Documentary filmmaking has continuously been winning grounds as a genre, and the quality of creative documentaries from African and Arab countries is a testimony to the rise of a new generation of filmmakers able to experiment in form and content, offering bold narratives, while reaching an ever-widening range of au-diences.
An overwhelming number of initiatives, throughout the region and worldwide are committed to drive forward the genre and to enhance its visibility. As a crossroads between cinematographies and with a tradition of being a committed festival, the JCC has historically been engaged in that direction.
Echoing this local and international momentum, Carthage Docs, aims to become an annual event, providing a space for all professionals involved in the documen-tary landscape to come together, discuss the current potentialities, challenges, and explore the future perspectives of documentary filmmaking.
Creating new synergies, and connecting like-minded initiatives, this program takes part in the existing efforts to build a community able to better under-stand and serve the needs of African and Arab talents, allowing them and the sector at large to grow together.
Thursday 31st of October, 2019
Africa - Zambèze I Hall - 5th Floor
9:00-9:30
The opening words of Carthage Docs will be given by the JCC curators, from the different sections of the artistic and industry programmes, who will offer an overview of the importance and the centrality that the documentary genre has had in the festival over the years.
With
Lamia Belkaïed Guiga (General delegate)
Lynda Belkhiria (Head of Chabaka)
Amine Boukhris (Head of Documentaries)
Tarek Ben Chaabane (Artisitic Advisor)
Azza Chaabouni (Head of Takmil)
Samia Labidi (Head of Carthage Talks)
Yamina Mechri Bendana (Head of the Short Films)
A conversation with filmmakers
Thursday 31st of October 2019
Africa - Zambèze I Hall - 5th Floor
09:30 - 10:30
Covering different socio-political realities, in the USA or Tunisia, filmmakers Assia Boundaoui and Erige Sehiri managed to highlight the plights of marginal-ized communities failed by the systems in place. Whether it is illegally sur-veilled citizens or railroaders, their protagonists have something in common: they are fighting for their rights to be recognized by challenging the status quo.
Join Ikbal Zalila in a conversation with these exciting new voices of the Arab documentary landscape, who managed to move beyond the mere representation of our societies’ failures. The conversation will explore the power of documentary to raise awareness and effect real change, as well as how the act of filmmaking can also be disruptive by itself.
What were the challenges they faced throughout their creative process, especial-ly when it came to dealing with the authorities, the social structures and pub-lic institutions that their films are putting on trial?
What were the challenges, both ethical and logistical, they had to grapple with while filming these protagonists positioned at the margin of their respective societies?
A Conversation with
Assia Boundaoui (The Feeling of Being Watched, 2018)
Erige Sehiri(Railway Men, 2018)
Moderation: Ikbal Zalila (Film critic and researcher)
Thursday 31st of October 2019
Africa - Zambèze I Hall - 5th Floor
11:00 - 12:30
This conversation takes stock of the distribution and circulation of documen-taries in African and Arab countries by having a closer look at how the panel-ists are committed to creating ground-breaking and alternative channels in the sector.
Distributing documentaries, and even more so independent documentaries, in mar-kets dominated by the « for profit » distribution model and the rise of multi-plexes, brings a more complex set of challenges than the distribution of fic-tions and commercial films.
The hybrid distribution/exhibition ventures represented in the discussion are all instrumental in creating and stimulating a film culture in their own con-texts: whether it’s through networks of mobile cinemas or a VOD platforms (Zawya, Steps - Afridocs), the organization of festivals and pop-ups (MC Distri-bution, Cinema Akkil) or taking part in a cross regional cinema education initi-ative (Hakka Distribution, MC Distribution).
How do these structures create strong and sustainable - national and regional- ecosystems that allow for the emergence of alternative models who balance dis-tribution for profit and circulation for audience building and outreach?
In conversation with
Theresa Hill (Steps -Afridocs, South Africa)
Mohamed Frini (Hakka Distribution, Tunisia)
Butheina Kazim (Cinema Akkil, United Arab Emirates)
Badih Masaad (MC Distribution, Lebanon)
Tiny Mungwe (Steps-Afridocs, South Africa)
Youssef Shazli
Moderation: Jowe Harfouche (Executive Director of the Network of Arab Alterna-tive Screens, Lebanon)
Thursday 31st of October, 2019
Africa - Zambèze I - 5th Floor
14:00 - 15:00
With Impact documentary, filmmakers and producers harness the potential for doc-umentary to tackle pressing societal issues and to catalyse change by assembling a network of engaged actors across the industry and civil society.
Presenting their respective experiences, our panelists will discuss how this genre allows for exploring and experimenting on a creative level as well as with audience engagement.
How to balance the requirements of the artistic goals, the quality of diffusion and the will of impact, while insure suffisant financing throughout the process? What is the role of an Impact producer? What are the keys to building a success-ful impact campaign and how to make sure that the message is heard?
From a global-South standpoint, our experts will also discuss the possibilities of building bridges by initiating cross-continents collaborations.
In conversation with
Jad Abi Khalil (Beirut DC, Good Pitch بالعربي, Lebanon)
Soumaya Bouallegui (Doc House, Tunisia)
Theresa Hill (Steps - Afridocs, South Africa )
Moderation: Tiny Mungwe (Steps-Afridocs, South Africa)
Thursday 31st of October, 2019
Africa Hotel - Zambèze I - 5th Floor
15:00 - 16:00
Couscous, the Seeds of Dignity (2017), a film by researcher, filmmaker and ac-tivist Habib Ayeb is a compelling documentary offering insights into the com-plexities of food sovereignty in Tunisia. It reveals how the policies of food dependency pursued by all Tunisian governments since the independence are a leg-acy of the colonial era, entrenched in capitalism and neocolonialism.
As voices of citizens and civil society organizations are rising to block the signature of the ALECA (French acronym for the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement [DCFTA])currently negotiated between the UE and Tunisia, this film, more relevant than ever, is an invitation to open a collective debate.
In this context, this interactive study case intends to bring together the di-rector-producer duo, Habib Ayed and Moncef Taleb, with members of the industry and civil society, to discus how the film can be embraced by the Tunisian civil society as an advocacy tool in order to spark discussions around the pressing issue of the deliquescent food sovereignty in Tunisia.
Like-minded practitioners are welcomed to join Soumaya Bouallegui (Doc House), Imen Louati(Tunisian Observatory of Economy), Rym Ben Mansour (ACTIF) in this collective attempt to explore channels for creative audience engagement to ex-pend the lifespan of the film in the Tunisian context, and beyond.
Thursday 31st of October, 2019
Africa - Zambèze I - 5th Floor
16:30 - 18:00
Carthage Docs Meet Up gives all industry guests a chance to continue the discus-sions started throughout Carthage Docs and hopefully spark future collaborations between like-minded organizations.
It is also networking events where filmmakers and producers, upcoming and estab-lished, as well as project holders from Chabaka and Takmil, Cinephila and Follow the Nile workshops are encouraged to meet key players in the regional and inter-national field of documentary, from programmers, to distributors, and represent-atives of various development and funding platforms.
