18/11/2019, 9:00 pm,

Screening & (Re)Extending Algerian Memories 3

, Cinema Münster

How to recount and represent individual and collective history and memories from below? How to bring together various stories (oral or written, with or without words, in proliferation or in absence of images) that goes far beyond (neo)colonial and dogmatic post-independent narrations? How to figure and to deconstruct forgotten, shattered or scattered memories in order to overpass the invisible? These are essential aspects and questions raised in Katia Kameli’s works. In her films, she interrelates the past, the present, Algeria and Europe and brings them together in a dialogue which is often tumultuous and at the same time, it is a demand for freedom that lasts for centuries as an open constellation of hopes, experiences and representations.

The film programme is echoing with her solo exhibition She Rekindled the Vividness of the Past at the Kunsthalle Münster. The programme aims to create a discussion and a negotiation with the first chapter of Katia Kameli’s triptych Le Roman Algérien (The Algerian Novel) from and about Algeria, as those are perceived as a new approach of deconstruction, re-appropriation and reconfiguration of colonial and imperial archives (images, postcards, drawings) reflecting the same ambition found in the works of in Assia Djebar, Mohammed Zinet, Mohand Ali-Yahia, René Vautier or in Yann Le Masson & Olga Poliakof whose films will be displaying in our programme.

The programme is curated by Olivier Hadouchi. Hadouchi is historian, researcher and film curator from Paris. He curated film programs for Museum Reina Sofía (Madrid), Bandits (Paris), Le Bal (Paris), ZdB (Lisbon), The Mosaic Rooms (London). He published books about film history of Algeria, Arabic and African countries during the 1960s. His writings are also published in critical magazine on cultures, geo-politics, society and history of European and non-European countries e.g. Third Text, CinémAction, Caiman. Hadouchi received his PhD at Paris Sorbonne III in 2012.

The Battle of Algiers: a Film within History, Algeria, 2017, Malek Bensmaïl, 117 Min., OV with English subtitles Based on an extensive and meticulous documentary odyssey in Algeria, Italia, France and in the USA, Malek Bensmaïl‘s work stimulates critical thinking on history and memory. His documentary recounts the story of the legendary film The Battle of Algiers (2017) by the Italian filmmaker Gillo Pontecorvo from 1965. In 1965, Gillo Pontecorvo began his film depicting the events of the Battle of Algiers (1956/1957). One year after its realization, Gillo Pontecorvo’s work was awarded with the Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival in 1966. The black-and-white film caused a sensation in France and Algeria and was even banned in France until 1971. In Algeria, the film was celebrated and was screened each year on national television, especially during the celebrations of the Algerian War and the national revolution. Malek Bensmail lead us in his documentary The Battle of Algiers: a Film in History through the creation of the cult film and demonstrates how history and film can interact as tools of memory.