Film making in the 'Capital of the Third World': Anticolonial and Feminist Approaches to Cinema in 1960's Algeria.
An afternoon of curated film screenings and talks on Third-Worldism, anti-colonial resistance, and feminism in Algeria.

The anticolonial struggles on the three continents Africa, Asia and Latin America in the second half of the 20thcentury not only challenged the imperialist world order, but the cultural and artistic practices developed within these struggles also broke with the racist and exoticizing representations of colonized peoples that dominated imperialist imaginations. It was especially cinema which played a significant role in the construction of a self-confident image of those who were formerly colonized or who were about to get rid of colonialism.

Algeria’s victorious revolution, which led to independence in 1962, was one of the first heavily medialized anticolonial struggles that developed a distinctive tradition of militant, anticolonial, and internationalist filmmaking. These practices continued and were further developed after independence, when Algeria became one of the centers of the Third World. In the 1960’s and the early 1970’s the country hosted a wide range of members of anticolonial movements and organized cultural and political events that became crucial for the movements of the Third World, such as the Festival Panafricain (1969), the 4th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement and the Third World Filmmakers Meeting (both 1973).

This workshop examines the forms in which the Algerian anticolonial cinema was expressed and how it influenced filmmaking in other countries of the Third World. Since militant, anti-colonial cinema is often portrayed as solely focusing on heroic male fighters and therefore of being strongly masculinist, the day will give a special attention to feminist approaches within Third World filmmaking. It reflects on the representation of women in Arab-African contexts and on the intersections between gender, militancy and decolonization. The workshop is equally interested in the international networks of anti-colonial cinema and its connection to filmmaking in the socialist bloc as well as to internationalist groups in the West.

Program

15:00 Opening of the theatre

15:45-16:00 Welcome and Introduction: Fernanda Fischione

16:00-16:30 Kickoff speech: Louisa Yousfi. FR>IT translation: Valerio Cordiner

16.30-18:00 First film screening: Focus on Gender in anticolonial film making
Ahmed Lallem, Elles (The Women), DZ 1966, 22 min
Sarah Maldoror, Monangambeee, DZ 1969, 16 min
Mathieu Kleyebe Abonnenc, Foreword to ‘Guns for Banta’, F 2011, 28 min

18:00-19:00 Roundtable 1
with Luca Caminati, Luca Peretti, Masha Salazkina, Julian Volz

19:00-19.30 Break

19:30-21.15 Second film screening: Panafricanism
William Klein, Festival Panafricain d’Alger, DZ 1969, 102 min

21:15-22:15 Roundtable 2 and discussion with the public
with participants of Roundtable 1 (ensuing discussion with the audience)

Please register via: https://www.eventbrite.it/e/biglietti-film-making-in-the-capital-of-the-third-world-1323542744979?aff=oddtdtcreator

Organizers of the event: Fernanda Fischione (Sapienza University of Rome) and Julian Volz (Leuphana University Lüneburg)
Contact: julian.volzleuphana.de

Project website: https://www.transect.eu/anticolonial-and-feminist-approaches-to-cinema-in-1960s-algeria/