Documentary Cinema and Memory of Political Violence in Post-Authoritarian Morocco and Tunisia (2009-2015)

Abstract

After the death of Hassan II (1999) and the ousting of Ben Ali (2011), the issue of the political violence that had been perpetrated during their reigns was put to question by Moroccan and Tunisian civil society. Documentary cinema, a medium well suited for conveying mnemonic testimony, soon tackled the subject. How did filmmakers adapt to this tense political context? What choices did they make to stage a mnemonic discourse, and what cinematographic and memorial achievements did they reach? This paper describes various documentary projects, placing them in their respective contexts, to discuss the possibilities and limits that conditioned filmmaking, and to explore the relationship of filmmaking to the judicial and mnemonic processes taking place in these societies. Various conceptions of documentary film are thus revealed, from documentary image considered as mere proof, testimony and document, to works by Moroccan and Tunisian filmmakers who are self-reflexive about their impact...