This festival cAmazigh Film Festival 2010elebrates the rich Amazigh culture of North Africa and the Sahara with film, music, and food. "Amazigh" is the original word for the Berber people and means "the free people". Amazigs and their descendants are found in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.

The celebration will commence on Saturday, October 30 at 5 pm at the Barnsdall Theatre and Art Gallery. The event will feature two films, Footsteps to Africa: A Nomadic Journey and Asshak: Tales of the Sahara, as well as exhibit artwork by painter Leslie Clark and jewelry designer Moussa Albaka.

Rosa Rojas: guedra dancer and teacherGuedra is a ritual blessing dance from the Tuareg Berbers, or "Blue People". Guedra is performed to envelop all present with positive energy, peace and spiritual love.The rhythmical clapping, and chanting, and dancers finger's and hand movements all have their origin in ancient symbolism. The Blue People consider Guedra to be their direct contact the elements, spirit, and universe. It is their deepest expression of their souls and provides protection against a hostile environment and evil spirits. The Guedra is an Arabic word for cooking pot. The cooking pot was covered in animal skin to make a drum to be played in the heartbeat rhythm. Workshop is open to all!

The Guedra workshop will begin with counter clapping and chanting warm up. Students will learn two blessing and counter clapping rhythms. There will also be a T'bal (standing dance) warm up. we will than proceed with Guedra on the knees and sitting position, and explore the intricacies of the hand, and arm movements. The Symbolic gestures are designed to send out blessings to the future, past, and present; to the Sun, Earth, Water and Wind. Towards the end of the workshop we will combine all elements of the Guedra.

"La Graine et le Mulet" by Abdellatif KachicheLevantine Cultural Center presents an exclusive screening and discussion of the critical hit that took France by storm in 2008, winning a César for Best Film, from writer/director Abdellatif Kachiche (Tunisia). 

In this complex and moving portrait of a North African immigrant family in a southern French city, aging protagonist Slimane Bejii is a divorced father down on his luck who seeks to change his fortunes by opening his own restaurant, serving his ex-wife's famous fish couscous. The family rallies around this common cause, despite the financial hurdles they must overcome, and the racial and class discrimination from local officials.

"The Secret of the Grain" is an extraordinary film from Tunisian-born writer/director Abdellatif Kachiche whose cinematic eye successfully enters into the most intimate parts of his characters in a style akin to Italian Neo-Realist films of the 1940s and 1950s. Little wonder the film picked up a César for Best Film and appeared on numerous critics' top ten lists for 2008, including that of A.O. Scott of the New York Times.

A post-film audience discussion will be led by Levantine Cultural Center's artistic director, Jordan Elgrably, whose family emigrated from Morocco to France, and Pani Norindr, Associate Professor of French & Comparative Literature, and Chair of the department of Comparative Literature at USC. Dr. Norindr received his doctorate in Romance Languages and Literatures from Princeton University. He is the author of Phantasmatic Indochina: French Colonial Ideology in Architecture, Film, and Literature (Duke University Press). He focuses his research on French, Francophone, and Southeast Asian cinema. He has recently published an essay on Rachid Bouchareb's "Days of Glory" in Yale French Studies.

Tickets available here online, or at the door but subject to availability (space is limited).

"The Secret of the Grain" is the first in Levantine Cultural Center's series this year, "New Voices in Middle Eastern Cinema", which takes place the third Thursday of each month. The February selection on Feb. 19, 2010 is Amin Matalqa's "Captain Abu Raed."

Read a review of this highly-lauded film in the Levantine Review.

 "La Graine et le Mulet" by Abdellatif Kachiche: your purchase in part benefits Levantine Cultural CenterReviewed by David Shasha

The precarious status of North African immigrants in France grounds the complex family drama that is "The Secret of the Grain." Taking its title from the savory fish couscous that is a signature dish of North African Arabs and Jews, the movie enters into the difficult world of one family led by a broken patriarch named Slimane.

Slimane works on the docks of an unnamed French city where his time as a laborer is about done. After working for over 30 years at the same place, he is now being moved out as labor costs are being slashed and he is now over 60 years old. We quickly learn that Slimane is divorced from his wife Souad and has a whole bunch of children and grandchildren. The film shows us a paterfamilias who is worn out, his family bursting at the seams and tensions everywhere. Souad complains that he is late with the alimony checks and his daughter Karima is fighting mightily with her two-year-old daughter to get her potty trained.

Using film, music and scholarship, on August 5th, speakers will explore the Mizrahim (Eastern Jews):

• Are the Jews of the Middle East/North Africa as Arab or Iranian as their host nationalities?
• 
  How were they received in Israel?
• 
  Are the Mizrahim/Sephardim a missing link to Middle East peace?

Using film, music and scholarship, on August 5th, speakers will explore the Mizrahim (Eastern Jews):