About this Event
Amazigh Cinema: Introduction to North African Indigenous Film (University of Regina Press/NYU Press, 2025), co-edited by Lucy McNair and Yahya Laayouni, is a collection of essays by an international group of experts on North African Indigenous expression and media, which offers the first English-language analysis of Amazigh cinema for North American and global readers, taking note of a growing archive of under-examined Amazigh-related films. As co-editors, McNair and Laayouni provide a critical introduction to this archive’s historical, cultural, and linguistic contexts across the space of the Tamazgha and diasporic communities. Some chapters trace broad links between oral performance, amateur video, and feature films, and offer theoretical frameworks. The book contrasts Amazigh production with other national and global cinemas and evaluates the reception of what contributors alternately call “Amazigh-Speaking Cinema” or “Amazigh cinematographic space.” Examining how cinematic art plays a role in preserving Amazigh language and shaping Amazigh identity or Amazighity, including gender identity, the essay collection also shows how these films give witness to a long history of repression and exclusion as well as creative resiliency.
Taazrit, (directed by Arinas Kaouther Dernouni, 2024, 35 min., in Arabic, Chaoui, and French, with English subtitles) follows the daily life of Habiba, a Chaoui woman from Ghassira, a semi-desert village in the Aurès Mountains of eastern Algeria. Far from neo-orientalist stereotypes, her relationship to the land resonates as an expression of collective memory — the memory of generations of women who shaped their lives beyond official narratives and modern conceptions that reduce belonging to an act of ownership. Habiba navigates between her attachment to traditions that carry the stories of her ancestors and her desire to redefine her identity beyond imposed categories. Through her journey, she raises profound questions about freedom, belonging, and self-determination, revealing how a woman can reclaim her body, her land, and her life in the face of social constraints. Beneath her apparent lightness lies a quiet yet unwavering form of resistance, one that redefines her connection to territory, history, and herself.
Event Details & Important Information
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Event venue & nearby stays
Maison Française, 515 West 116th Street, New York, United States
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