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Allal-cinemagoer : Whenever i go to see an avant-première movie or a seminar about cinema, i find you there holding your CCD camera trying to find the best moments of actions.It seems you love cinema too much .Where do you get this kind of passion of this noble art ?
Abbar : From cinema itself and mainly from looking at the image and taste its wonderful composition , color and lighting . You know Allal, i have come from a poor family that means we did not have a TV set untill i was twelve .Then, my parents bought a TV set in black and white ,But still i was fascinated by that wonderful world of moving images .So,i started to love this image through television and passion grew wider and wider in me .
Allal-cinemagoer : You mean you were observing animations of the images within your imagination .It should have had a great impact on you as a child ?
Abbar : Curiosity of how those image makers produce images overtook my mind. Whenever i watched a TV program , i began to analyze it in a critical way .I remember my first program that i had watched on TV, was an Egyptian movie starring Foad Al Mohandiss.IMy first observations on movies was as follows;a car must stop somewhere in Sahara and this same car has left some wheel traces behind it.there are too many wheel steps left on earth and that means that sequence is shot and reshot many times.This observation impressed me a lot caused within me a criteria that impelled me to do more observation in depth as far movies techniques are concerned .
Allal-cinemagoer : I can see you are still young . You could have gone to the university and deepened your studies ?
Abbar : I had to stop studying because the passion to work on movies has invaded me . Khalid Ibrahimi, a TV director,called me to work with him in a TV drama series called Modawala . I learnt a lot from this type of work . Whenever i had time, i would think about what kind of job i might take in cinema especailly if any opportunity came to me.The idea of filming through camera passioned me a lot .I just love to take camera and start looking for beautiful pictures .It is really something magical and wonderful to see your tiny world through lenzes of your camera .
Allal-cinemagoer : But you were chosen or rather given the job of a sound technician ?
Abbar : I know that sound is very crucial to complete any cinematic or tv work.But i always prefer to be a cameraman .The technique of sound is great and sound designers are making too many movies successful like Karim Ronda in Cinema and Khalid Akdi the mixer of Protools Auditorium at SNRT . But,as i said to you before camera has been my first love because of its beautiful images it produces .
Allal-cinemagoer : I know that you worked with SNRT as a free-lance sound technician. Television ignores you for a while and does not want you to work on its productions .?
Abbar : Good for me .The job of a free-lance is much better than working with an institution that misunderstands technicians.Besides,working as a free-lance allows me to have more good opportunities like meeting interesting people and getting involved into varied fields of cinema .Forexample,the best thing that happened to me was to meet Fouzi Hussain,the manager of Fouzi vision. Fouzi called me to work with him at Fouzi vision society after going through my technical experiences such as working at SNRT, EL Jazeera, and Abu Dabai .
Allal-cinemagoer : Driss Chwika called you then on what technical background ?
Abbar : At Fouzi vision society, Driss Chwika proposed me to work with him as a sound technician.A huge gate has opened in front of my artistic career especially i was allowed for the first time to be in great cinematic seminars ,intellectual meetings ,Studio Atlas in Warzazzat and above all organizing interviews with film-makers, academics and cinema-goers .
Allal-cinemagoer : Film dicussions too,i presume. Do you think that discussing a movie after watching it, might produce film-makers like Driss Chwika who comes from Cineclubs and also strengthen cinematic cultural backgrounds and encourage cinephila ?
Abbar : Definitely.To discuss a movie is to dig deeply about its artistic structures.How this movies is made ,what kind of cinematic language does the film-makers use ? What is the style,and criteria of the movie? All these items helps me a lot to understand cinema,its mechanisms and its aesthetics .
It is good to see now that Moroccan movies make wonderful box office just like - The Angels of The Satan - directed By Ahmed Boulane and Nancy and the Monster directed by Mahmoud Frites. These film-makers target the public professionally, not using intellectual or individual cinema which is badly accepted by this public itself .
interviewed by Allal El Alaoui
