This book analyzes the rise of socially and politically engaged Algerian documentaries, created in the period immediately following the end of the Algerian civil war (1991-1999). It uses case studies to highlight the works of four Algerian filmmakers, and devotes a chapter to each: Malek Bensmaïl, Hassen Ferhani, Djamel Kerkar, and Karim Sayad. The book makes visible productions that have been overlooked not only in distribution circuits but also within academia, and examines the political significance and the esthetic power of some of the most influential Algerian documentaries produced since the 2000s.
Author(s): Meryem Belkaïd
Series: Palgrave Studies in Arab Cinema
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 150
City: Cham
Note on Transcription and Translation
Acknowledgments
Contents
List of Figures
Chapter 1: Introduction
Algerian Identities
Algerian Cinema and National Identity
Immersive and Oppositional Documentaries
Myths About Algeria (and How to Deconstruct Them)
Chapters
References
Chapter 2: A Brief History of Documentaries in Algerian Cinema
Wartime Documentaries
Documentaries in the 1960s
The Centre Audio-Visuel De Ben Aknoun
The Office of Algerian Newsreel (L’Office des actualités algériennes, OAA)
Casbah Film
Documentary, Censorship, and Dissidence in the 1970s and the 1980s
Algerian Documentaries During the Civil War
Documentaries After the Civil War
References
Chapter 3: Malek Bensmaïl: The Legacy of the Revolution and the Question of Democracy
The Legacy of the Revolution
Social Malaise and the Question of Democracy.
Alienations, Imaginaries, and Trauma
The Media Between Hope and Paralysis
References
Chapter 4: Hassen Ferhani: Margins, Beauty, and Truth
Disrupting Official Discourse: Afric Hotel (2010)
Exploring the Margins
References
Chapter 5: Djamel Kerkar. Past, Present, and Poetry
Women at Work: Archipel (2012)
Atlal: A Cinematographic Response to a Historiographic Impasse
References
Chapter 6: Karim Sayad: Disrupting Myths of Masculinity
Humanizing Soccer Fans
Failed Manhood Versus Successful Manhood?
My English Cousin (2019): Deconstructing a Dream
References
Chapter 7: Conclusion
Filmography
Index
