Selection for PriMed 2016 : Art, Heritage and Cultures category

The following is the selection for PriMed 2016 in the Mediterranean Art, Heritage and Cultures category :

– ARABIC MOVIE by Eyal SAGUI BEZAWIE and Sara TSIFRONI

– CHŒURS EN EXIL by Nathalie ROSSETTI and Turi FINOCCHIARO

– TISSEUSES DE RÊVES by Fatima Ithri IRHOUDANE

– TONI CATANY. LE TEMPS ET LES CHOSES by Cesc MULET

PriMed is the International Festival of Mediterranean Documentary and Reportage. Its 20th edition will take place from November 20th to 26th in Marseille.
www.primed.tv

ARABIC MOVIE
62 minutes, 2015
Director : Eyal SAGUI BEZAWIE (Israel) et Sara TSIFRONI (Israel)
Production : Trabelsi Productions (Israel)

At the time when Israel’s worst enemy was Egypt, Israeli television used to broadcast an Egyptian film every week.
Even today, many Israelis look back with nostalgia at that Friday night ritual, a time when television only had one channel. Everyone used to watch the Arab film of the week, but how many wondered how the official Israeli television company managed to cross the border to get these films, and what was the reason for this persistent desire to show films made by the “enemy”?

Eyal SAGUI BEZAWIE and Sara TSIFRONI
Eyal Bezawie Sagi is a researcher specializing in Egyptian cinema and popular culture. He studied Arab literature, Middle Eastern history and cultural studies, now teaching in several art and film schools.
He also works as a television writer and as editor in the art and culture department of the daily newspaper Haaretz. “Arabic Movie” is his first film.
Sara TSIFRONI studied sociology and anthropology at Tel Aviv University.
In 1992 she began working as a journalist on several newspapers. Since 1998 she has been a documentary film-maker and writer on television projects and documentaries. “Arabic Movie” is her first film.

CHŒURS EN EXIL
77 minutes, 2015
Directors : Nathalie ROSSETTI (Belgium, Italy) et Turi FINOCCHIARO (Belgium, Italy)
Production : Les Productions du Lagon (France), Borak Films (Belgium), Touch Films (Poland)

To pass on an ancient tradition of religious chant, Aram and Virginia, two Armenians now living outside their country, take a group of European actors from Wroclaw’s Grotowski Institute on a first-time journey to Anatolia where this style of singing once flourished. Along the way, their questions reveal the wealth of a destroyed culture: singing and acting then become the language of creation and sharing, the breath of life.

Nathalie ROSSETTI et Turi FINOCCHIARO
After university studies at Bologna’s DAMS (Discipline delle Arte, della Musica et dello Spettacolo), complemented by theatre training with Orazio Costa in Florence, Nathalie Rossetti worked as assistant director and musical consultant on several feature films.
With the help of her husband Turi Finocchiaro, she has directed several short films before turning to creative documentaries. The subjects closest to her are art, endangered cultures, anthropology and human rights.
In 2007, she created the Faito Doc Festival near Naples, an international documentary festival of which she is the artistic director.
After university, Turi Finocchiaro worked on several international co-productions as stage manager, production manager and executive producer. Familiar with how the EU works, he created EFC, a consulting firm for developing European co-productions (Media & Eurimages).
With his company, Impronte Digitali, he produced his first documentary in Rome in 1998. Back in Belgium in 2004, he turned to co-direction with Nathalie Rossetti. In 2009 they created Borak Films.
Turi Finocchiaro has participated in the EAVE and EURODOC training programmes. He is artistic co-director of the Faito Doc Festival, created in 2007 with Nathalie Rossetti.

TISSEUSES DE REVES
52 minutes, 2015
Director : Fatima Ithri IRHOUDANE (Morocco)
Production : AMC2 Productions (France), MPS (Morocco), Berbère TV (France), 2M (Morocco), TL7 (France), TV8 Mont Blanc (France)

A handful of Berber women from Morocco’s Middle Atlas, carpet weavers during the night hours, talk about their craft, their traditions, their lives and their future. They live off their plentiful dreams, occasionally allowing others a glimpse into their private world.
Mothers, daughters, grandmothers, all work hard at domestic tasks such as the manufacture of traditional carpets. In a self-sufficient economy, they still have no financial autonomy, nor recognition of their talent. They are desperate to break free from their social status and provide an education and future for their children.
From Essaouira, on the Atlantic coast, comes news of very similar women who have changed their lives by creating cooperatives to produce argan oil. Taaborth and Erkia set out to investigate and, amazed, tell their sisters about this first journey beyond their mountains, filling them with hope.

Fatima Ithri Irhoudane
Fatima Ithri Irhoudane is a Moroccan journalist and film-maker. She writes film reviews under the name Ghodane Afares. Obsessed with the cinema and Jean Rouch’s career, “Tisseuses de Rêves” is her first documentary film.

TONI CATANY. LE TEMPS ET LES CHOSES
55 minutes, 2015
Director : Cesc MULET (Spain)
Production : La Periferica Produccions (Spain), Corporación Radio Televisión Española (Spain), Corporació Catalana de Mitjans Audiovisuals (Spain)

Toni Catany was born in Llucmajor (Majorca) in 1942.In 1967 he began working as a photographer and then wrote travel articles for La Vanguardia and Destino.In 1972 he had his first exhibition, followed by 200 more worldwide. He is known for his landscapes and photographs of Mediterranean people.He died in Barcelona in 2013.

Cesc MULET
Cesc MULET was born in Inca (Majorca) in 1957.
He worked in the film industry in Madrid and Barcelona before creating his own production company La Perifèrica Produccions in Palma de Mallorca.
Since 1997 he has made and produced feature films and documentaries.
As director, he has to his credit the following films: “Postcards & Memories”, “Studium”, “The Bishop, the architect and the baldachin. Gaudi in the Mallorca Cathedral”, “Brother Juníper, the man that walked”, “La ciutat esvaïda”.

Back to the selection

Mediterranean Issues Category

Mediterranean Memory category

First Film category

Mediterranean Multimedia category