Algeria, Memoirs of Raï

Glimpses of Morocco and Algiers

August 1951 •English

This FitzPatrick Traveltalk short visits the cities of Casablanca, Rabat, and Marrakesh in Morocco, as well as the city of Algiers in Algeria.

Algérie du possible

December 2016 •French

By meeting his former comrades in combat, the film follows the journey of Yves Mathieu, anti-colonialist in Black Africa then lawyer for the FLN. When Algeria became independent, he drafted the Decrees of March on vacant property and self-management, promulgated in 1963 by Ahmed Ben Bella. Yves Mathieu's life is punctuated by his commitments in an Algeria that was then called "The Lighthouse of the Third World". The director, who is his daughter, returns to the conditions of his death in 1966.

143 Sahara Street

June 2021 •French

Alone in a small white house on the edge of national road 1, the Trans-Saharan road, which connects Algiers to Tamanrasset crossing the immensity of the desert, Malika, 74, one day opened her door to the director Hassen Ferhani, who came there to scout with his friend Chawki Amari, journalist at El Watan and author of the story Nationale 1 which relates his journey on this north-south axis of more than 2000 km. The Malika of Amari's novel, which Ferhani admits to having first perceived as a "literary fantasy", suddenly takes on an unsuspected human depth in this environment naturally hostile to man. She lends herself to the film project as she welcomes her clients, with an economy of gestures and words, an impression reinforced by the mystery that surrounds her and the rare elements of her biography which suggest that she is not from the region, that she left the fertile north of Algeria to settle in the desert where she lives with a dog and a cat.

Ancient Algiers

August 2024 •Arabic

In the heart of the historic Casbah of Algiers, buzzing with life, we follow a day in the life of Mousaab, a passionate Algerian teenager navigating his challenges while his love for his local football club runs deep.

Synonymous With

April 2021 •English

A student's increasingly intimate line of questioning causes his interview with a local horror host to take a vulnerable turn.

Purple Bells

May 2022 •Hebrew

30 years after their emigration, Danni interviews his family and tries to learn their story to reconcile with the past.

Algerian Refugees

January 1958 •French

Directed by Pierre Clément and Djamel-Eddine Chanderli, produced by the FLN Information Service in 1958, this film is a rare document. Pierre Clément is considered one of the founders of Algerian cinema. In this film he shows images of Algerian refugee camps in Tunisia and their living conditions. A restored DVD version released in 2016, from the 35 mm original donated by Pierre Clément to the Contemporary International Documentation Library (BDIC).

Le Diable de la République : 40 ans de Front national

November 2011 •French

L'Homme de L'Atlas

January 1973 •French

The Codes of Gender

October 2010 •English

Arguing that advertising not only sells things, but also ideas about the world, media scholar Sut Jhally offers a blistering analysis of commercial culture's inability to let go of reactionary gender representations. Jhally's starting point is the breakthrough work of the late sociologist Erving Goffman, whose 1959 book The Presentation of the Self in Everyday Life prefigured the growing field of performance studies. Jhally applies Goffman's analysis of the body in print advertising to hundreds of print ads today, uncovering an astonishing pattern of regressive and destructive gender codes. By looking beyond advertising as a medium that simply sells products, and beyond analyses of gender that tend to focus on either biology or objectification, The Codes of Gender offers important insights into the social construction of masculinity and femininity, the relationship between gender and power, and the everyday performance of cultural norms.

Believe It or Not (Second Series) #1

September 1931 •English

This first entry in the "Believe It Or Not" series of shorts visits northern Africa. Included are a look at the Tuareg people of the Sahara Desert, a waterfall whose under-surface builds up because of lime deposits, a clock that strikes 13, and the Tree of Abraham, estimated to be 3500 years old. Vitaphone No. 1282.

Dancing Before the Moon

May 2023 •English

Comprising new and archival footage, this film observes rituals performed by the South Asian, African, and Caribbean diaspora in Britain, demonstrating an appreciation of land, community values, and the universe we share with other species and planets.

Behind the Music: Michael Hutchence

January 2000 •English

In depth look at the life and death of INXS frontman Michael Hutchence (1960-1997), who took his own life at an Australian hotel room at the age of 37 on November 22, 1997. Featuring interviews with his family, bandmates and friends such as Bono.

Nas: Time Is Illmatic

April 2014 •English

Time Is Illmatic is a feature length documentary film that delves deep into the making of Nas' 1994 debut album, Illmatic, and the social conditions that influenced its creation.

Trade Center

March 2021 •English

The voices of five gay men who cruised for sex at the World Trade Center in the 1980s and 1990s haunt the sanitized, commerce-driven landscape that is the newly rebuilt Freedom Tower campus.

Algérie Tours Détours

November 2007 •French

A documentary road movie with René Vautier In the aftermath of Algeria's independence, René Vautier, a militant filmmaker, considered "the dad" of Algerian cinema, set up the cine-pops. We recreate with him the device of itinerant projections and we travel the country in ciné-bus (Algiers, Béjaïa, Tizi Ouzou, Tébessa) to hear the voices of the spectators on the political situation, youth and living conditions of men and Of women today.

Palestro, Algérie : Histoires d'une embuscade

March 2012 •French

Design: Fantasy

January 1990 •English

Documentary on movie special effects.

The Panafrican Festival in Algiers

January 1969 •Arabic

Festival panafricain d'Alger is a documentary by William Klein of the music and dance festival held 40 years ago in the streets and in venues all across Algiers. Klein follows the preparations, the rehearsals, the concerts… He blends images of interviews made to writers and advocates of the freedom movements with stock images, thus allowing him to touch on such matters as colonialism, neocolonialism, colonial exploitation, the struggles and battles of the revolutionary movements for Independence.

Naturalesa morta: la història de Sexy Sadie

July 2023 •Catalan

The surprising story of Sexy Sadie, a successful English-language Spanish pop-rock band formed in Mallorca in 1992 and disbanded in 2006.