Nadir Bouhmouch's guest appearances

Nadir Bouhmouch

WorldStreams WorldTalk

Why Morocco

Charlotte Social Equality

Sally Kohn

Noam Chomsky

Meryam Demnati

Alice Morrison

Imad Dahmani

Lahbib El Moumni

Hendrik Beikirch

Richard Hamilton

Moulay Idriss

Dana Elemara

Sarah Kchirid

Shiraz Ksaiba

Hassan Hajjaj

David Packer

Willem Smit

OwlTail

For this week’s episode I met with Nadir Bouhmouch, the filmmaker behind the documentary Amussu. In the film, Nadir takes a collaborative approach to telling the story of the villagers of Imidir peacefully protesting against Africa’s largest silver mine, located in the region, that led to water scarcity in their oasis and their right to land. Beautifully shot, the film included images of the oasis when water was scarce and its impact on agriculture, stepped inside homes to interview local residents and captured video of daily village life. I first learned about Amussu as it premiered at the 2019 Toronto Hot Docs festival. I happened to catch the film when it made its Marrakech premiere this autumn. Following the release, I met with Nadir to chat about the protests that have been dubbed the Movement on Road 96 and his collaborative approach to telling this tale. But also the peaceful approach the locals took to bring about change when they’d had enough. So let’s listen in as Nadir talks about sharing the tale of a village that, while the struggle is not over, succeeded in shutting down one of the water pipelines, thus bringing some life back to this oasis in southern Morocco. Find out more about Amussu and latest news and screenings, follow on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/amussufilm/. To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss. For more Morocco ideas and advise, follow me on Instagram at @mandyinmorocco. My other projects include:  Tasting Marrakech food and cultural tours in Marrakech tasting-marrakech.com Travel and public relations consulting Freelance writing for print and digital  mandyinmorocco.com/freelance-writing/

For this week’s episode I met with Nadir Bouhmouch, the filmmaker behind the documentary Amussu. In the film, Nadir takes a collaborative approach to telling the story of the villagers of Imidir peacefully protesting against Africa’s largest silver mine, located in the region, that led to water scarcity in their oasis and their right to land. Beautifully shot, the film included images of the oasis when water was scarce and its impact on agriculture, stepped inside homes to interview local residents and captured video of daily village life. I first learned about Amussu as it premiered at the 2019 Toronto Hot Docs festival. I happened to catch the film when it made its Marrakech premiere this autumn. Following the release, I met with Nadir to chat about the protests that have been dubbed the Movement on Road 96 and his collaborative approach to telling this tale. But also the peaceful approach the locals took to bring about change when they’d had enough. So let’s listen in as Nadir talks about sharing the tale of a village that, while the struggle is not over, succeeded in shutting down one of the water pipelines, thus bringing some life back to this oasis in southern Morocco. Find out more about Amussu and latest news and screenings, follow on Facebook at: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/amussufilm/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/amussufilm/</a>. To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a <a href="https://ko-fi.com/mandyinmorocco" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">coffee nouss nouss</a>. For more Morocco ideas and advise, follow me on Instagram at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/mandyinmorocco/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">@mandyinmorocco</a>. My other projects include: <ul> <li>Tasting Marrakech food and cultural tours in Marrakech <a href="http://tasting-marrakech.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">tasting-marrakech.com</a></li> <li>Travel and public relations consulting</li> <li>Freelance writing for print and digital  <a href="https://mandyinmorocco.com/freelance-writing/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">mandyinmorocco.com/freelance-writing/</a></li></ul>

Why Morocco 027 – Documentary filmmaker Nadir Bouhmouch on filming a protest in Morocco

  On Thursday March 8th we talked across the Atlantic with Moroccan film   maker and anarchist Nadir Bouhmouch.  We discussed his new  film Amussu, a documentary film he describes as an “experiment in cinema   from below” made with the indigenous people of Imider, Morocco who have been camped since 2011 protesting Africa’s largest silver mine.  We  also covered topics including the colonial history of Morocco, the  Spanish  revolution, anarchism, as well as film and art more generally.   In spite of my lack of preparation and poorly worded questions he gave a fantastic interview and I really enjoyed our discussion, and I have a lot more questions I didn’t get a chance to ask.  The film has just premiered and the trailer is absolutely beautiful, if you are interested in organizing a screening in your area we recommend that you stay tuned to the Facebook page.Here is an excerpt from a beautiful article Nadir wrote about Amussu: “Agraw is the tribal general assembly. It is the Amazigh mode of autonomous and democratic governance par excellence. Since 2011, Agraw has been revived and revised for the 21st century. It is a model for us, and a way of life for hundreds in Imider who have constructed power from below. As a result of the horizontal social relations established by the Movement, one finds in Imider a conscious community where everyone is armed with the word. Here, the old woman who can not read or the young high school dropout have one finger on the pulse of the earth, and the other on their stomachs. Spoken between two angry breaths or after a resilient sigh, their word is heavier than ink and more lucid than a green screen. But their word is not limited to the fiery speeches of tattooed mothers or revolted youth during Agraw. Their word is stretched, shortened, given rhythm, floated on a melody, or marked by a bendir drum. For the word of Imider is also its Izli (poetry), sung on the back of a pick-up, chanted as a slogan, called out from across the mountain or carried across wedding ceremonies throughout the southeast. As one Ait Atta proverb goes: “Tar Izli, Urtamu” — an event without its poem, is an event which never happened. “Amussu” is just another of Imider’s many poems, a small collection of its infinite words.”

On Thursday March 8th we talked across the Atlantic with Moroccan film maker and anarchist Nadir Bouhmouch.  We discussed his new film Amussu, a documentary film he describes as an “experiment in cinema from below” made with the indigenous people of Imider, Morocco who have been camped since 2011 protesting Africa’s largest silver mine.  We also covered topics including the colonial history of Morocco, the Spanish revolution, anarchism, as well as film and art more generally. In spite of my lack of preparation and poorly worded questions he gave a fantastic interview and I really enjoyed our discussion, and I have a lot more questions I didn’t get a chance to ask.  The film has just premiered and the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RQqrG0tTDc" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">trailer</a> is absolutely beautiful, if you are interested in organizing a screening in your area we recommend that you stay tuned to the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/amussufilm/?eid=ARDiwkkPeSjREafctOwt2W93Ckm7jMZKq7EReMRg0Yridy0MWOEPLY7lB4d0WBF9kq1KlphBpo6SLRg2﻿" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Facebook page</a>.Here is an excerpt from a beautiful <a href="https://libcom.org/library/amussu-experiment-cinema-below" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">article</a> Nadir wrote about Amussu: “Agraw is the tribal general assembly. It is the Amazigh mode of autonomous and democratic governance par excellence. Since 2011, Agraw has been revived and revised for the 21st century. It is a model for us, and a way of life for hundreds in Imider who have constructed power from below. As a result of the horizontal social relations established by the Movement, one finds in Imider a conscious community where everyone is armed with the word. Here, the old woman who can not read or the young high school dropout have one finger on the pulse of the earth, and the other on their stomachs. Spoken between two angry breaths or after a resilient sigh, their word is heavier than ink and more lucid than a green screen. But their word is not limited to the fiery speeches of tattooed mothers or revolted youth during Agraw. Their word is stretched, shortened, given rhythm, floated on a melody, or marked by a bendir drum. For the word of Imider is also its Izli (poetry), sung on the back of a pick-up, chanted as a slogan, called out from across the mountain or carried across wedding ceremonies throughout the southeast. As one Ait Atta proverb goes: “Tar Izli, Urtamu” — an event without its poem, is an event which never happened. “Amussu” is just another of Imider’s many poems, a small collection of its infinite words.”

Nadir Bouhmouch, Moroccan film maker and anarchist

Nadir Bouhmouch on WorldStreams