Berber Video-Films (Morocco)

The overarching term Berber references Indigenous inhabitants from Morocco to Egypt. Amazigh (plural Imazighen) also refers to the collectivity of subgroups throughout North Africa, and the collective variety of dialects is Tamazight. Berbers claim a heritage predating the Arab Islamic conquest of North Africa (604–709). In Morocco, three main subgroups are identified by region: northern Riffians speak the dialect Tarifit; central Amazigh speak Tamazight; and southern Chelha speak Tachelhit. Given their widespread geographic and historical presence, activists contest their sociopolitical marginalization. This entry focuses on the production of Berber videos in Morocco, which fill a void created not by neglect, but by repression of cultural identity.

Across North Africa, including Morocco, prior to the 1990s there were no nationally circulating film or television productions depicting Berber culture or utilizing Berber language except for musical productions and folklore. The Moroccan government had repressed most signs of Berber cultural specificity during the 1970s and 1980s by arresting activists, raiding cultural centers, and forbidding the production of culture in Berber language, aside from folklore.

Since the early 1990s, Morocco's gradual reforms have included a lifting of this repression. As a result, Berbers have engaged in the production of their own media in order to maintain a cultural and ethnic specificity in the face of media that only represent others (primarily the state and the Arab ethnic majority). In addition to traditional folklore, local video productions are used to preserve Indigenous and thereby a multivocal national heritage.

Berbers, particularly in the South, the Chelha, have actively produced video features with activists seeking to reify Berber cultural specificity, or video makers moving from music videos to feature productions. Similarly, many of the famous Berber singers have become the actors and actresses of the video-film era. Since the mid–1990s, there have been more than 10 companies (mainly Chelha) developing their own feature films in video format, utilizing Berber language (primarily Tachelhit), locations, actors, and stories.

While a number of video-films were set within Berber urban communities, the majority were filmed in countryside locations, mixing professionals with amateurs, and mostly telling stories concerning Berber life or mythologies. Modern era drama and humor are the dominant genres, though several historical fictions have been produced. In many ways, Berber video producers challenge Morocco's national media and cinematic constructs. Their video-films function diversely as entertainment, but also as political statements of Berber cultural specificity and a testament to Moroccan cultural and ethnic heterogeneity.

Since the 1990s, Moroccan Berber video-films have been privately produced in greater numbers than state-funded movies. At least 75 video-films have been produced, with a number of sequels in the works. These videos have been sold throughout Morocco and also in Europe to accommodate the large number of migrant Berber speakers.

Until Tilila (2006), directed by Mohamed Mernich, the state's cinema institution funds, which support feature filmmaking in Morocco, had never funded Berber films. Fewer productions have occurred in Tamazight or Tarifit languages, though this will change with the legalization of the Berber cultural movement and various mechanisms of state funding opening up since 2005 to allow Berber language productions.

...