Ali Marok
Camera
Biography
Ali Marok (علي ماروك), born in 1939 in Hadjout (formerly Marengo) in Algeria, is an Algerian cinema director of photography, television reporter and photographer. When he was young, Ali did not have the advantage of a normal schooling. He had to redouble his efforts to make up for lost time. It is the birth of this artistic feeling which will increase tenfold in the future artist eager to learn. “My life is a continuous learning process,” he summed up, with the simplicity of a young schoolboy, in search of discoveries and knowledge. “My uncle Abdelkader Benzerfa, a man of culture, knew how to instill in me values which shaped my personality. He introduced me to the world of images. No doubt it was my launching pad. » “It was on television, where I worked in the 1960s, that my taste for the profession was affirmed. It was a means of expression for me and I developed it.” At the same time, Ali photographed the Casbah of Algiers, "as if to freeze the imprint of time on the monuments". An atypical character, a pioneer of photography in Algeria, he likes to define himself as a shepherd-photographer. No doubt he was influenced by this happy Mitidja, who saw him born. He takes his job head on with great passion. “For me, a photographer is first and foremost a witness to his century. He must do his job with love, respect and generosity. A photographer, he notes, must know, respect and make people discover the cultural place that he must capture with his camera, because we cannot restore a part of our memory without feeling that it is part of ourselves. We cannot damage something that belongs to us. » He published his phorographic work in several art books including "Les Phares d'Algérie", "Les Mosaïques Des Eaux", "La Mecca, Regards Sur Le Pèlerinage" published by Larousse-Géo, "La Kabylie". This latest work earned him the congratulations of many personalities, including Kofi Annan, the Secretary General of the UN who “had the pleasure of reading through this remarkable work which combines texts written from the heart and photographs of high quality” . In the cinema, Ali Marok puts his discerning photographer's eye, as an image taker, to the service of several feature films, including in "The Battle of Algiers" (1966) by Gillo Pantecorvo, "The Pan-African Festival of Algiers " (1969) by William Klein, "Tahia Ya Didou" (1971) by Mohamed Zinet, "Premier Pas" (1980) and "Le Refus" (1982) by Mohamed Bouamari, "Le Glas" (1964) by René Vautier, and many others with the latter, the ultimate director of militant guerrilla cinema, in the Algerian maquis during the war of independence and elsewhere in other African countries in the midst of decolonization struggles... Ali Marok was a photographer reporter for Jeune Afrique magazine. He has collaborated with Le Figaro, Paris Match, New York Times and Afrique Asia... But more than an image hunter, Ali is an artist. Asked what he would have done if he was not a photographer, he answers “I would have been a second-hand dealer or an antiques dealer. For what ? Because I like to live and revive objects that marked their time. ". As part of the year of Algeria in France, in 2003, Ali Marok exhibited his most beautiful art photos at the Algerian Cultural Center in Paris, under the theme “Algeria, space and diversity”.
Known For
Paratrooper commander Colonel Mathieu, a former French Resistance fighter during World War II, is sent to Algeria to reinforce efforts to squelch the uprisings of the Algerian War. There he faces Ali la Pointe, a former petty criminal who, as the leader of the Algerian Front de Liberation Nationale, directs terror strategies against the colonial French government occupation. As each side resorts to ever-increasing brutality, no violent act is too unthinkable.
The Battle of Algiers
At the beginning of the 1960s, in Salisbury (now Harare), in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), the government of Ian Smith hanged three black revolutionaries who had nevertheless been pardoned by the Queen of England. René Vautier, with ZAPU (Zimbabwe African Party for Unity), denounces this killing. Expelled by the Rhodesian police (informed by the French secret services), the filmmaker shoots a film in Algeria in the form of an indictment against colonial savagery. The film was first banned in France, then authorized in 1965.
The Death Knell
Festival panafricain d'Alger is a documentary by William Klein of the music and dance festival held 40 years ago in the streets and in venues all across Algiers. Klein follows the preparations, the rehearsals, the concerts… He blends images of interviews made to writers and advocates of the freedom movements with stock images, thus allowing him to touch on such matters as colonialism, neocolonialism, colonial exploitation, the struggles and battles of the revolutionary movements for Independence.
The Panafrican Festival in Algiers
Cheikh Djemaï looks back on the genesis of Gillo Pontecorvo’s feature film, The Battle of Algiers (1965). Through archive images, extracts from the film and interviews with personalities, the filmmaker retraces the journey of a major work - from the events of the Algiers Casbah (1956-1957) to the presentation of the Lion of 'Or causing the anger of the French delegation in Venice - which left its mark as much in the history of cinema as in that of Algeria.
La Bataille d'Alger, l'empreinte
In 1967, Visconti came to Algiers for the filming of The Stranger with Mastroianni and Anna Karina. Camus, during his lifetime, had always refused to allow one of his novels to be brought to the screen. His family made another decision. The filming of the film was experienced in Algiers, like a posthumous return of the writer to Algiers. During filming, a young filmmaker specializing in documentaries Gérard Patris attempts a report on the impact of the filming of The Stranger on the Algerians. Interspersed with sequences from the shooting of Visconti's film, he films Poncet, Maisonseul, Bénisti and Sénac, friends of Camus, in full discussions to situate Camus and his work in a sociological and historical context. “The idea is for us to show people, others, ourselves as if they could all be Meursault, or at least the witnesses concerned to his drama.”
A Propos D'Un Crime
Originally commissioned by the city of Algiers to promote tourism, Mohamed Zinet’s Tahia ya Didou blends documentary with fiction to create a poetic, acerbic and rapturous portrait of the director’s native city. The camera travels freely, through the port, market, streets and cafés, capturing everyday people, some of whom recur frequently enough to seem like protagonists. The nominal plotline follows a French tourist couple’s leisurely visit to the city, the man having previously served in the army during the Algerian war. As they walk around, his comments betray his mindset’s racist colonial prejudices, while his wife reiterates asinine clichés. Their unhurried wandering is interrupted when he comes across a blind man and realises that he tortured him during his army service. The film is punctuated with punchy sequences that show a poet named Momo delivering verse as an elegy for Algiers.
Tahia Ya Didou !
A modern couple seeks to find marital happiness in a context where Algerian society is taking the “first step” towards female emancipation. A woman becomes president of a popular municipal assembly. Will she find happiness ?
First Step
An Algerian music composer and his friends live a thrilling story, full of twists and turns.
El Ouelf Essaïb
In 1971, the Algerian government nationalized hydrocarbons. The consequences of this decision on the community of Algerians in France are numerous. The Galti family is prey to these economic problems. The father, Khaled, former member of the F.L.N. in France, does not escape the sentence. Sharazade, his wife and comrade in combat, finds herself torn between her role as wife, mother and nostalgia for a country and a bygone past. As for his son Karim, a victim of socio-cultural division, all he has left is refusal.