The White Night of Cinema – Morocco

The Association of Mediterranean Meetings of Cinema and Human Rights (ARMCDH) was organized on the 22nd and 23rd of July, 2022 for the 11th edition of Nuit Blanche of Cinema and Human Rights on the theme: ‘Cinema and Family Rights’. The event was held in Rabat at the National Library of the Kingdom of Morocco (BRNM) and online, from the 22nd to the 31st of July through the digital cinema platform of the ARMCDH armcdh.ma.

During two years of health emergency state, long periods of confinement and restrictions on freedom of movement, family was the central element in the public debate around the management of the crisis. Many problems emerged in public debate during this period: family violence, protection of the elderly, deaths of relatives without being able to attend funerals, etc. These are all elements that prompted the ARMCDH to choose the theme of the family for the 11th edition of the White Night of Cinema and Human Rights.

The concept of the family emerged as a legal concept with the new family code, a concept that was enshrined in the new constitution. Can we speak of family rights as collective rights depending on the State’s responsibility to protect? What are the mechanisms put in place through the various public institutions to protect the family? What consistency is there between the different stakeholders? Can we speak of a public family policy? So many questions that the event wishes to help answer through the screening of films and the organization of debates.

The first public screening was with the film “The autumn of the apple trees” directed by Mohamed Mouftakir on the 22nd of July at 8:30 p.m on the esplanade of the BNRM:
9 films were screened, both outdoors and on the ARMCDH digital cinema platform:

– My life as a zucchini, by Claude Barras. Entertainment – Switzerland
– Naima, by Sami SaifSirelkhatim. Short film- Morocco
– The autumn of the apple trees, by Mohamed Mouftakir. Fiction – Morocco
– The art of illusion, by Claudia Varejão. Short film – Portugal.
– Wajib, by Annemarie Jacir. Fiction – Palestine
– Renault 12, by Mohamed El Khatib. Documentary – France- Morocco
– Pupil, by Jeanne Herry. Fiction – France
– Tender Threads, by OuijdaneKhallid. Short film- Morocco
– John, by Louis Heem. Documentary- France

The debate was moderated by the journalist Jamaâ Goulahsen on the 23rd of July at 6 p.m. in the BNRM auditorium:

A debate led by the brilliant journalist Jamaâ Goulahsen, with the participation of Mrs. Aouatif Hayar, Minister of Solidarity, Social Integration and the Family, Mr. El Mostafa Rezrazi, President of the Moroccan Observatory on Extremism and Violence and Professor at the Faculty of Governance, Economics and Social Sciences (Mohamed VI University – Polytechnic), Mrs. Samya El Mousti, National Director SOS Children’s Villages Morocco, Mr. Khalid Hanfioui, Researcher in social sciences and expert in the fields of childhood and social changes and Ms. Touria Houssam, researcher in social sciences and professor at the National Institute of Social Action of Tangier (INAS).

The White Night of Cinema and Family Rights is organized in partnership with the Heinrich Böll Rabat Foundation, UN Women Morocco, the French Institute, the Swiss Embassy in Morocco, the Portuguese Embassy in Morocco, and the Institut Camões, the Portuguese Short Film Agency, the Moroccan Cinematographic Center. The event also benefits from the media support of Hit Radio, Today Morocco and Sortir.ma.