In June 2009, Tamaas, an international non-profit arts organization, invited eight poets and filmmakers coming from France, Lebanon, Mexico, Morocco, and the United States, to Tangier, Morocco. These four poet-filmmaker pairs collaborated using Super 8 film and writing original text to create these experimental “film-poems.”

Working under tight time constraints-they had just four days to film, four days for sound, and four days for editing, the artists took inspiration from the city of Tangier-its history, architecture, people, politics, as well as from each other, to produce these short film-poems.

The finished film-poems, along with a “making of” documentary about the artists who created them, is available as a DVD. Each work is independent and can be viewed alone but presented here the four come together as a whole. Email us at tamaas@tamaas.org to order a copy.

Ivan Boccara (France/Morocco) + Carla Faesler (Mexico) Film: “Road Marine”
Akram Zaatari (Lebanon) + Liliane Giraudon (France) “Les Arabes aiment les Chats”
Natalia Almada (Mexico)+ Peter Gizzi (USA): “Threshold Songs”
Jem Cohen (USA) + Luc Sante (Belgium/USA): “Le Bled” (Buildings in a Field)

Running time: :41 minutes (not including “Making Of”)
Languages: English, Spanish, French + Arabic with English, French, Arabic subtitles
Sound, Script, Editing and Filming all done by the 8 Artists

A Tamaas production
Hosted by the Cinémathèque de Tanger

This post is also available in: French, Arabic