Transnational Moroccan Cinema

该项目探讨了摩洛哥电影在过去二十年中作为非洲和阿拉伯世界最重要的国家电影院之一的崛起。有人会争辩说，要充分理解摩洛哥电影最近空前兴起的背后原因(从1970年代的每年几部电影到2000年以来每年25部故事片)，以及更广泛地了解摩洛哥电影对世界电影的日益重大贡献，就需要从跨国的角度来看待摩洛哥电影。该项目将汇集学者和电影制片人，分析塑造当代摩洛哥电影的四个关键领域，因为它们与这一国家/跨国动态有关：1.散居海外的摩洛哥电影制片人对摩洛哥电影自1990年代以来的崛起做出的贡献。这些在欧洲和马格里布之间工作的电影制作人，同时也在传统意义上理解的“国家”电影的结构之内和之外--迫使我们重新思考摩洛哥的“国家”电影是什么，它的所在地，创作和传播。2.摩洛哥(和国外)电影节作为促进摩洛哥电影业跨国投资、创意和机构合作的手段所起的关键作用。国际电影节现在是构建电影知识以及金融、发行和放映幕后机制的核心。因此，研究小组对摩洛哥和欧洲电影节的实地考察将成为研究项目的重要组成部分，从而能够评估摩洛哥(跨)国家电影作为艺术和商业的现状。3.自1990年代末以来，摩洛哥女电影制片人的人数不断增加。摩洛哥妇女电影在这些电影中涉及的主题以及这些电影制片人为制作和发行其作品而雇用的一揽子资金方面，关注当地和跨地区妇女电影。因此，该项目的这一部分的研究将侧重于摩洛哥妇女电影制作中性别和跨地区(作为跨民族主义的一个子集)的交集。4.摩洛哥电影应对数字电影的挑战和机遇。数字电影制作技术的更大可及性和多平台放映渠道是否会让一个更多样化的“国家”影院出现？这样的数字制作、发行和放映模式能否建立在摩洛哥电影制作人自20世纪90年代末以来在评论界和商业上取得的成功的基础上，同时允许在国内和国际上更广泛地观看电影？这一研究线索将特别强调发行的战略和趋势--传统上被视为摩洛哥电影的薄弱环节。在一个多平台、跨国发行和数字盗版对电影业的威胁越来越大的时代，新兴的正式和非正式数字发行网络将对摩洛哥电影产生什么影响？该项目的一个关键目标是将学术研究人员与电影制作人、评论家、政策制定者、电影节节目制作人和观众联系起来，他们正在塑造摩洛哥电影的未来。因此，该项目将包括实地考察摩洛哥和巴黎的档案馆，以及摩洛哥的主要电影节。这种与业界和艺术家的接触将导致出版(在线和印刷)一套关于摩洛哥自20世纪90年代末以来的制作、发行和展览的全面数据，并对摩洛哥电影业的关键人物进行广泛采访，并出版一本关于摩洛哥跨国电影的重要合著书。最后，与该项目相关的两项奖学金将允许两名摩洛哥电影制作人在世界著名的伦敦电影学校居住三个月，他们制作的作品将在非洲电影电影节(爱丁堡)首映。

This project explores the emergence of Moroccan cinema over the past two decades as one of the most significant national cinemas in Africa and the Arab world. It will be argued that a transnational perspective is required to fully appreciate the reasons behind the recent, unprecedented rise of Moroccan cinema (from a handful of films per year in the 1970s to 25 feature films annually since 2000), as well as developing a broader understanding of Moroccan cinema's increasingly significant contribution to world cinema. The project will bring together academics and filmmakers to analyse four key areas that have shaped contemporary Moroccan cinema as they relate to this national/transnational dynamic:1.The contribution of filmmakers from the Moroccan diaspora to the rise of Moroccan cinema since the 1990s. These filmmakers, working for the most part between Europe and the Maghreb are at once inside and outside of the configuration of 'national' cinema as it is traditionally understood - forcing us to re-think what constitutes Moroccan 'national' cinema, where it is located, created and disseminated. 2. The pivotal function of film festivals in Morocco (and abroad) as a means of promoting transnational investment, creative and institutional collaboration in the Moroccan film industry. International film festivals are now central to the construction of cinema knowledge as well as the behind-the-scene mechanics of finance, distribution, and exhibition. Field trips to Moroccan and European festivals by the research team will thus form a vital part of the research project, allowing for an assessment of the current state of Moroccan (trans-)national cinema as art and business. 3. The increasing presence of Moroccan women filmmakers since the late-1990s. Moroccan women's cinema is concerned with the local and the trans-local in terms of the themes addressed in these films, as well as in the financial packages employed by these filmmakers to produce and distribute their work. Research in this strand of the project will therefore focus on the intersection of gender and trans-locality (as a subset of transnationalism) in Moroccan women's filmmaking. 4. Moroccan cinema's response to the challenges and opportunities of digital cinema. Will the greater accessibility of digital filmmaking technology and multiple platform exhibition channels allow a more diverse 'national' cinema to emerge? Can such modes of digital production, distribution and exhibition build on the critical and commercial success enjoyed by Moroccan filmmakers since the late 1990s, while allowing for a cinema that is more widely viewed both nationally and internationally? This research strand will place a particular emphasis on strategies and trends in distribution - traditionally seen as the weak link in Moroccan cinema. In an age of multi-platform, transnational distribution and the increasing threat to the film industry of digital piracy, what will be the effect on Moroccan cinema of emerging formal and informal digital distribution networks? A key objective of this project is to link academic researchers with the filmmakers, critics, policy makers, festival programmers and audiences who are shaping the future of Moroccan cinema. The project will therefore involve field trips to archives in Morocco and Paris, as well as to major Moroccan film festivals. This engagement with the industry and artists will lead to the publication (online and in print) of a comprehensive set of data relating to production, distribution and exhibition in Morocco since the late 1990s, as well as extensive interviews with key figures in the Moroccan film industry and a major, co-authored book on Transnational Moroccan Cinema. Finally, two bursaries linked to the project will allow two Moroccan filmmakers to spend three months in residence at the world-renowned London Film School, with the work they produce being premiered at the Africa in Motion Film Festival (Edinburgh).