"The seventh art in the service of children's rights" is the theme of the third Regional Meeting on Cinema and Human Rights which will take place in Kénitra from 11 to 15 November 2014.
This cinematographic event is one of the flagship events of the current cultural season. The program for this edition, presented during a press conference, is distinguished by its richness and diversity, both in terms of the cinematographic experiences of the participating countries and the themes addressed. The choice this year fell on five films: "Girafada" by Palestinian director Rani Massalha, "Closed Doors" by Egyptian filmmaker Atef Hetata, the Iraqi-Iranian film "Turtles Can Fly" by Kurdish director Bahman Ghobadi, and the documentary film "On the Way to School" by French director Pascal Plisson.
As a sign of openness to the city's civil society and with a view to offering this event a strong cultural and educational dimension, the organizers have planned a conference on "Cinema and the issue of children's rights", as well as a meeting with directors and critics on "Cinema: war and its effects on children". These two meetings with the cinephile public of the Gharb capital will be moderated by Palestinian director Nassri Hajjaj, Syrian filmmaker Aliaa Khachouk, Palestinian writer Abir Sheikh Haidar, and academic Louisette Faréniaux, professor at the University of Lille III. Several other spaces in the city will also be involved in this cultural event.
Films intended for children will be screened in social protection establishments (the girls' youth center and Dar Lekbira), as well as another feature film reserved for students of the National School of Commerce and Management (ENCG) of Ibn Tofail University. Another meeting is planned with writers, authors, artists, intellectuals, and poets from Kénitra.
According to the organizers, this cinematographic event aims to enrich and promote the culture of human rights through creativity and imagery. Hassan Ait Bella, member of the Regional Human Rights Commission of Rabat-Kénitra, stressed during the press conference that the regional commission attaches particular importance to the issue of children's rights and subjects concerning childhood in general. He did not fail to recall the role that imagery and cinema play in fighting against all forms of abuse and exploitation of which children can be victims, indicating that Moroccan and foreign films have addressed the theme of childhood in its various aspects and have largely contributed to lifting several taboos. "This event," he adds, "offers the opportunity to open up to other foreign experiences with the aim of enriching the national cinematographic experience in terms of dealing with human rights issues."
The irony of it all is that this major event is taking place in a city known for its cinephile public, but which no longer has a single cinema hall. The organizers are forced to screen the films in the large hall of the City Hall. Mokhtar Ait Omar, president of the Kénitra Film Club, announced that a dynamic to recover the legendary "Palace" cinema hall has been triggered, expressing the wish that this place of memory will one day reopen its doors.
"Together to save Palace cinema". This is the slogan adopted by the Kénitra Film Club. The Palace cinema is the only hall in the city that is currently escaping the threat of demolition. The choice of this slogan comes at a time when the city's cinephiles have watched, powerless, the demolition of the Riad cinema hall, after the disappearance of the Fantasio hall replaced by a building, the transformation of the Tanagra hall into a vehicle garage, and the Atlas cinema into a commercial area. The Ittihad cinema hall will inevitably meet the same tragic fate, since it was recently put up for sale.
