Moroccan cinema [Ressource électronique] : what Moroccan cinema ? / Sandra Gayle Carter

Doctor of Philosophy : The University of Texas at Austin : 1999

Bibliogr. p. 710-758

Forty years o f Moroccan cinema (films and film industry) proffer significant insights into various, sometimes contradictory, aspects of the nation and people. Historiographic analysis of production, distribution and exhibition comprises one level o f influences upon and ramifications o f Moroccan cinema. Because film is embedded in a larger realm o f significations and actions, socially and culturally, analysis of Moroccan film history also demands a cultural studies approach that embeds films and filmmaking in a specific context (time, place). Cultural studies, drawing primarily upon early orientations at Birmingham, and Gramscian-derived perspectives enunciated by Stuart Hall, interpolates the cinema industry with society, culture, government and economics, and cinema productions as products/reflections o f those same influences. A nation's films offer perspectives into the nation, for insider and outsider viewers, and thus provide Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. additional analytical resources. Film content, within historical periods, reflects unique developments in stories, structures, styles and genres, and insight into filmmakers as well as broader socio-political and cultural forces. Moroccan Cinema: What Moroccan Cinema? develops a historical trajectory of Moroccan cinema (industry and films) from Moroccan political independence, 19S6, until 1996. Chapters devote equal emphasis to industrial and film analyses, embedded in specific socio-political moments. Research materials utilized for historical and filmic discourse derive partially from Moroccan researchers published only within that country, in both Arabic and French, combined with this researcher's analytical viewing of numerous films and events discussed within the dissertation. Several genres and film styles are connected to individual filmmakers, along with discussion of film topics most expressive of the body of work throughout the forty years analyzed. An early emphasis upon documentary and short films progresses through decades into a primary emphasis on feature filmmaking and concerns about exhibition and distribution, nationally and internationally, and a concomitant preoccupation with finances and funding. Theater exhibitions not comprising the entirety of the film venues in Morocco, other realms are interrelated: cinema clubs, cinema caravans, television, videocassettes, and eventually satellite delivery mechanisms. Yet mechanisms have influences, which are interwoven into the overall discussion of industry and product in Morocco. Two additional influential components comprise Berber video makers, and emigrant Moroccan filmmakers.