The first students to graduate from an innovative documentary film-making course showed their new work to an audience for the first time yesterday.
The impact of cultures colliding was one of the major themes of the five documentary films shown at the media center of Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University by the Cultural Studies Masters students.
Professor Khalid Bekkaoui, Professor and Chair of the Department of English, said that he was delighted by the results of the documentary course, which is co-sponsored by the American Language Center and the Fulbright Commission. ”The students have been creative and innovative, although they have only recently learned how to make documentaries,” he said. “This is the first course in Morocco to offer a combination of the technical skills and the academic side, which teaches students how to research ideas and turn them into stories…We hope to make Fes a center for documentary film-making in Morocco.”
The works shown at the premiere showcase were primarily about cultural differences and change. They included Do We Have Political Freedom in Morocco?; McDonaldization and Moroccan Culture; My Neighbor, The Jew; Youth & Sufism and America in the Eyes of Moroccan Hairdressing Saloons.
Course supervisor, Jamal Morelli, said he was also proud of what the students had achieved, particularly given the limited resources they had had access to. “We hope in future to get good software and more powerful computers, so that we can take production to the next level,” he said.
Another showing of the works is planned for a few months time, so there will be the opportunity for those interested to see them then.
