Caravanserai: Film Workshop with Hakim Belabbes

Cinemas opened in Cairo, Khartoum, Damascus and Casablanca the same time they opened in New York, London, Paris, and Bombay, and local artists began telling their own stories as well as adapting global classics. Audiences in the Middle East flocked to see the best – and worst – from American, European, and Asian artists and industries. How were their own visions of adventure, romance, comedy, suspense and stardom similar and different. Is film really a universal language?

This workshop will introduce you to Hakim Belabbes, an accomplished independent director who divides his time between Morocco and the United States. Belabbes will speak to his background as a filmmaker and the status of the film industry in Morocco, will discuss the challenges and the technical aspects of making films in the US and abroad, and will screen selected clips of his films. A question and answer session with workshop participants will follow.

Hailing from the small town of Boujad in central Morocco, Hakim Belabbes graduated from Mohamed V University in Rabat with a degree in literature. Belabbes obtained a graduate degree in Film and Video from Columbia College in Chicago, where he now teaches film direction and production.

This presentation is sponsored by the King Fahd Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Arkansas in conjunction with Caravanserai: A Place Where Cultures Meet, and is free and open to the public.

Visit http://mest.uark.edu/caravanserai or call 479-575-2175 for more information.

Workshop will be held in Room 266 in the JB Hunt Building on the University of Arkansas Campus.  Parking is available in the nearby Harmon Avenue Parking Garage.