"Ghosts of Tangier"

A talk and screening with Bouchra Assou

Co-Presented by Dhakira Collective

Location: Critical Media Lab, Peterson Hall 108

Synopsis:

Tangier, An object of fascination for some, a subject and source of inspiration for others. Situated in the in-between, the city has long captured the imagination of many. From 1923 until Morocco's independence in 1956, Tangiers was under international administration. No less than nine European powers held the reins of power there, transforming the city into a sanctuary for smugglers, drug dealers, painters, heiresses and spies.

Tangier inspired much writing while preserving a strong oral tradition. Tahar Ben Jelloun, Mohammed Choukri, and Mohammed M'Rabet rubbed shoulders with Jean Genet, Paul Bowles, Allen Ginsberg, Joseph Kessel, and Tennessee Williams. With their works, the American writers contributed to the emergence of the myth of Tangier as a den of permissiveness, debauchery and danger, damning the city into becoming a literary fiction. Reality and fantasy are blended, creating a narrative where the Orient is a sensual, exotic backdrop.

Ghosts of Tangier will be concerned with exploring this boundary between reality and fiction/myth creation. Dhakira Collective will screen Mohamed Ulad-Mohand’s An American in Tangier alongside Edgar Cozarinsky’s Fantômes de Tanger, followed by a talk and an archival deep dive into the city of Tangier and its many chroniclers, past and present

Bio:

Bouchra Assou is an independent researcher, film curator, programmer, writer, and archivist of Moroccan origin based in Montreal, Canada. She is the founder and curator of Dhakira Collective (2020): an independent research, archival and curatorial platform that foregrounds art, cinema, and music outside the western canon with a focus on cinema from the SWANA region (South West Asia & North Africa) and the co-founder and director of programming of the North African Queer Film Festival (2021) : a community-driven platform dedicated to celebrating and supporting films by, about, and for North African queers, powered by Dhakira Collective. She was invited to deliver lectures on North African cinema and archives by Concordia University, McGill University and The International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF). Press features about her work have appeared in publications such as Mille World, Journal de Métro, Also Cool Mag, The Link Newspaper etc.