Latinarab Presentation

On Tuesday, October 13, 2020, with the participation of the Latin American Council of Social Sciences, the 9th edition of the Latinarab International Latin Arab Film Festival, organized by the Creciente Cine Fértil Civil Association, was presented at a press conference. This important event provides access to films that serve as true bridges between Latin America and the Caribbean, on the one hand, and Arab culture, on the other, exemplifying respect for diversity and promoting a wide range of cultural expressions.

---

---

The event began with remarks from Gustavo Lema, Director of Communications at CLACSO. He was followed by a welcome address from Pablo Vommaro, Director of Research at CLACSO; and speeches from Edgardo Bechara El Khoury, Executive Director of LatinArab, and Christian Mouroux, Artistic Director of LatinArab.

Participated:

-Federico Escribal, Vice President of the Urbe Foundation (Argentina).

-Salym Fayad, one of the founders of the Other South Foundation of South Africa.

-Marisa Hassan, president of the Argentine Audiovisual Federation (FAVA).
-André Araujo from NordesteLAB (Brazil)

-Geraldo Campos from the Center for Arab and Islamic Studies (Brazil)
– Odette Yidi David, director of the ICAC Arab Cultural Institute of Colombia (Barranquilla, Colombia)

The Festival takes place online from Monday, October 19th to Monday, October 26th, 2020. The official program can be viewed free of charge on the Grupo Octubre platform, OCTUBRE.TV, while conferences and special events will be streamed live on CLACSO.tv. The traditional Latin Arab Festival Buenos Aires-Paris will also be available online. Various CLACSO Working Groups and the Executive Secretariat are participating.

LATINARAB celebrates its ninth edition, continuing its mission to shift the Orientalist perspective that has traditionally shaped our understanding of Arab societies and the Arab communities of Latin America. In this way, the festival contributes to the development of programs within academic and cultural networks, to film production and co-production, and to intercultural dialogue based on equality and equity between both regions.

Thus, he is also committed to reducing prejudices in media, aesthetic and educational discourses that segregate or curtail expressions of the artistic, cultural and religious heritage of the American-Arab people in general, in South America in particular and in Argentina in particular.

With a focus on South-South cooperation, the festival has positioned itself at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018 and 2019 as one of the 100 most relevant players in the Arab film industry, according to Arab Cinema Magazine. In parallel, the festival held four Latin American and Arab Co-production Forums, promoting co-production agreements between states and film institutes, thus helping to finance and develop more than fifty audiovisual projects. In recognition of this work, it received the UNESCO Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture in 2018 in Paris, France.

The aim of this special edition, through the exhibition of films curated with thoughtful and committed care, is to contribute to the prevention and dismantling of cultural racism. It also seeks to foster both recognition and respect for our own and others' cultural diversity, as well as the promotion and protection of the cultural expressions that define us as communities and peoples on the planet.

The program comprises a total of 44 films from 33 countries and is divided into competitive (Official Selection) and non-competitive (Best of the Latin Arab Panorama) sections. This ninth edition marks the addition of the Latin American Film Competition to the Selection. The films in the various sections of the Official Selection are evaluated by a jury of prominent national and international figures. The following competitive sections make up the LATINARAB 2020 Official Selection:

– Arab Feature Film Competition

– Arab Short Film Competition

– Latin American Feature Film Competition

– Latin American Short Film Competition

NON-COMPETITIVE SECTION – THE BEST OF LATIN AMERICAN ARABIAN PANORAMA:

This program offers a selection of films that have been featured in this historic section of the festival, produced in Latin America and establishing connections with Arab cinema and culture, a result of the filmmakers' interest and the work of the Latin American-Arab Co-production Forum. This edition also includes an Argentine premiere as a bonus feature.

A JOURNEY WITH A GENDER PERSPECTIVE:

Beyond territorial boundaries, a selection of films from the competitive sections offers rich material for exploring gender issues, providing new perspectives on the program. Throughout this exploration, the role of women is both thematized and problematized in various aspects. Whether originating from institutions or within interpersonal relationships, violence against the body emerges as a defining characteristic for many protagonists. In other cases, female directors unfold their subjective worldview through documentary filmmaking. Finally, a series of films explore female desire at different ages, from adolescence and first encounters to adulthood and motherhood, imagining new possible models.

SPECIAL ACTIVITIES

CLACSO CONFERENCE SERIES: Conferences on various topics related to the audiovisual field, for both amateur and academic audiences, will be streamed free of charge on various social media platforms. These include the following:

Presentation of the book by filmmaker Laila Hotait Salas (Lebanese based in Mexico) We will always have Beirut.

Women in Latin American and Arab Cinema: A Journey with a Gender Perspective

UNESCO: The Importance of Intercultural Dialogue. Latin-Arab Experiences for Inclusive and Sustainable Development.

LATINARAB PARTY: With the LATINARAB Parties in Paris, Berlin, and Buenos Aires, a platform for meeting and celebrating Latin-Arab cultural and musical fusions has emerged, supported by the French Institute of Argentina. It will take place on Saturday, October 24th, and will feature DJ Selectorchico (Uruguay), DJ Cucurucho (France-Spain), and Kasbah (France) behind the decks.

---

---