The goal of the Cinémathèque de Tanger is to offer the people of Tangier the best of national and world cinema, through a bold and thoughtful series of programs which will defy the hegemony of commercial films in Morocco.
One of the events the Cinémathèque organises is the workhop Documentary Filmmaking DocMaroc. Aspiring documentary filmmakers from Morocco are paired up with similarly passionate individuals from all over the world for this workshop. Students train in camerawork, production, editing theory and history of cinema and documentary. At the end of the course they created their own 3-minute documentaries about the unsung heros, daily changes and ancient rituals that contribute to the vibrancy and energy alive in Tangier today.
From the correspondence with Simona Schneider on DocMaroc 2005:
'' We had a great turnout for the film screening on the last day and people are still telling us about their favorites from the batch of 12 short films the students made during the 2 weeks. We are pleased to announce the workshop will have its second run in April 2007 with new participants as we received a second grant for it'.
We are glad to say that the second edition did indeed take place in April 2007.
The programming of the Cinémathèque de Tanger brings together world cinema (in complete original versions) of all genres, from film noir, western, musicals, and silent films, to and contemporary new releases. The Cinémathèque is also about connecting Tangier to an international network of filmmakers and cinema professionals.
The Cinémathèque functions as a permanent film festival, with our festival partners providing us award-winning and 'official selection' films on completion of their respective festivals. Thus far our festivals have included the program from the Second Seville Bienniale of Contemporary Art, the Festival of Tetouan and more... Programming will also include new releases from some of the most highly regarded directors, brought to us via the worlds leading film festivals; retrospectives (e.g. : Elia Suleiman, Abbas Kiarostami, Atom Egoyan...); previews hosted by the filmmakers; a monthly series of short films; Sundays devoted to documentaries on the big screen; and a film club for young people.
