This three-year, AHRC-funded project analyses the rise of Moroccan cinema over the last two decades from relative obscurity to a position where it is arguably now amongst the most important national cinemas within Africa and the Arab world. The project aims to explore the critical and commercial success of Moroccan cinema through a transnational lens, analysing the global reach of this ‘small’ nat
ional cinema through its relationship to diasporic filmmakers, the role of festivals and international co-productions as well as the place of local and global audiences in the age of digital disruption. The project places a strong emphasis on collaboration with filmmakers, festivals, policy makers and other industry figures and has partnerships with ESAV (Marrakech), the London Film School and The Africa in Motion Film Festival (Edinburgh). With these partners the project aims to contribute to a transnational understanding of Moroccan identity through cinema, the identity of Moroccan cinema, and its role on the scale of a global film circuit. Through symposia, contributions to film festivals and publications, the researchers behind the project hope to open up a platform for international dialogue of and for Moroccan cinema.
