"Shedding light on Moroccan cinematic heritage" is the 9th work of the Imouzzer film club. Published in 2015, this book written in Arabic and French compiles several articles by academics and critics, all punctuated with images, posters, and magazine covers.
The cinephiles of the small town of Imouzzer Kandar have succeeded in shedding light on Moroccan cinematic heritage. Last weekend, the local film club organised a signing session for its ninth work: "Shedding light on Moroccan cinematic heritage". Programmed on the sidelines of the twelfth edition of the People's Cinema Festival, this ceremony was an opportunity for critics, professionals, and cinephiles to underline the importance of documentation and archiving with the goal of transmitting the history of this art to future generations. Published in 2015, this book (180 pages – medium format) is divided into two parts, Arabic-speaking and Francophone, and compiles several articles punctuated with images, posters, and magazine covers. Prefaced by Abdellah Arfaoui of the Imouzzer film club, the Arabic language part counts six articles signed by critic Ahmed Sijilmassi "The historicisation of cinema, whose responsibility?", academic Mohamed Lemrini Louahabi "Moroccan cinematic heritage through colonialist cinema", Mohamed Bouayadi "In the need to rehabilitate Mohamed Ousfour", critic Bouchta El Mechrouh "New data on the beginnings of Moroccan cinema", Mohamed Zeroual "Media and cinema in Morocco", and Fouad Qachachi "Contribution of festivals in the documentation of Moroccan cinematic memory".

As for the Francophone part, it counts three articles dealing with "The importance of film heritage" by Ahmed Gharib, "To erect cinema as heritage" by Youssef Ayt Hammou, and "Documentary and writing against forgetting and marginalisation" by Ameur Cherqui.

During the signing, the president of the Imouzzer film club, Mustapha Akherzouz, intervened to present the book and explain the circumstances of its publication, marked notably by preparations in record time. For his part, critic Ahmed Sijilmassi did not omit to mention the success of this twelfth edition of the People's Cinema Festival, and especially its conference on the documentation of cinematic memory in Morocco.

Let us note that this 12th edition of the Imouzzer Kandar Festival took place from 12 to 15 November, at the city's Cultural Complex, under the theme: "Cinema to establish the culture of the image". "The primary objective of this event is to weave more links between cinema and its public", explains, in a statement to Libé, El Mostafa Akharzouz, president of the film club. And to add: "Despite the cinema halls that are cruelly lacking in this city, we are doing our best to anchor this festival in the Moroccan cinematic landscape".

22 Moroccan films were, furthermore, in competition for the Grand Prize, but also films from France, Belgium, Bulgaria, Albania, Algeria, or even Canada. And it is the short film "Summer Days" by Moroccan director Imad Badi that won the Grand Prize of the said edition. The prize for the best promotion of a people's culture went to Moroccan director Hajar Seta for her opus "M'Berra", while filmmaker Asmae El Moudir snatched the prize for best cinematography for her film "Rough Cut". The special jury prize, for its part, went to Bulgarian director Hristo Simeonov for his film "Ennemies", while the public prize was won by the film "Who am I?" by Algerian director Kamouni Mohamed Islem.

It is, furthermore, to be remembered that this cultural event, which aims to cast a look at the cultural specificities of many countries through the screening of their cinematic works, was punctuated by tributes paid posthumously to the Moroccan artist the late Mohamed Bastaoui, as well as to the Algerian director Cherif Akoun.