile NAVARRO
Abdelkrim and the Rif war by Daniel CLING
François Mitterrand and the Algerian war by Frédéric BRUNNQUELL
The island of Roses by Stefano BISULLI et Roberto NACCARI

ART, PATRIMOINE ET CULTURES DE LA MEDITERRANEE
Damascus Roof and Tales of Paradise by Soudade KAADAN
Fortuny and the wanderful lamp by Claudio ZULIAN
Mouss et Hakim, controlled origins bySamia CHALA
My Sweet Canary by Roy SHER

PREMIERE ŒUVRE
Blagues à part de Vanessa ROUSSELOT
Diaries by May ODEH
Paradise Hotel de Sophia TZAVELLA
Unfinished Italy de Benoît FELICI

REPORTAGE D’INVESTIGATION
Kadhafi, our best enemy by Antoine VITKINE
Imams go to school by Kaouther BEN HANIA
The Last Breath by Sameh MOUSSA
Tunisia, the shipwrecked of the revolution by Alexandra DENIAU, François RENAUT and  Christophe KENCK
Wolves Plate by Mona IRAQI

COURT MEDITERRANEEN
Libye, the women of revolution by Marie-Laure BAGGIOLINI WIDMER
My dream bike by Serda YALIN
Mothers 15 Cents a minute by Marina SERESESKY
Sayda by Michael ABI KHALIL
Warsheh by Lucile GARCON

MULTIMEDIA AWARD
Geopolis – Maghreb
The voyage of Mohammed
The lovers of ‘Alexandrie
An oasis upon the hill
-A Somalian in Paris

 

 

PRESELECTION 2011

The pre-selection jury of the 2011 PriMed met in Marseille from June 20th to 24th. This year we had a record 316 films from 28 countries. Most were French, Italian or Spanish, but there were Egyptian, Tunisian and Algerian films as well. As for the Ukraine, Montenegro, Bulgaria and Poland, they each made their first appearance in the PriMed listings.

Amer ABOU-DAYA, Al Hiwar TV : The CMCA has given me a very beautiful experience. I met jury members from many different nationalities. The selection took a long time and was very hard, but at the same time it was enriching: different directors, different people, different ways of working, short and long films, films about the past, artistic films. My first criterion was always how much pleasure I had watching them. Even if the the images, the editing or the music were perfect, some films’ subject matter did not touch me.

Nathalie ABOU-ISAAC, CeReM (Centre Régional de la Méditerranée) : To be part of this pre-selection jury, viewing a quantity of documentary films over five days, is like opening a window on to other parts of the Mediterranean. We had the privilege of plunging into a reality which normally we never see. As usual with PriMed, each category offered enormous quality and rich subject-matter well analysed, films fed from archives made with commitment and originality. I particularly remember the great quality of the Memories category. The directors once again show their essential role in recording witnesses, the spoken word, discussions which shake the Mediterranean world.

Jacques BAYLE, France Télévisions :A week of intense concentration. Eight hours of screenings a day. Serious subjects, mad laughter, delightful surprises, sometimes tears. And at the end, a 16th PriMed which promises to be a great vintage. My favourites? I shall always remember the film about Abdelkrim, the great Moroccan leader, defeated by Franco and Pétain in the bloody Rif War, who had this prophetic warning: “I came too early!” In the same category, who knew anything about Giorgio Rosa? An Italian engineer who built a platform off the coast of Rimini and decided to create an independent territory complete with casino, flag and currency….Two examples where History, with a capital H, is made by the exploits of extraordinary individuals. Two examples among many of the richness of the documentaries screened this June in Marseille. But through all these stories, during dozens of hours of viewing, without doubt what marked me most were the faces of the Mediterranean women: some, in Libya, determined to fight, others, in the Lebanon, destitute, crushed but dignified, yet others shattered but triumphant after the martyrdom of a son in Gaza, or at the heart of the demonstrations in Tunisia and Egypt. Women, always women, who abrogate laws, overthrow taboos and who are never the last to topple the old dictatorships. At what if it were women who were the real stars of this 16th PriMed?

Nadia BENDJILALI, journalist at JMed (www.lejmed.fr) :The PriMed I have just experienced as a jury member is a magnificent voyage around the Mediterranean, experiencing its reality and its challenges. A Mediterranean revealed by a selection of documentaries and current affairs films with varied subject-matter and great quality, films which show this zone of intersections and interferences with sensitivity and clearsightedness. An area which is a fascinating theatre of diversity and richness, but also a Euro-Mediterranean challenge, scarred by burning issues such as migrants moving north from the south, occupied territories, wars, and then questions about the place of freedom or how to live together. Many images, sounds, of women and men, of the past, the present which nourished me and allowed me to pursue my own exploration of the Mediterranean. And this with a pre-selection jury and CMCA team all part of this Mediterranean spirit, a generosity which brings people together while respecting their differences. Thank you to the directors who gave us deeper insight into this Mediterranean both singular and plural.

Nicola CALIGIORE, RAI (Radio Televisione Italiana) : I was happy to take part again in the PriMed pre-selection. Each year the Prix gets stronger and stronger – last year was a superb experience for me. This year I was part of the the Mediterranean Issues jury at a time when Europe is as much concerned by these issues as the southern section. The films presented are the best means of telling people about the new challenges facing Europe. There were many interesting subjects, especially coming from Italy – which as an Italian I appreciate:in particular a documentary about second generation Muslim immigrants in Italy and how they are becoming integrated. We spent our days viewing all the films and eventually made our choices by analysing different aspects, such as the quality of the images, the importance and relevance of the subject, innovation..Personally I am both impressed and satisfied by our final choice.

Marie-Christine HELIAS, INA MéditerranéeAnother chance to see exceptional documentaries as a member of the CMCA pre-jury, this year I worked on Memories and Heritage. This Mediterranean so full of frontiers, conflicts, taboos – even if things are changing fast – I came out with a much broader understanding, my mind more open. Seeing all these documentaries together is a marvellous window on to the whole region. This year the Heritage category was particularly rich with very interesting films. I found a new input by directors from the southern Mediterranean – young, but also not so young – who are doing a very fine job. I am thinking of what we saw on the awakening of Algerian cinema, on the passing down of traditional Algerian songs through the generations… So, amazing things, very interesting and very well done. Thank you!

Sami SADAK, Ethno-musicologist, Artistic Director of Babel Med Music: “To begin to understand the Mediterranean, you need to think unity, diversity and conflicts,” wrote Edgar Morin. “You need a mind which is not linear, a mind for dialogue, a mind which grasps things both complementary and antagonistic.” In the creative Mediterranean this comes from a harmony made by opposing tensions, like the bow and the lyre. The Mediterranean identity was forged by successive waves of immigration, people crossing the sea in sailing boats from one land to another, this sea which links the land, which surrounds them, “the sea between the lands” the sea which unifies more than its divides. So as a jury we all felt the pain of the Palestinian woman whose son had been killed in a bomb attack (Women of Hamas), we all heard for the first time Greek people telling us how, as children, they had been saved from the Holocaust (Kisses to the Children), we all felt the terror of the mass graves of the Spanish civil war (70 Years of Silence – Spain, Memory and Transmission), we all shared the urge to rise up with Abdelkrim in revolt against colonialism (Abedlkrim and the Rif War), we all sang Rebetiko music in the dives of Pireaus with Roza Eskenazi (My Sweet Canary). I must admit one does not come out of these day-long screenings unscathed, even if the CMCA team’s welcome is perfect. Thank you again for these discoveries which otherwise would have passed me by.

Michelle STEWART, Teacher at the University of New York, Mediterranean Cinema Option: I viewed the Art, Cultures and Heritage category. We chose films of good quality but which also showed different aspects of the Mediterranean. We wanted all the different cultures to be represented. There are also subjects shared by different Mediterranean cultures. There were several interesting films on music, in particular music as a way of transmitting cultures which are traditional and dynamic. Other films showed how music expresses the changes in a culture, how musical tastes have changed with the commercialisation of culture. All this is part of the whole issue of the flow of people and ideas across the Mediterranean, sounds, music, media and images.

ARAB SPRING BROADCASTING CONFERENCE

 

Photos de Anaïs Ginoux

This conference is organised by Jean Paul GEROUARD (France 3) and presented by Sylvie DEPIERRE.

December 9th 2011 – Hall de la Chambre d’Industrie et Commerce – Palais de la Bourse 9 la Canebière 13001 Marseille

The Mediterranean Audiovisual Landscape face of the news events of Arab Spring in 2011. Excerpts from documentaries, analysis and debateswith the presence of witnesses, experts and professionals of the Mediterranean audiovisual sector.

Panel 1: “The Arab Spring” broadcasted on European and Maghreb media

The treatment of Arab revolts covers very different geographical areas. How reporters and filmmakers of the North Shore of the Mediterranean did they lived and covered these revolutions? The North is still a prisoner of his prejudices about the South? The western media were real actors in these uprisings?

Speakers : Magali Forestier (France 3), Alberto Romagnioli (RAI- Italia), Soumaya Derhourhi (2M – Morocco), Gilles Jacquier (France 2)…

Panel 2 International networks: the birth of an Arab opinion?

The Arab Revolt had an immediate impact on the television in the countries concerned. How in North Africa and the Middle East, Algerian or Moroccan journalists and their colleagues  have covered these events with their own limitations of reference … This round table will gather their stories, share their hopes, and will report on the upheavals of the Arab media .

Speakers : Joakim Afoutni (Agence Afrik TV), Lotfi Hajji (Al Jazira – Qatar), Ali Oudjana (France 24), Slimane Zeghidour (TV5 – France)…

Debate 3: “The Arab Spring” broadcasted on countries the country of revolution

The emersion of international channels like Al Jazeira, Al Arabiya had already changed the media landscape of the Middle East and North Africa. During revoutions, the Egyptians and Tunisians were massively connected to the Internet, but also to the most popular international news channel (Arabic, French, and English). Which is the role of these trans-national medias? Have they given different readings of events? Have they contributed to the emersion of a new democratic requirement?

 

Speakers: Mokhtar Rassaa (Pdg Télévision tunisienne), Nabil Choubachy (Nile TV – Egypt), Kmar Bendana (Université de La Manouba – Tunisie), Yves Bruneau (CFI),…

 


Image © FF Revelli