Mexico to Morocco: Video Postcards from Tangiers - July 2010

Mexico hasta Marruecos: Tarjetas Postales Videos de Tánger

 

 

 

A study abroad program of The University of Monterrey (UDEM)

 

Shara K. Lange

Professor of Television

The Department of Information Science, UDEM

 

 

 

Breathtaking arid desert landscapes, precarious borders, complex intertwined cultures---

 

Mexico and Morocco have thematic and aesthetic links that provide ample ground for exploration for film and video production students of The University of Monterrey.  In this summer course, students will make documentaries, learn the basics of Moroccan Arabic, and be immersed in the literature, history, land and culture of Tangiers, Morocco. 

 

Students will study community-based documentary production with UDEM Professor Shara K. Lange at the beautiful Cinematheque de Tanger, a renovated theater and arthouse cinema in the center of the old city.  Students will complete a short documentary during the summer course and will screen their completed documentaries at the Cinematheque de Tanger.    

 

The course is modeled after Prague Stories, a study abroad program at The University of Texas at Austin that Shara K. Lange worked with for two sessions while a graduate student in the Radio, TV, Film department.  Like UDEM¿s program, ¿Mi Barrio,¿ students are encouraged to immerse themselves in local communities, create work that derives from their experiences, and at the end, give back to the community in the form of a public screening.  The combination of a documentary production class with a study abroad program yields unique results¿experiences of another culture that transcend the superficial, and documentary work that is personal, focused and committed. 

 

   

Mexico to Morocco: Video Postcards from Tangiers: 

 

• 4 Week Summer Class
• Community-based Documentary Production Class
• Basic Moroccan Arabic Class
• Weekly lectures about Moroccan history, art, & culture
• Close proximity to Mediterranean beaches and southern Spain
• Public screening of finished student documentaries at the Cinema Rif

 

TANGIERS

 

Tangiers is beautiful and bustling, with an undulating ancient medina and views of the Mediterranean at the end of every street.  It represents various kinds of borders:  it is the northernmost point of Morocco.  From the medina you can see Spain, only 30 minutes away by ferry.  The Atlantic ocean and the Mediterranean meet here.  Among the city¿s influences are the Spanish, French, German, and American presences who have met with Moroccan in sundry forms¿as colonizers, artists, businessmen, criminals, lovers and haters.  To name a few.  Linguistic traces remain:  along with the Moroccan Arabic dialect, ¿derija,¿ Spanish speakers almost outnumber French speakers, educated Moroccans and hustlers know at least a little bit of English, and even a bit of Hebrew can be heard. 

 

Transportation in the city is easy¿there are buses, inexpensive taxis, trains to the rest of Morroco, and ferries to Europe.  Depending on where you live, your feet will serve you well too.  There is a burgeoning young artist community and plenty of fascination with past ones: Bowles, Choukri, Matisse, and Bourroughs.  Schwarma, cous cous and pizza abound.  Additional options include French, Thai and Japanese cuisine.  In the summer, the nightlife is relentless as the Moroccans living in Europe return home for homemade tajines, hand-made caftans, and late nights on the strip.

 

THE CINEMATHEQUE DE TANGER

 

The Cinematheque de Tanger (CdT) is housed in the newly renovated 1948 Cinema Rif, in the historic Grand Socco plaza, at the heart of Tangier, Morocco. Until its renovation the Rif was one of only a handful of active cinemas in Tangier and played B-rated Bollywood films. The theater stands at the auspicious intersection of the old and the new.

The CdT is a not-for-profit organization under Moroccan tax codes. Its mission is to bring the great films of cinema history and today to a wide audience; to archive and bring to light the unseen legacy of Moroccan film; to be Morocco and North Africa's leading venue for independent cinema and repertory programming, and a pioneer for educational arts programming in the Arab world.

With two theaters, a media archive with resources on film and the arts, editing suites and a cafe, the CdT is at once an institute for film education for children, students and professionals, and a place for the open exchange of culture and ideas, providing otherwise inaccessible arts resources to the public.

The Cinematheque de Tanger is intent on promoting social development hand in hand with the economic development happening in Tangier today.

 

LINKS

 

Universidad de Monterrey

http://www.udem.edu.mx/home

 

Mi Barrio

http://www.udem.edu.mx/micrositio/tvudem

 

Prague Stories

http://www.praguestories.org/

 

Cinematheque de Tanger

http://www.cinemathequedetanger.com/index_en.html

 

Tangiers

http://www.morocco.com/destinations/tangier/

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/morocco/the-mediterranean-coast-and-the-rif/tangier