Moroccan cinema by Driss MOUANA - French version -

  Presentation Driss MOUANAt by allal

Good Bye ISADAC

Written by Allal EL Alaoui

Acting in Morocco is not new .It is related to Halka; actors gathering people around them usually in a cirle and you can listen to this kind of stories right in the heart of Marrakech ;  a place called Jamaa El Fna square .Now,some Moroccan towns like Mekness  invite the same Halkas just to seduce consumers because it is about buying goods and at the same time  having pleasure.

Right after the independance of Morocco, some Moroccan students went to France to study theatre just like Taib Essadiki,Chafik Shimi and more others . Others prefered to go to Egypt or Syria because of patriotic or nationalistic reasons .Any way, some forms of  theatre have been known in Morocco ;although in general Arabs already refused theatre in the past because its dareness to blasphemy .

After Cairo ;Demascus,and Baghdad and there comes Rabat creating  a new establishmement called ISADAC, a french word meaning ; institure of theatre of dramatic studies which is apparently  training, and urges to study and research in all areas of theater. It is created by decree No. 2.83.706 of 18 January 1985, under the Ministry of culture in Morocco.

One of its objectives is to train professional actors and introduce them to theatre and cinema world.yet,ironically its actors are lost in cafés of major towns in Morocco  just like Café Terrace in Rabat ; which is itself becoming a commercial café meeting .There are other places that actors and actresses usually meet and discuss the market of jobs just like La Ruche, Halinka, Triangle Rouge in Rabat,la comédie in Fès and café de la France in Casablanca .

According to Hicham El Wali and Said Ait Baja, recently interviewed in Al Oula TV,they state that the position of actors in Morocco is critically bad and it is getting worse, because first the jobs are findless and even if there is a job , excecutif producers pay them badly (see the famous 2M series called – AL Majdoub - in which Hicham EL Wali has worked in and appealled to tribunal   the producer himself  .The production company of Al Majdoub has declared its fraud and it can not really pay all actors . In the past, ISADAC was a seducing place for young comers .However now , it really becomes empty proscenium arch ; producing only unemployed actors,states Said Ait Baja .ISADAC achieved nearly 1000 adherents before and in 2012 only 350 which is a considerable decrease in number.

Still , girls in the world of theatre  namely in movies are confronting sexual abuse not denying that some of them accept the offer willingly just to get a part in a movie or theatre .Some students in ISADAC convey strange behaviours of ISADAC teachers as to ask them for sex ,but this fact is not  yet confirmed .

Either what Mahmoud Frites has recently  conveyed about the decline of Art in Morocco or the melancoly of actors already lost in pubs, expensive cafés and hotels ,states Khalid Didane in his recent play called – Hawlasa – Acting is  still a passion for many and Moroccan actors are going through painful moments only theatre and cinema-goers know this secret. In some way,Moroccan actor becomes more melancolic than Hamlet who confronts not only a « corrupt king » but too many nasty nature elements.

The ISADAC

Admission to the Higher Institute of Dramatic Art and Cultural Animation is done by competition open to candidates aged 17 to 23 years, holders of bachelor of secondary education or a recognized equivalent.

Students of  foreign nationals may be admitted, subject to availability, on the same terms.

Their applications must reach the direction of ISADAC through the competent department of the Ministry of Culture and Foreign Affairs of their countries

FONCTIONS

Institut Supérieur d'Art Dramatique et d'Animation Culturelle est une école nationale spécialisée dans la formation des cadres supérieurs dans les métiers du théâtre :

Formation de base

Interprétation et jeu : Théâtre, Télévision et cinéma

Formation en option

Mise en scène, dramaturgie et administration théâtrale

Formation de base   :

- Scénographie, décor et technique de la scène .

Formation en option  :

- Marionnettes, costumes, éclairage et son

Formation continue

Perfectionnement et spécialisation des professionnels des arts du spectacl

« Suit the action to the word, the word to the action, with this special observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature. For anything so overdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first and now, was and is, to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to nature, to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure »

Shakespeare

10 Films That Can Teach You Everything You Need To Know About Film-making

 

  10 Films That Can Teach You Everything You Need to Know About Film by allal

OMAR by Hany Abu-Assad

Maghrebi's women cinema

  Screens and Veils: Maghrebi Women's Cinema by Indiana University Press

Cinebassamat is back again in 2014

By Ali Karama

Cinebassamat is back again with new 2014 shortfilms from all over Moroccan , Arabic and African countries . Cinebassamat is speahead by Abdellah Haimer  whose vision about cinema is more plastical  than technical  that is why his film festival  awards the winner as Mohammed El Kacimi prize . Now Abdou  is challenging media and cinema events in Morocco by annoucing its 6Th Film Festival of Cinebassamat in Rabat and according to Abdellah this festival will take place in the 7 Art cinema in Rabat in the 6 Th of April until The 10th of it 2014.

  Cine Bassam At by allal

The full program will be published soon

Hamid Bennani honors Moroccan cinema

That was somewhere in Mekness where i happened to meet for the second time Hamid Bennani, a decent man whose quite and yet beautiful soul lurks among Meknassy streets.Hamid is a Moroccan filmmaker who has been influenced by spanish surrealist film director Louis Bunuel .Thanks to Hamid , Moroccan  cinema knew its first path to professionnalism by realizing his remarquable long featured movie called - Wechma - along with Ahmed Bouanani , Mohamed Abderrahman Tazi and Mohamed Sekkat.

In 1958,Hamid Bennani enjoys training in drama and creative workshop and writing organized by the Ministry of Youth and Sports in Morocco. He made his high school to colleges and Poeymirau Moulay Ismail , before joining the Faculty of Letters of Rabat where he obtained a degree in philosophy in 1964.

In 1965, he studied film at the Institute of Film Studies ( IDHEC ) currently Femis , which he won in 1967, " Production and Economy, Production " section. He was part of another promotion  of Moroccan filmmakers  Moumen Smihi . While studying in Rabat and Paris , he attended seminars by philosophers Jacques Derrida, Roland Barthes and Paul Ricoeur .

In 1968 , he joined the Moroccan Radio and Television RTM where he held the position of head of department of external relations. He resigned from RTM in 1970 and founded the production company " Sigma 3 " in collaboration with Bouanani Ahmed Mohamed Abderrahman Tazi and Mohamed Sekkat. This is the company that produced the same year his first feature film " Wechma " (Traces ) .

This is the film that , upon completion , enjoyed a reputation worldwild  , thanks to mini circuits film clubs under the auspices of the Moroccan Federation of Film Societies (HSFC ) who participated to Besides the financing of the film, as well as abroad where he won numerous awards in film festivals. Criticism welcomes with enthusiasm and it recognizes a hitherto unsurpassed quality . It is widely considered the founder of the Moroccan cinema film. Films previously made ​​by Moroccan filmmakers , including "Beating to live," "When mature dates " and " Spring Sun " in comparison with " Wechma " are reproductions , sometimes lazy , stereotypes known to all .

" Wechma " is a film in the heavy atmosphere that is more interested in the internal struggles of the characters and their actions. This was an important step in the evolution of Moroccan cinema since paved the way for new storytelling techniques explored by Moumen Smihi , and Mustapha Ahmed Bouanani and Derkaoui . Despite its critical success, the film enjoyed only a short commercial release in Casablanca ( Morocco ) and it was not until 1980 that must be projected into  the " 7th Art " in Rabat. However, he was presented several times in the circuits of film clubs across the cities of Morocco.

He had to wait almost twenty years before turning his second feature film , "The prayer of the absent ", the original title was " The Secrets of the Milky Way ." The film is adapted from the very famous novel writer Tahar Ben Jelloun "The prayer of the absent ." Unfortunately, this last film did not benefit from the same esteem reserved for the previous film. Both factors explain this critical public and semi-failure .

He wanted to instill in his film an international dimension to the way of Luis Buñuel, he is his follower , hence the original title of the film. Because it remains true Moroccan specialist Buñuel which he devoted many studies published by the short-lived magazine " Cinema 3 ".

However Hamid Benani claims over Sartrean influence.

John Truby, Syd Field, Linda Seger, Michael Hauge

Syd Field: A Historical Perspective

By: Script Magazine | January 9, 2014

http://www.scriptmag.com/features/syd-field-historical-perspective

by Dr. Linda Seger

The Great American Dream used to be the aspiration to write the Great American Novel, not the Great American Screenplay. A few novelists and playwrights wended their way to Hollywood to write screenplays, often with disastrous results and unhappy lives, feeling constrained by the form and the crass commercialism of Hollywood. Screenwriting was not something that was done by many and it was believed you couldn’t learn it. The conventional wisdom was: you either have talent and could do it, or could not. Famous writer William Goldman said, “Nobody knows anything.” It was believed by some as a truism until that philosophy came into conflict with Syd Field.

Syd changed that and, by so doing, he changed the way screenwriters and other film professionals thought about art and craft. Maybe art couldn’t be taught, but it could be encouraged and inspired. And Syd showed that craft could be learned. Syd began to set the stage for a way to approach screenwriting and began to excite students about taking classes. Writers who had never taken a class in writing or drama or film began to realize there was something to learn which helped them down the mysterious and often murky path of screenwriting. Screenwriting classes and books may or may not make them the Great American Screenwriter, but they guided the way for students to get better at their craft.

Syd is known as one of the great writing teachers and one of the first to discuss and champion the paradigm of the Three-Act Structure as it relates to screenwriting. Syd began developing his theories when reading thousands of scripts in the 1970s and seeing what worked and what didn’t.  He didn’t invent the Three-Act Structure (that has been around since the first caveman stories!) nor did he invent all the theories about screenwriting, but he made it easier for teachers who came after him to teach and write about screenwriting.

Some of the first generation of screenwriting teachers were developing their own theories in the 1970s as Syd was developing his and writing about them. I wrote my doctoral thesis in 1976 on the elements that make a great script. John Truby developed his theories of Story in the early 70s while studying the philosophy of literature and film. By the early to mid 1980s, the first generation of screenwriting teachers were proving there was something to learn. Robert McKee began doing his 2-3 day seminars in 1984. In 1985, John Truby began to teach his class, The Anatomy of Storytelling. Michael Hauge used his experiences working in development as the basis for his screenwriting seminars and his books. Lew Hunter and Richard Walter, both professors at UCLA, began expanding their work nationally and internationally. By the mid -1980s, Tom Schlesinger and Christopher Vogler were teaching “The Hero’s Journey” and Pamela Jaye Smith came slightly afterwards,  applying mythology to film. Kathie Fong Yoneda discussed what makes a commercial script. Madeleine DiMaggio expanded into giving classes about  television writing. Viki King and Carl Sautter began giving seminars in the mid-1980s and their books came out within a few months of my first book (1988.)  Now, there are hundreds of screenwriting books, covering many different aspects of screenwriting.

As an author Syd was a pioneer, blazing a trail so that other screenwriting books that came after his had a better chance of being recognized and accepted. His theories were accessible and practical and clear. His first book, Screenplay, came out in 1978, and The Screenplay Workbook came out in 1980. When I wrote a proposal for Making a Good Script Great in 1986, the proposal was sent to Syd’s former editor who had moved to another publishing company. Since she knew how successful Syd’s book had been, she took my proposal far more seriously than her colleagues. She called Syd to ask if he knew who I was and he said, “Yes,” which cleared the way for the sale. As I prepared to write the book, I asked myself, “Why is Syd’s book so much more popular than any of the other books that came out during the 1980s?” (There actually were a few.) I looked carefully at Syd’s writing style and saw that it had short, readable sentences. It was entertaining. It was conversational. And I based my writing style partly on his stylistic approach.

All of us who taught during the 1980s encountered an attitude of resistance that started changing as a result of Syd’s teaching and his books and as a result of the first generation of screenwriting teachers. For those of us who started traveling abroad in the mid-to-late 1980s, the usual welcome from our host expressed doubt about how we would be received. The host often said, “The students coming to this class are not open to being taught screenwriting, especially by teachers from Hollywood, and we expect there’ll be problems. But maybe you’ll win them over.” By the 1990s and into the new millennium, that attitude, for the most part, had changed. Today, there all well over 20 screenwriting teachers from all over the world traveling internationally, sharing a new openness and excitement with students and professionals. All of us in one way or another are beholden to Syd for having begun this process.

Whether we agreed with his path or not, he made our paths easier because he had paved a way. Some of us saw ourselves as widening the path, looking at more subtleties about how that structure worked as well as beginning to focus on other aspects of screenwriting. Some took other paths. By the second generation of screenwriting teachers, some began to explore more fully all the different, divergent ways of moving off of the Three-Act Structure, such as Linda Aaronson’s contributions in the area of non-traditional structures which still had a basis in the Three-Act Structure.

Syd enhanced our ability to communicate with each other because he began to create a screenwriting language, not just for writers but for all film professionals. It’s not unusual anymore for a producer to tell a screenwriter that there are “third-act problems,” or for a director to want to strengthen a “plot point.” It’s taken for granted by most film professionals that movies have beginnings, middles, and ends and that we can actually assess and analyze these aspects of a script. But that was not always true. In the late 1970s, screenwriting was considered such a mysterious process that many thought, “We must not even try to understand it.”

During the 1980s, screenwriting teachers and authors were very competitive with each other. Seminar participants were sometimes asked to decide who was “the greatest screenwriting guru of them all.” Most of us (if not all of us) in one way or another, were affected by these attitudes. Carl Sautter called it the “Seminar Wars,” and he wanted to bring an end to it by having a party where we would all be forced to relate civilly to each other! He died before the party came to pass, but the attitude did begin to change by the late 1980s, as various teachers began talking to each other and even forming friendships. Syd was one of the best at this. He was welcoming and accessible to his colleagues. When I first met Syd in 1983, I had read his first two books and I called him to introduce myself. Syd invited me to a book signing and we had coffee afterwards. We talked about his vocabulary of “Plot Points” and mine of “Turning Points” and decided they were the same. I told him that I had started a business as a script consultant which intrigued him, and he said to me, “I’d like to be a script consultant, also” and I said, “Feel free–go for it!” Although Syd had been working on developing scripts and troubleshooting scripts with his students, I talked to him about script consulting as an independent, private entrepreneurial business. He told me later that it was shortly after that when he began his own private script consulting business.

In 2006, Syd and I, John Truby, and Michael Hauge, began teaching together as part of a new Screenwriting Summit created by Derek Christopher. In 2012, Christopher Vogler joined the Summit. The five of us taught together in Las Vegas in December 2012 and we were all looking forward to working together in London in 2013. We presented the London Screenwriting Summit the weekend of November 16th, knowing that Syd was very ill and that it was possible he would die that weekend. He died a few hours after completion of the Summit.

I often thought how big a person Syd was to say, “Yes,” to the idea of teaching with his colleagues, all of whom had come after him and all of whom he could easily have seen as competition. But Syd didn’t see it that way. He had a kind and open and generous and big heart and for six years we taught together in places such as Tel Aviv and Mexico City and Vancouver and Toronto and Los Angeles and New York and Las Vegas. He was a sweet and dear companion, a friend, and a sensitive colleague. He clearly had respect for us, as we respected him.

It’s important that Syd’s legacy not be forgotten. He has influenced millions of writers in a period of over 40 years and he has paved the way for all of us who move into the future and who continue to try to create great screenplays and great films.

Dr. Linda Seger is the author of 9 books on screenwriting, has taught in 34 countries around the world, and has consulted on over 2,000 scripts.

Saving Mr Banks - screenplay -

  Saving Mr Banks Screenplay by allal

The Step by Allal EL Alaoui and Khalid Akalai

By Ali Karama

Along the Martil beach in Tetuan,there stand benignly‎ two artists talking about Arabo-Andalousia archetecture and literature.These two men are Khalid Akalai and Allal El Alaoui.Khalid talks fervently about his story called – The step – which is about an Arabo-Andalousian facet in which there is a step leading to entrance  and there we see the changes of historical events that occur to a Moroccan family from the forties of twentieth century until today .

Allal ,being himself an artist of great interest to Arts, is impressed by this story and agrees to rewrite it toghether with Khalid to realise and produce it for the silver screen this year .The step is worth to be produced because it will be  a shortfilm that deals with the history of Morocco via dramatic events that happen to a decent family.The script has been already written by Khalid Akalai and Allal El Alaoui and gotten  ,via Siham's production company called  Cinema and Movies 'its first fund from 2013 CCM commission presided by honorable Abdelkrim Berrechid  to release a sum of 100.000.00 Dirham.

  بلاغ المركز السينمائي حول العتبة by allal

  دفاعا عن العتبة by allal