Cinémathèque de Tanger

Take a Slow Boat to Tangier...

To coincide with RIFFS, an exhibition of Yto Barrada's work at Ikon Gallery in May/June, we are contributing to a canalside film programme which will run over three weekends. Designed to reflect Barrada's 'double life' as founding director of the Cinémathèque de Tanger, these screenings will explore migration and exile, links between Europe and North Africa, and the trance-like effects of cinema. On 2nd June there's also a day of short films and activities for younger audiences, and throughout the season you can get a mint tea and watch the world go by. Our home is the Ikon Slow Boat, moored in Brindleyplace (next to the Handmade Burger Company) and converted into a floating picturehouse for the duration.

 

On 19-20 May and 9 June the Boat will be screening a programme curated by Yto Barrada, featuring a selection of work by North African filmmakers from different periods including Ahmed Bouanani, Bouchra Khalili and Barrada herself.

 

Saturday 2 June, 12-5pm

FAMILY DAY*

 

Lotte Reiniger shorts

12pm, 2pm and 4pm

Dir: Lotte Reiniger, 45 mins approx

Certificate: U

A selection of fairy tales recreated with scissors and card by a pioneering German filmmaker.

 

Lucky dip

1pm and 3pm

Dir: Various, 45 mins approx

Certificate: U

Animated shorts from around the world including work by one of Africa’s earliest filmmakers, Moustapha Alassane.

 

*This programme will be accompanied by an afternoon of activities taking place at Ikon, 12 – 4pm.

 

 

Sunday 3 June, 12-5pm

UNDERWORLD

Tracing some of the clandestine links between Europe and North Africa.

 

I See the Stars at Noon

12 and 4pm

Dir: Saeed Taji Farouky, UK/Morocco 2004, 57 mins

Certificate: PG

In Arabic with English subtitles

Documentary following a young Moroccan man as he attempts to enter Spain illegally via the Straits of Gibraltar.

 

Paul Axel Lund: Smiling Damned Villain

1.15pm

Short talk by Ian Francis (Flatpack Festival) on thief and smuggler Paul Axel Lund. Lund grew up in Moseley in the 1920s, and after a stint in the army developed a lucrative criminal career in Birmingham. Eventually he was forced to leave the UK, and ended his days running a bar in Tangier where he is now buried. During his time in Morocco Lund shared a house with William Burroughs, and some of his colourful tales were used in Naked Lunch.

 

Pépé le Moko

2pm

Dir: Julien Duvivier, France 1937, 94 mins

Certificate: PG

In French and Arabic with English subtitles

Atmospheric and hugely influential thriller, starring Jean Gabin as a gangster on the run in the labyrinthine Casbah district of Algiers.

Sunday 10 June, 12-5pm

 

DREAM MACHINE

12-2.30pm

Cert: 15

Developed by writer and artist Brion Gysin during his sojourn in Tangier, the Dream Machine is a tall perforated metal cylinder designed to be played on a record turntable at 78 rpm. At the centre is a lightbulb, and when experienced with closed eyes the resulting flicker effect is designed to alter the brain’s electrical oscillations.

 

New Dream Machine Project

Dir: Shezad Dawood, UK 2011, 15 mins

Record of an event at the Cinematheque de Tanger last year, featuring the Master Musicians of Joujouka and a 12-foot Dream Machine manufactured in Morocco. Part of an ongoing project through which Dawood is exploring the multiple influences which helped shape Gysin’s contraption, including Sufism and zoetropes.

 

Towers Open Fire

Dir: Anthony Balch, UK 1963, 10 mins

An attempt to recreate William Burroughs’ writing style on film, using cut-ups, hand-painted film, mulitple Dream Machines and narration by Burroughs himself.

 

Both films will screen at 12 and 2.30pm, with a live Dream Machine demonstration between 1 and 2pm.

 

 

The Three Disappearances of Soad Hosni

(Ikhtifa'aat Soad Hosni Alt-thalathat)

3pm

Dir: Rania Stephan, Lebanon 2011, 68 mins

In Arabic with English subtitles

Cert: PG

 

Rania Stephan’s documentary is an elegy to a rich era of film production in Egypt, seen through the work of one of its most revered actresses. Soad Hosni embodied the complexity of the modern Arab woman. Pieced together exclusively from archival footage of her films, it tells the story of Hosni’s life up until her tragic end in 2001.

 

Presented in collaboration with the Arab Film Festival, Liverpool and introduced by the Festival’s Director, Omar Kholeif (Curator, FACT).