Manuel Asìn, directeur du Festival du film documentaire Punto de Vista de Pampelune (Espagne), a découvert et lu La Septième Porte, une histoire du cinéma au Maroc de 1907 à 1986 de Ahmed Bouanani, éditions Kulte, Rabat, Maroc en juillet 2021. Voici ce qu’il a écrit au directeur de cette publication (avec Touda Bouanani), Omar Berrada, le 11 août 2021 : « Félicitations pour cet extraordinaire travail d’édition, pour ce travail d’amour. Il s’agit d’un des meilleurs livres de cinéma que je connais, et en même temps, il est beaucoup plus qu’un livre de cinéma : c’est presque un roman comme vous écrivez dans le prologue. » De là est né un projet fou et mené en un temps record : l’édition espagnole de La Septième Porte, et l’élaboration d’un programme inédit de documentaires marocains, concocté par Ali Essafi et Omar Berrada ! Les deux pourront être découvert du 14 au 19 mars 2022 à Pampelune (Espagne).
Le collectif des Archives Bouanani y sera également représenté par Léa Morin et Touda Bouanani, qui participeront le 17 mars à une table-ronde « Research, programming and preservation in alternative archives« , à la suite de quoi Léa Morin présentera la ciné-conférence « For a fictional essay« .
Édition Espagnole de La Septième Porte
Traduite par Juan Asìs Palao Gomez. Toutes les informations, ici !
Qui racontera l’histoire? Les débuts du documentaire au Maroc – un programme de Omar Berrada et Ali Essafi
La Version espagnole du programme est ici.
Version française du programme (abrégée)
La Septième Porte d’Ahmed Bouanani est sortie en 2020, après être restée inédite pendant 33 ans. Elle raconte les transformations du cinéma au Maroc – et les transformations du Maroc par le cinéma – de 1907 à 1986. Elle relate notamment la lutte des cinéastes, après l’Indépendance, pour libérer l’image du pays du regard colonial. Lui-même metteur en scène, Bouanani s’imprègne des questions qu’il formule : comment faire revivre la mémoire culturelle alors qu’elle a été momifiée par des décennies d’assujettissement colonial ? Comment inventer une esthétique adaptée à son époque et à son lieu, une esthétique à travers laquelle les Marocains pourraient se reconnaître ? En somme, comment décoloniser l’écran ?
Cette rétrospective tente de se frayer un chemin vers la septième porte à travers le prisme d’images documentaires. C’est la première présentation de ce genre des débuts du cinéma documentaire marocain. Nous montrons un bref aperçu du cinéma colonial (français et espagnol), avant de plonger dans les trois premières décennies du cinéma national. En nous inspirant du livre de Bouanani, nous proposons un panorama éclectique des expérimentations menées, malgré la censure et les moyens limités, par une génération pionnière de cinéastes.
Depuis les exercices d’étudiants aux longs métrages à part entière, des commandes publiques aux projets subjectifs, ces films couvrent un large spectre créatif qui oscille entre la joie expérimentale et l’impatience politique ; poésie lyrique et ethnographie minutieuse ; exploration formelle et narration historique. Ils tirent la forme documentaire dans tous les sens.
Après les années 1970, la production de films documentaires au Maroc s’est raréfiée, avant de revenir en force deux décennies plus tard avec Dalila Ennadre, Hakim Belabbès et Ali Essafi. Cette période récente mériterait à elle seule une rétrospective. En nous concentrant sur la phase antérieure, notre principal regret est la quasi-absence de films réalisés par des femmes : alors que de nombreuses femmes ont façonné ces œuvres de manière invisible, ce n’est que plus tard, à partir des années 90, que des réalisatrices ont fait irruption sur la scène.
Nous considérons cette rétrospective comme une étape dans le projet en cours de récupérer notre mémoire culturelle dans toute sa riche multiplicité et de la partager avec le monde. Nous l’avons composé avec l’aide et le soutien de nombreux amis et collègues, principalement Touda Bouanani et Léa Morin ; ainsi que des institutions, notamment le CCM de Rabat, dont le personnel – notamment Tariq Khalami et Samir Bouachaibi – a dépassé notre attente. Nous sommes très reconnaissants à Manuel Asín et à toute l’équipe de Punto de vista pour leur invitation et leur soutien tout au long de ce processus.
Session 1 : Nuits coloniales
Arturo Pérez Camarero : Tetuán la blanca (1943, 15’)
Roger Leenhardt : La fugue de Mahmoud (1952, 33’)
Mostafa Derkaoui : Amghar (1968, 4’)
Ahmed Bouanani : Mémoire 14 (1971, 25’)
Ahmed Bouanani : Petite histoire en marge du cinématographe (1973, 6’)
Session 2 : Le pays de la mémoire
Ahmed Bouanani : Tarfaya ou la marche d’un poète (1966, 20’)
Ahmed Bouanani : Mémoire 14 (1971, 25’)
Mohamed Abouelouakar : Visages de Marrakech (1977, 35’)
Daoud Aoulad Syad : Mémoire ocre (1991, 17’)
Session 3 : A la recherche de la mort exacte
Abdelkader Lagtaâ : Une ombre parmi d’autres (1969, 5’)
Idriss Karim : Chant pour la mort des adolescents (1973, 11’)
Idriss Karim : Marta (1969, 6’)
Moumen Smihi : Si Moh, pas de chance (1971, 17’)
Majid Rechiche : Forêt (1970, 18’)
Majid Rechiche : Al-Boraq (1972, 30’)
Session 4 : Poètes et sociologues
Mohamed Afifi : De chair et d’acier (1959, 20’)
Mohamed Afifi : Retour à Agadir (1967, 11’)
Ahmed Bouanani, Majid Rechiche, Mohamed Abbderrahmane Tazi : 6 & 12 (1968, 18’)
Larbi Benchekroun : Le rocher (1958, 11’)
Latif Lahlou : Sin Agafaye (1967, 22’)
Mohammed Ait Youssef : Les tanneurs de Marrakech (1967, 21’)
Mohammed Ait Youssef : La nostalgie du naïf (1977, 10’)
Session 5 : Labyrinthes intérieurs
Abdellah Drissi : Lekcja 41 (1966, 7’)
Mostafa Derkaoui : Adoption (1968, 4’)
Hamid Bensaid : Zofia et Ludmila (1971, 9’)
Idriss Karim : Elzbieta K (1973, 12’)
Ahmed El Maânoui : Alyam, Alyam ! (1978, 80’)
Session 6 : Musique sans maquillage
Actualités marocaines : Masrah Ennas (1974, 6’)
Izza Genini : Aita (1987, 26’)
Ahmed El Maânouni : Transes (1981, 88’)
Session 7 : La Septième Porte
Ali Essafi : Crossing the Seventh Gate (2017, 80’). Suivi du lancement de la version espagnole de la Septième Porte !
Version (longue) du programme en anglais :
Introduction
“I do not claim to save Moroccan cinema by making a feature film, nor do I claim to make a masterpiece. (…) I actually proclaim my right to make bad movies, and this is not a joke. My only ambition — the ambition of all Moroccan filmmakers — is for the audience to get used to watching themselves on screen, to see their own problems being addressed and thus to be able to judge the society in which they live.”
(A. Bouanani, interview with Nour-Eddine Saïl, 1974)
Ahmed Bouanani’s La Septième Porte [The Seventh Gate] finally came out in 2020, after 33 years as an unpublished manuscript. The dearth of accessible archives being an impediment to research, there are very few substantive books about Moroccan cinema. Therefore, although it was written in the 1980s, La Septième Porte remains a fundamental resource. In addition to his analytical rigor and beautiful writing, Bouanani knew most Moroccan filmmakers personally, and worked on many of their films, as an editor, advisor or script writer. Having worked at the CCM (the Moroccan Film Center) for decades, he was also familiar with the archive of European productions made during the colonial period.
The Seventh Gate narrates the transformations of cinema in Morocco –and the transformations of Morocco through cinema– from 1907 to 1986. In particular, it chronicles the struggle of filmmakers, after Independence, to liberate the country’s image from the colonial gaze. As a director himself, Bouanani was fully immersed in the questions he was formulating: how to revive cultural memory when it has been mummified by decades of colonial subjugation? How to invent an aesthetic that is relevant to its time and place, an aesthetic through which Moroccans might recognize themselves? In sum, how to decolonize the screen?
This retrospective attempts to carve a path toward the seventh gate through the lens of documentary image-making. It is the first such presentation of the beginnings of Moroccan documentary film. We show a brief taste of (French and Spanish) colonial filmmaking, before delving into the first three decades of national cinema. Taking a cue from Bouanani’s book, we offer an eclectic panorama of experiments conducted, despite censorship and limited means, by a pioneering generation of filmmakers in all parts of the country and the diaspora.
From student exercises to full-fledged features, from public commissions to highly subjective projects, these films cover a wide creative spectrum that veers between experimental joy and political impatience; lyrical poetry and meticulous ethnography; formal exploration and historical narrative. They stretch the documentary form in all directions. As Ahmed El Maânouni said about his first feature, “the ‘documentary’ label is a catch-all. All I know is that the film is not science fiction. The audience will say whether our sounds and images are true.”
After the 1970s, documentary film production in Morocco became scarce, before returning forcefully two decades later with the likes of Dalila Ennadre, Hakim Belabbès, and Ali Essafi. This recent period would deserve a retrospective of its own. In focusing on the earlier phase, our main regret is the quasi-absence of films made by women: while many women have shaped these works in invisible ways, it was only later, from the 90s on, that women directors burst on the scene.
We view this retrospective as a step in the ongoing project of recovering our cultural memory in all its rich multiplicity, and sharing it with the world. We have composed it with help and support from many friends and colleagues, most crucially Touda Bouanani and Léa Morin; as well as institutions, especially the CCM in Rabat, whose staff –in particular Tariq Khalami and Samir Bouachaibi– went beyond the call of duty. We are very grateful to Manuel Asín and the whole Punto de vista team for their thoughtful invitation and their support throughout the process.
Programs
1/ Colonial Nights
In Morocco, the birth of cinema is inseparable from colonial conquest. The first cameras arrived alongside European armies and their tanks. In addition to propaganda reels documenting the invasion and its aftermath, Morocco soon became the site of a prolific film production. In it, for the most part, the natives appeared only as extras, and were excluded from access to technical or artistic training. Because of the absence of a precolonial tradition of figurative representation, decades of colonial filmmaking imposed a lasting orientalist image of the country and its people, which influenced even the way Moroccans saw themselves. For Ahmed Bouanani, the task of the first generation of Moroccan filmmakers was to recablirate the gaze, to re-learn how to look at their fellow citizens and their native landscapes, in order to counter the hegemogy of colonial representation. This is what he attempted in Mémoire 14, by literally decomposing and resequencing French propaganda reels in a way that makes them tell the story otherwise.
Arturo Pérez Camarero : Tetuán la blanca (1943, 15’)
Roger Leenhardt : La fugue de Mahmoud (1952, 33’)
Mostafa Derkaoui : Amghar (1968, 4’)
Ahmed Bouanani : Mémoire 14 (1971, 25’)
Ahmed Bouanani : Petite histoire en marge du cinématographe (1973, 6’)
2/ The Country of Memory
No issue was more important to Ahmed Bouanani than memory. He understood early on that the unified nationalist narrative pushed by the newly independent state was just as dangerous as the distorted image the colonizers had imposed, because it marginalized too many voices. He wanted to tell history from below, to honor the human and non-human diversity of the territory he called home. This meant relying on people’s stories. It meant valuing myths and popular legends above and beyond the academic discipline of History. Despite suspicion and censorship, he would subvert pubblic commissions in order to make films that bear witness to a truly collective memory. In Tarfaya ou la marche d’un poète, a fictional coming-of-age scenario makes way for a lively depiction of village markets and Saharan landscapes, holy shrines and storytelling circles. Bouanani was only able to make a small number of films, but his method left a mark on many filmmakers, as this program shows.
Ahmed Bouanani : Tarfaya ou la marche d’un poète (1966, 20’)
Ahmed Bouanani : Mémoire 14 (1971, 25’)
Mohamed Abouelouakar : Visages de Marrakech (1977, 35’)
Daoud Aoulad Syad : Mémoire ocre (1991, 17’)
3/ In search of Perfect Death
For Forêt, shot in Aïn Leuh near Azrou, Majid Rechiche wrote a fictional script based on a true story in which a man killed his wife for a trivial reason. The film describes the alienating situation of an individual in a closed world. In La Septième Porte, Bouanani suggests “comparing this experiment with one that took place the same year, in Paris, thousands of kilometers from Aïn Leuh (…) Si Moh has a subtitle that would be valid for Forêt as well: des kilomètres de secondes à rechercher la mort exacte. It is the story of a North African looking for work. Between the compatriots he meets and an address for a job, he wanders the French capital and gets lost (…)”, like Rechiche’s protagonist, except his forest is made of concrete. We extend Bouanani’s intuition by including Rechiche’s Al-Boraq, and three student shorts made by Moroccan filmmakers in Lødz. These 6 films, made around the same time in different locations, convey a sense of ominousness, a political intuition of impending doom at the height of the oppressive Years of Lead.
Abdelkader Lagtaâ : Une ombre parmi d’autres (1969, 5’)
Idriss Karim : Chant pour la mort des adolescents (1973, 11’)
Idriss Karim : Marta (1969, 6’)
Moumen Smihi : Si Moh, pas de chance (1971, 17’)
Majid Rechiche : Forêt (1970, 18’)
Majid Rechiche : Al-Boraq (1972, 30’)
4/ Poets and Sociologists
This session stages a confrontation between two parallel schools of documentary filmmaking: 1/ the “brief documentary school” pioneered by Mohamed Afifi, composed of poetic experiments in which Ahmed Bouanani included his own films, as well as Majid Rechiche’s Forêt and Al-Boraq; and 2/ the “sociological” school, whose filmmakers worked with or were influenced by Paul Pascon, who is often referred to as the father of Moroccan sociology. The sociological films were aiming for a form of ethnography that distances itself from its colonial roots, in order to re-appropriate and re-describe customs and rituals on local terms. The Afifi school displays formal rigor and suspicion toward commentary. For Afifi, Retour à Agadir is “not a documentary, much less a tourist film. If I had to recount it, I would say that it is the brief course of a memory presented under the guise of a statue in several movements. If this seemed insufficiently clear, I would add that the stanzas that make up Return to Agadir constitute a closed work. If the viewer finds a key, s/he owns the film.”
Mohamed Afifi : De chair et d’acier (1959, 20’)
Mohamed Afifi : Retour à Agadir (1967, 11’)
Ahmed Bouanani, Majid Rechiche, Mohamed Abbderrahmane Tazi : 6 & 12 (1968, 18’)
Larbi Benchekroun : Le rocher (1958, 11’)
Latif Lahlou : Sin Agafaye (1967, 22’)
Mohammed Ait Youssef : Les tanneurs de Marrakech (1967, 21’)
Mohammed Ait Youssef : La nostalgie du naïf (1977, 10’)
5/ Inner labyrinths
This screening brings together Ahmed El Maânouni’s first feature film, shot in Morocco’s countryside, and a set of shorts made by 4 Moroccan directors while students in Łódź, where they were mentored by such documentary film greats as Kazimierz Karabasz. Alas, the remarkable political and aesthetic maturity of these student films remained a suspended promise: when they returned to Morocco, censorship and the marginalization of the documentary genre forced them to change course. Despite formal and contextual differences, all the films in this session draw us closer to the inner labyrinths of people experiencing forms of social exile. Perhaps due to their own status as new immigrants in Poland, in addition to their radical political commitments, Drissi, Derkaoui, Karim and Bensaid gravitated toward situations of racial discrimination, material poverty, and social marginalization. Just like they portray their characters’ daily lives, El Maânouni films the ordinary life of rural Moroccans in a way that allows us to experience its cadence – all the while focusing on a young man whose feeling of internal exile makes him fiercely want to leave the country.
Abdellah Drissi : Lekcja 41 (1966, 7’)
Mostafa Derkaoui : Adoption (1968, 4’)
Hamid Bensaid : Zofia et Ludmila (1971, 9’)
Idriss Karim : Elzbieta K (1973, 12’)
Ahmed El Maânoui : Alyam, Alyam ! (1978, 80’)
6/ Music without Make-up
Of all the art forms in 1970s and 80s Morocco, music was perhaps the most potent, aesthetically and politically. Nass El Ghiwane was an iconic band, both for the way they claimed and renewed a specifically Moroccan music rooted in African musical traditions, and for the way they voiced people’s desire for freedom. By devoting a film to them in which the band’s members are shown in their humble quotidianness, El Maânouni painted the poignant portrait of a generation. Transes’ producer, Izza Genini, would later direct her own musical films, in the form of an ample series of shorts devoted to different genres of traditional Moroccan music. The first one, Aita, is a portrait of legendary cheikha Fatna Bent Lhoucine, and was co-edited by Ahmed Bouanani. To introduce the session, we screen a brief feature on Tayeb Saddiki’s “masrah ennas” [People’s theater]. Saddiki pioneered a modern form of musical theater, which provided Nass El Ghiwane their early training in the 1960s. He is also the author of a feature film, Zeft (1984), which was produced by Genini.
Actualités marocaines : Masrah Ennas (1974, 6’)
Izza Genini : Aita (1987, 26’)
Ahmed El Maânouni : Transes (1981, 88’)
7/ The Seventh Gate
Completed in 1987, Ahmed Bouanani’s La Septième Porte [The Seventh Gate], like most of his manuscripts, remained unpublished for over three decades before it started its existence as a book at the end of 2020. Today we celebrate the book’s Spanish translation, published on the occasion of this retrospective, by screening Ali Essafi’ film, Crossing the Seventh Gate. It is a feature-length portrait of Ahmed Bouanani, whom Essafi visited and filmed in 2008, three years before his death. By then, Bouanani was leading a reclusive life in a remote village with his wife Naïma and many cats, amid huge piles of books and manuscripts. He was physically frail but unbroken in spirit. Combined with photographs, documents, film excerpts, and an old TV interview, Bouanani’s comments about his place within Moroccan cinema, the censorship he suffered, and his work as a film editor give a poignant sense of his lasting relevance and unshakable integrity.
Ali Essafi : Crossing the Seventh Gate (2017, 80’)
Followed by a book launch for the Spanish translation of Ahmed Bouanani’s La Septième Porte.
Archives Bouanani 