Douz Doc Days – 22nd to 25th December 2011
Douz Documentary Days (Les Journées du Documentaire de Douz) named JDD, like the JCC (Journées Cinématographiques de Carthage) Carthage Film Festival has, in English, a very catchy name in marketng terms.
The first session will be held from December 22 to 25, alongside the International Festival of the Sahara, on the initiative of Caravans Documentaries that aims to disseminate the values of citizenship through audiovisual culture in the regions of Tunisia. Thus the JDD they bring to the Festival of the Sahara is a new dimension that will allow this event that has always been associated with local folklore, to dust off its image and to adapt the Saharan tourism to current events in the country.
Douz is the gateway to the desert and is one of the last bastions of Limes, ie the frontier of the Roman Empire. Douz was also a stepping stone in trade with the rest of Africa. As such, the idea of launching a festival rooted in visual memory, engaged in the present and looks to the future acquiring a special meaning giving the documentary its full dimension in history, giving it thereby a role, a reference point in reality and imagination.
The idea has been in the pipeline for quite some time but the backers did not respond. Caravans Documentaries therefore committed to take on the challenge by demonstrating the validity and relevance of the project, which gradually will find the necessary support.
The exciting program, devised by Hichem Ben Ammar with the assistance of Khamis Chaoued, is worth the trip during the festive holiday season.
- A national competition involves short, medium and feature films, most of which are new
- A master class aimed at educators
- A cycle of films, essays on the theme of travel
- The outdoor screenings for the general public with films of the Crusades (Kingdom of Heaven by Ridley Scott and Youssef Chahine’s Saladin) and adventure films where the desert landscape is important such as BLACK GOLD which Jean Jacques Annaud filmed last year in the region itself.
The jury, we are told, will be composed of Jean Pierre Rehm (Director of FID Marseille, the largest documentary festival in the Mediterranean), Giovanna Taviani which will also be there to present his latest film Fugh APPRODI E, Paul Cannot (academic and Irish novelist living in Tunisia), the journalist Amel Chahed and well-known actor Salah Jday who has come to make a movie as a tribute to the martyr Hatem Ben Taher, who died at Douz just over a year ago.
We wish longevity to this new festival, which has many advantages including a tourist attraction and a pivotal location that gives it special significance and will soon be a must for the promotion of any Saharen documentaries.
References: http://www.tunisie.co/index.php/article/1111/passions/festivals/ddouz-263413
