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Aula Árabe 4.12. Telling collective stories in the cinema
New conference of the Aula Árabe Universitaria 4, by Maysoon Pachachi, film director and producer.
The author's experience of both living in a big city and having been largely a documentary filmmaker inspired her desire to tell collective stories. How many individual stories, which intertwine and interweave, can end up forming a collective story. Why an individual central character and a central story can sometimes create a hierarchical structure in a film of what is more important and what is less important.
The importance of telling collective stories in the Arab world at a time of catastrophic violence and disintegration, especially in Iraq, where he has most recently concentrated his efforts, and Syria. The struggle to tell stories of people in areas of war and violence in such a way that they are not portrayed as mere victims, but simply as people living in very difficult circumstances. How to engage an audience from the outside to imagine what they would do in those circumstances, what decisions they would make if they were that person on the screen and why this is important. It is often the women in these situations of war and violence who struggle to maintain a sense of normalcy, continuity and life. This is why she has often focused on the lives of women in the Middle East.
In the lecture filmmaker and producer Maysoon Pachachi will present the keys to understand the collective stories in Arab cinema.
This will be the twelfth conference of the Aula Árabe Universitaria program, organized in collaboration with the Master's Degree in Film and Television at the Charles III University of Madrid (UC3M). Participating on behalf of the program will be Alejandra Val Cubero, professor of Audiovisual Communication at that University. The presentation will be moderated by Olivia Orozco, coordinator of Education and Economics at Casa Árabe.
The conference is available on our YouTube channel, in Spanish: youtube.com/live/0TBPCG5g3fw?feature=share
As an example of her work narrating collective stories, in the case on Iraq, her last movie "Our River... Our Sky", will be screened on Friday the 28th of April at 19:00h in Casa Árabe´s Auditorium in Madrid, with a dialogue with the filmmaker that can be followed here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJrnO2k7b4A
Maysoon Pachachi is a London-based filmmaker of Iraqi origin. She was educated in Iraq, the USA and the UK. She studied Philosophy at University College London (BA Hons) and then filmmaking at the London Film School. She was for many years a documentary and drama film editor in the UK, and has worked since 1994 as an independent documentary film director, largely making films in and about the Middle East.
Maysoon has also taught film directing and editing in Britain and Palestine (in Jerusalem, Gaza and at Birzeit University). In 2004, with her colleague, Iraqi filmmaker, Kasim Abid, she co-founded INDEPENDENT FILM & TELEVISION COLLEGE, a free-ofcharge film-training centre in Baghdad, whose students produced 17 short documentary films, shown at festivals and screenings internationally and within Iraq at a traveling festival.
Further information: https://en.casaarabe.es/event/aula-arabe-universitaria-4#15689
Photo: Filmaker Maysoon Pachachi (Photo: Oxymoron Films Ltd.)
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By Casa ÁrabeNew conference of the Aula Árabe Universitaria 4, by Maysoon Pachachi, film director and producer.
The author's experience of both living in a big city and having been largely a documentary filmmaker inspired her desire to tell collective stories. How many individual stories, which intertwine and interweave, can end up forming a collective story. Why an individual central character and a central story can sometimes create a hierarchical structure in a film of what is more important and what is less important.
The importance of telling collective stories in the Arab world at a time of catastrophic violence and disintegration, especially in Iraq, where he has most recently concentrated his efforts, and Syria. The struggle to tell stories of people in areas of war and violence in such a way that they are not portrayed as mere victims, but simply as people living in very difficult circumstances. How to engage an audience from the outside to imagine what they would do in those circumstances, what decisions they would make if they were that person on the screen and why this is important. It is often the women in these situations of war and violence who struggle to maintain a sense of normalcy, continuity and life. This is why she has often focused on the lives of women in the Middle East.
In the lecture filmmaker and producer Maysoon Pachachi will present the keys to understand the collective stories in Arab cinema.
This will be the twelfth conference of the Aula Árabe Universitaria program, organized in collaboration with the Master's Degree in Film and Television at the Charles III University of Madrid (UC3M). Participating on behalf of the program will be Alejandra Val Cubero, professor of Audiovisual Communication at that University. The presentation will be moderated by Olivia Orozco, coordinator of Education and Economics at Casa Árabe.
The conference is available on our YouTube channel, in Spanish: youtube.com/live/0TBPCG5g3fw?feature=share
As an example of her work narrating collective stories, in the case on Iraq, her last movie "Our River... Our Sky", will be screened on Friday the 28th of April at 19:00h in Casa Árabe´s Auditorium in Madrid, with a dialogue with the filmmaker that can be followed here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJrnO2k7b4A
Maysoon Pachachi is a London-based filmmaker of Iraqi origin. She was educated in Iraq, the USA and the UK. She studied Philosophy at University College London (BA Hons) and then filmmaking at the London Film School. She was for many years a documentary and drama film editor in the UK, and has worked since 1994 as an independent documentary film director, largely making films in and about the Middle East.
Maysoon has also taught film directing and editing in Britain and Palestine (in Jerusalem, Gaza and at Birzeit University). In 2004, with her colleague, Iraqi filmmaker, Kasim Abid, she co-founded INDEPENDENT FILM & TELEVISION COLLEGE, a free-ofcharge film-training centre in Baghdad, whose students produced 17 short documentary films, shown at festivals and screenings internationally and within Iraq at a traveling festival.
Further information: https://en.casaarabe.es/event/aula-arabe-universitaria-4#15689
Photo: Filmaker Maysoon Pachachi (Photo: Oxymoron Films Ltd.)