South West Asia and North Africa, there are historical records of women’s cinema since the 1920s. However, a lack of state funding for archival projects, as well as factors such as conflict and war, mean that we often watch these films through reading about them. The films themselves are inaccessible, or more often damaged or lost.
Feminist history is subversive, and often excluded from mainstream historiographies. Since the 1970s, many women have made films about archiving practice, or their own cultural histories which have been made absent from popular imagination. In more recent times, digital technology has become a mode of reconstructing stories in the absence of archival material, as well as a tool to undertake more ambitious restoration projects.
This film series includes a cult-classic from the archives, an essay film exploring the nature of archiving, and three experiments in transmission; celluloid, CGI and the mosalsalat. They are examples of imagining otherwise, in a region where feminist histories remain on the margins.
— Róisín Tapponi
Curated by Róisín Tapponi, the Founder of Habibi Collective, SHASHA Movies, ART WORK Magazine, and Independent Iraqi Film Festival (IIFF).
Co-presented by ArteEast and Anthology Film Archives, this series is part of the legacy program “Unpacking the ArteArchive,” which preserves and presents over 17 years of film and video programming by ArteEast. In addition to the in-person, theatrical screenings at Anthology, the series will be presented on artearchive.org from February 4 -13.
Online Film Program:
THE NOUBA WOMEN OF MOUNT CHENOUA, Assia Djebar, Algeria,1977, 115 min
GHARIBA, Meriem Bennani, Morocco/U.S., 2017, 19 min
A FEELING GREATER THAN LOVE, Mary Jirmanus Saba, Lebanon, 2017, 99 min
KHTOBTOGONE, Sara Sadik, France, 2021, 16 min
ARCHIVE FEVER: WOMEN’S CINEMA FROM SOUTH-WEST ASIA AND NORTH AFRICA will also be screening onsite at Anthology Film Archive (NYC):
- Assia Djebar
- THE NOUBA WOMEN OF MOUNT CHENOUA
- February 4 at 7:30 PM
- ARCHIVE FEVER: SHORT FILM PROGRAM
- February 7 at 7:30 PM
- Mary Jirmanus Saba
- A FEELING GREATER THAN LOVE
- February 9 at 7:30 PM
For more info go to www.anthologyfilmarchives.org
