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Egypt

Lights, Camera, Revolution: The Arab Spring Stars At Cannes

The revolt in the Arab world is featured in several participants at this year's film festival in France, as newfound freedom is celebrated in celluloid, if not yet incomplete in practice.

Jonathan Rashad
Jonathan Rashad
Clarisse Fabre

CANNES – For a moment this week, the Côte d'Azur became the latest flashpoint – at least in a cinematic sense – of the Arab world's ongoing tide of revolution.

On Wednesday, participants in this city's world famous film festival were treated to the world premiere of 18 Jours (18 Days), an Egyptian film shot during the North African country's recent uprising. Egypt is the guest country of the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, with its "long film tradition that underwent a radical transformation," declared Thierry Frémaux, the Festival's chief representative. 18 Jours is a collection of 10 shorts made by filmmakers Yousry Nasrallah, Marwan Hamed, Sherif Arafa, Sherif El-Bendary, Kamla Abu Zekry, Mariam Abou Ouf, Mohamed Ali, Ahmed Alaa, Ahmad Abdallah and Khaled Marei.

Like any self-respecting revolution, the Cannes version came with its own blog – called "Pour un Maghreb du Cinéma" – which offers visitors a chance to sound off on 18 Jours and other revolutionary films being featured in this year's Festival. One of those is a documentary called Plus Jamais Peur (Never be afraid again), which Tunisian director Mourad Ben Cheikh shot after dictator Ben Ali fled that country on Jan. 14. A third related film is Ni maître ni Allah (Neither Master, nor Allah), directed by Nadia El-Fani. All three are feature-length movies that celebrate freedom after years of confinement.

Since Ben Ali's fall, there have been hard times in Tunisia, according to El-Fani. "Right after Ben Ali's fall," she said, "filmmakers and amateurs could shoot movies without ending up in jail. Today, if you try to record a video with your mobile phone, you get beaten up by the police." The director also revealed that she has been subjected to a violent campaign of insults and threats organized by a group of Muslim fundamentalists because on May 1, she dared to declare on television: "I don't believe in God."

It is as if Tunisia was reborn. Everything must be rebuilt. The film industry started off by settling the score with those who too often rubbed shoulders with Ben Ali, the deposed dictator. During a February movie convention, Ali Labidi, the president of the Association of Tunisian filmmakers (ACT), who was also Ben Ali's friend, was forced to resign.

Freedom of expression now exists in Tunisia, but the film-industry is struggling. "Since the Tunisian uprising, film directors have stopped shooting movies, technicians have lost their jobs and they don't receive any unemployment benefits. Some of them have even opened up vegetable stores," said Amine Chiboub, who is both a young film director and ACT's vice-president.

There may be a glimmer of hope. For the past five years, Tunisian filmmakers have requested the government create a National Center of Cinema, based on the French model from the National Center of Cinematography (NCC). There's reason to believe that could finally happen. "We are going to impose a tax on telecommunications services and on access providers in order to finance movies," said Chiboub.

There are no plans, however, to impose a tax on ticket sales. "It is impossible to do that, because there is no centralized ticket machine. We never know how much money a movie will generate," said Khaled Barsaoui, a Tunisian filmmaker, producer and president of a newly founded association of filmmakers called (ARF).

Tunisa and Egypt must prepare for the future. Young filmmakers such as Ayten Amin from Egypt and Walid Tayaa from Tunisia have been invited to the House of World Cinema at the Cannes Film Festival to learn how to "pitch" their feature film projects in the hope of attracting funding.

There is also the question of how those art-house films can be exported abroad. Pacha Pictures, an international sales agency specialized in Arab art-house films, was launched just in time for the Cannes Film Festival. Pacha Pictures has six films at Cannes including 18 Jours ("18 Days') and Microphone, directed by Ahmed Abdallah from Egypt. The movie has been very well received by the critics.

The founder of Pacha Pictures, Frédéric Sichler, thinks that Arab filmmakers have everything to gain by staying the way they are. "Arab filmmakers need to take back control of Arab cinema," he said. "Almodovar is an international filmmaker because he retains his own unique vision of Spanish life."

Read the original article in French.

photo - Jonathan Rashad

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Ideas

The Colonial Spirit And "Soft Racism" Of White Savior Syndrome

Tracing back to Christian colonialism, which was supposed to somehow "civilize" and save the souls of native people, White Savior Syndrome lives on in modern times: from Mother Teresa to Princess Diana and the current First Lady of Colombia, Verónica Alcocer.

photo of a child patient holding hand of an adult

Good intentions are part of the formula

Ton Koene / Vwpics/ZUMA
Sher Herrera

-Analysis-

CARTAGENA — The White Savior Syndrome is a social practice that exploits or economically, politically, symbolically takes advantage of individuals or communities they've racialized, perceiving them as in need of being saved and thus forever indebted and grateful to the white savior.

Although this racist phenomenon has gained more visibility and sparked public debate with the rise of social media, it is actually as old as European colonization itself. It's important to remember that one of Europe's main justifications for subjugating, pillaging and enslaving African and American territories was to bring "civilization and save their souls" through "missions."

Even today, many white supremacists hold onto these ideas. In other words, they believe that we still owe them something.

This white savior phenomenon is a legacy of Christian colonialism, and among its notable figures, we can highlight Saint Peter Claver, known as "the slave of the slaves," Bartolomé de Las Casas, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Princess Diana herself, and even the First Lady of Colombia, Verónica Alcocer.

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