An esthetic and cultual aims of Arab African cinema in the working : the Carthage film festival (JCC)

Abstract

The JCC (« Carthagian days of cinematography ») is an Arab-African film festival established in 1966, the oldest on the continent. Over the last decade, the festival has seen number of challenges on the organizational level as well as in its film selection; the competition remained exclusively reserved to African and Asian films. In parallel sections not being part of the competition films were shown from around the world. The present thesis is based on interview conducted with a wide range of protagonists directly or indirectly responsible for managing the festival ever since its creation. Based on these primary sources, the organization and the management of the festival were analyzed as well as the aesthetic concept that could be derived through the selection of films especially through from their political or cultural content. This research is an academic accomplishment and an attempt to offer a new working tool to ease research on Arabic and African cinematography through the festival of Carthage that until now remains a festival hardly studied.