An initiatic journey Videos from an exhibition at the Centre de Cultura Comtemporània de Barcelona from March 26 to May 30, 2002 (a project by Albert Garcia-Espuche and Toni Serra). Into the innermost parts of the city of Fes.Using audiovisual recordings that illustrate some of the different anthropologic, sociologic, urbanistic and religious aspects that make up the fabric of the city. A journey that requires both objectivity (in the working method) and subjectivity (for the experience of the journey and immersion in another culture).
Video Concerning the Arab World
TransArab Itinerant 2003-2005
2003 / 2005 / 2006 / 2009 - TransArab
Video Concerning the Arab World
This programme is not intended to provide an overview of independent video in Arab and Islamic countries, nor does it seek to be representative in any way.
The works being presented, like the programme as a whole, reflect the notion of “slices of reality”, in the sense that they are subjective visions, aware of their partiality, which do not exclude contradiction or conflict. Visions that perceive a strong tension on their surface and take up these eddies of confusion and violence as cause for urgent reflection and knowledge.
Images and stories, realities in themselves, rhizomatic realities: interwoven without a centre or a fixed meaning. And for that very reason, instead of giving rise to cultural dualism based on opposition, they engender a web of underground connections.
In Israel's occupied territories, thousands of Palestinians work illegally as construction laborers. After an arduous and dangerous journey,loaded with blankets and bags, they cross the hills to the places where they can find employment. At night they sleep on the hillcrests in improvised huts and coffin-like sleeping cubicles, a stark contrast to the luxury apartment complexes they build by day. But they have made homes for themselves, complete with cosy pillows and even power generated by batteries they have scraped together. In 9 Star Hotel, the filmmakers follow Ahmed and Muhammad, one a merry collector of found objects, the other a philosophical criticaster of the Palestinian character ("We think backward. We never think forward."). Together, they share food, belongings and stories, and live under the constant threat of getting arrested -police, soldiers and the secret service are all tirelessly on the alert for illegal workers. With raw, handheld images, this disconcerting yet touching film documents friendship, nostalgia and the uncompromising urge to survive.
Fourteen young Moroccan newcomers to a reception center for minors in Spain agree to participate in a theatre workshop. It is the thin line that separates their recent past from their uncertain future. What is theatre but a full experience of the present? (2019-2001) ذكرى المرحوم عبد الصمد العبودي IN MEMORY OF ABDESSAMAD EL ABOUDI (2001-2019) Ahir/demà [Yesterday/tomorrow] family is very sad today. Extremely sad. One of the young boys who took part in our documentary, one of the protagonists, our brother Abdessamad El Aboudi, died in Barcelona yesterday afternoon. We are devastated. Together with Abdessamad, we shared the experience of the workshop given by Jesús Muñoz and Pau Pons, of the Pont Flotant theatre company, at the Reception Centre for Minors in Buñol, Valencia. He joined in with great enthusiasm. His energy was powerful. He was skilled, intelligent and very talented. During those sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays he was happy. He also agreed to participate in the documentary we made to tell that story. In the film he could not transmit more happiness and life. Today, dear Abdessamad, son, brother, nephew, friend, we remember you. You are now a part of us.
The director travels with a group of young Moroccan women who are going to visit their families. A story about migration, reunion, and loss.
UntitledHe travelled to another land, a different sea, and was certain that he had found a better city. But he didn’t realise that his own city was travelling with him.
UntitledNew ideas for exploiting Mexican labourers.
José, Victoria and Miquel are three of the people who have lived on the streets, or are very close to doing so. Antibiografies is a documentary about the lives of Barcelona’s homeless people, a hidden world that is less visible but no less real or alive than any other. The protagonists talk about how they survive, their relationships, and the occupation of public space. A vision of tod ay’s society from a marginal, frontier perspective.
Anya displays a double trajectory. On one side, an exploration of the imagined frontier that makes up the Bosphorus, and on the other a tale, recounted offscreen, of a young Iraqi woman waiting for a visa for Australia during 12 years. A waiting time made of hope, disappointments and forced perseverance.
Set in an imagined present in which a bridge spans the Strait of Gibraltar, Atlantropa mixes fact and fiction by connecting the bridge to contemporary news reports and to a modernist architect's vision: to dam the Strait and create a new continent. Originally intended as a symbol of unity between Africa and Europe, the bridge is eventually seized by EU forces and takes on a completely different meaning. The Gilbraltar Bridge, first mentioned in science fiction by Arthur C. Clarke, has more recently been investigated as an actual possibility by the United Nations.
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