Chroniques algériennes
Summer 2019, Zak wanders the streets of Algiers and dives into the Hirak, a series of protests taking place in Algeria since February of that year. His chronicles are nourished by encounters with men and women who take an enlightened look at their country and its struggles: through their words, the strength and complexity of such a movement emerge.
December
In Algiers, during the Algerian War of Independence, one of the leaders of the FLN was arrested by the French colonial army, which used the most violent methods to make the prisoners speak. The use of torture poses a conscience problem for a French officer. Playing shot-reverse-shot, between the tortured and his torturer, in a suffocating camera, Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina approaches torture by drawing inspiration from the story of his father, who died of abuse.
Jean-Jacques de Félice, The Passion For Justice
From the rights of minors before the juvenile court, young offenders from the neighborhoods of eastern Paris, or children of Algerian origin from the shantytowns of Nanterre, to the defense of colonized Kanaks and Polynesians; from the fight for conscientious objector status to the denunciation of torture and the death penalty, lawyer Jean-Jacques de Félice has been involved in every struggle. His pacifism knows no bounds: with organizations like Cimade, LDH, and the Louis-Lecoin Committee, he assists draft dodgers in numerous countries. These include Portuguese conscientious objectors refusing to fight in the wars in Angola and Mozambique, American deserters opposed to the Vietnam War, and Israeli objectors refusing to serve in the Occupied Territories. It is no surprise that, as early as 1971, he was one of the very first lawyers representing the farmers of the Larzac plateau.
Chronicle of the Years of Fire
A meticulous chronicle of the evolution of the Algerian national movement from 1939 until the outbreak of the revolution on November 1, 1954, the film unequivocally demonstrates that the "Algerian War" is not an accident of history, but a slow process of suffering and warlike revolts, uninterrupted, from the start of colonization in 1830, until this "Red All Saints' Day" of November 1, 1954. At its center, Ahmed gradually awakens to political awareness against colonization, under the gaze of his son, a symbol of the new Algeria, and that of Miloud, half-mad haranguer, half-prophet, incarnation of Popular memory of the revolt, the liberation of Algeria and its people.
Algiers, the Mecca of Revolutionaries (1962-1974)
From the early 1960s to the mid-1970s, independent Algeria provided significant support to anti-colonial movements and revolutionaries worldwide. Successive presidents, Ahmed Ben Bella and then Houari Boumédiène, made Algiers a haven for activists fighting against colonial and racial oppression. Algiers the White became Algiers the Red. The internationalist Che Guevara established his base of operations there for his guerrilla activities in Africa. The African-American leader Eldridge Cleaver made it the international headquarters of the Black Panther Party. During this period, Algiers was known as "The Mecca of Revolutionaries."
Un Combat Singulier
Messali Hadj - A Life In Service To The Algerian People
The life and political activism of Messali Hadj (1898-1974), an Algerian internationalist politician who played a pioneering role in the process leading to Algerian independence, which he demanded as early as 1927. He was initially secretary of the North African Star (ENA), then in 1937 he founded the Algerian People's Party (PPA), in 1946 he founded the Movement for the Triumph of Democratic Liberties (MTLD), and finally in 1954, the Algerian National Movement (MNA). In 1937, the leadership of the North African Star (ENA) created its flag, green with a white star and crescent. Messali Hadj's wife, Emilie Busquant-Messali, simply sewed this ENA flag by machine; it would later become the flag of the PPA. In 1943, Messali Hadj, in conjunction with the party leadership, created the ENA-PPA flag, green and white with a red star and crescent, which would later become the current flag of the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria.
Daniel Ali, a rebellious schoolteacher in colonial Algeria
In 1954, Daniel Vérin, a young schoolteacher of Algerian descent, made a radical decision: he turned his back on colonial France and joined the Algerian insurgents. He enlisted in the FLN, then the ALN, and became "Ali," a soldier in the struggle for independence. At the end of the war in 1962, he became an Algerian citizen. But the long-awaited independence did not bring Ali the taste of victory. On a scholarship, he went to study in the United States. Upon his return, the Algerian administration forbade him from entering his homeland. Rejected by the country he had defended, he obtained American citizenship in 1969. Condemned by France for his activism and ignored by Algeria for more than forty years, Ali was not officially recognized as a mujahid, a fighter of the Revolution, until 2004.
Faithful
1956. Algeria is a French colony. Fernand and Helene are madly in love. Fernand is an activist, fighting for independence alongside the Algerians. Helene is fighting for Fernand’s life. History will irrevocably change the course of their destiny.
Nous n'étions pas des héros
The city of Lambèse is the scene of torture, both physical and moral, for the resistance fighters of the Algerian War. In the form of a fictional account adapted from the novel "Le camp" by Abdelhamid Benzine, the conditions in the special camps of the colonial army, where we accompany a group of detainees, in their daily life animated by violence are depicted. are former Nazi officers, whose mission is to abandon all resistance, and all ideological faith, through humiliation and drudgery.
Maurice Audin, a story of mathematicians
On September 13, 2018, President Emmanuel Macron visited Josette Audin at her home in Bagnolet to ask for her forgiveness, presenting her with a declaration acknowledging that her husband had died under torture at the hands of a "legally established system" implemented by the former French colonial power in Algeria. This acknowledgment, however belated, is a victory for Josette Audin and her family, but above all, it is a victory for human rights, achieved together by mathematicians and historians. This film retraces this shared commitment against torture and state abuses, first within the Audin Committee and then within the Committee of Mathematicians, which also intervened to support other mathematicians imprisoned and sometimes tortured around the world.
Our Algeria
"Djazaïrouna", produced by the cinema service of the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic (GPRA), is a montage film intended to inform the international community at the UN in 1959 on the objectives pursued by the Algerian resistance during the war of 'Algeria. Independence in Algeria (1954-1962). In 1959, Djamel-Eddine Chanderli and Mohammed Lakdar-Hamina produced Djazaïrouna (Our Algeria) from images taken by René Vautier and Doctor Pierre Chaulet. This film, completed a little later and will result in the film “The Voice of the People”. This documentary on the history of Algeria through a montage of current events, traces the political and military actions of the A.L.N, the demonstrations of December 1960, and the attack on a fortified French base on the border between Algeria and Tunisia.
The Ultimate Goal: Independence
Delve into the story of the Algerian footballers who traded European pitches to join the fight for independence. In 1958, in the midst of the War of Independence, talented players secretly left their clubs to form the FLN team – a living symbol of the Algerian people's struggle. This clandestine team, banned by FIFA, served as a mouthpiece for the Algerian provisional government until 1962. Footballer Rachid Mekhloufi explained: “This departure of the best Algerian players playing in France was no accident. With the control of the media, few French people knew what was happening in Algeria. The FLN representatives in France were ahead of the curve in terms of publicity. Truly ahead of the curve, because a move like this allowed the French people and the rest of the world to open their eyes.”
Gaston Revel, a schoolteacher in Algeria
In 1936, Gaston Revel entered the École Normale in Algiers, where he was supposed to learn how to "educate the native." It was also during this time that he began to take an interest in politics: he was drawn to the Popular Front, then to Spanish anarchism, and finally to communism. From 1940 to 1955, he taught in Algeria, first in rural areas, then in Bejaia. He returned to Europe because of the war and landed in Provence in September 1914, following the Allied advance. It was in Bejaia, in 1945, that he became fully committed to the Algerian Communist Party: in 1953, he ran for municipal office in the second electoral district (reserved for Algerians) and sat alongside the Muslims. In 1955, at the beginning of the war, he was forced to leave Algeria against his will. But, like thousands of other "red feet," he returned there in 1962 and resumed his teaching career. From all those years, he left a complete and deeply committed record, many letters, notebooks, and newspaper articles.
Brothers in Arms
From 1954 to 1962, during the Algerian War, French citizens provided concrete assistance to the FLN in France: sheltering refugees, forging documents, facilitating border crossings, and transporting funds. Whether committed to the ideals of the Republic or driven by Third Worldist revolutionaries, they sought to build a bridge of friendship between nations. They paid for their commitment with imprisonment and exile. Four veterans of the Jeanson network recall this period. Today, they are no longer seen as traitors or heroes, but as witnesses recounting "their" war... Silent for 30 years, the "Jeanson network" now bears witness to this history.
Palestro, Algérie : Histoires d'une embuscade
Destins: Général De Bollardière
The exceptional portrait of a pacifist general, the only senior officer to have spoken out against torture. This precious testimony still remains censored in France, since no national channel has to date decided to program this documentary. Son and brother of a soldier, General Pâris de Bollardière was destined for a career in arms. He was, for many years, one of the most brilliant representatives of this adventurer career in France, from Narvik to the Algerian War. After fighting in the French maquis, he reached Indochina, where he suddenly found himself in the aggressor's camps. His beliefs are strongly shaken. But it is in Algeria, where the French army practices torture and summary executions, that he takes the big turn. He expresses his contempt to Massu, and is relieved of his command. Until his death in 1986, Jacques de Bollardière fought for world peace, from the Larzac plateaus to the Mururoa atolls.
Abd El-Kader
Illustrated with archival photographs, animations and live action, this film explores the history and historical and spiritual heritage of Emir Abd El-Kader. Algerian leader of the 19th century, was admired by Abraham Lincoln and celebrated to this day by the Red Cross as a great humanitarian. Emir Abd el-Kader, the man who challenged the French armies from 1832 to 1847 before creating the bases of a real Algerian state, is today considered by independent Algeria as one of the most outstanding figures. of its history. The nobility of his attitude after his capture and the very effective protection he brought to the Christians of Damascus at the end of his life also earned him great prestige among his former adversaries. A documentary told in dialectal Arabic by the voice of Amazigh Kateb.
Hassan Terro
While he tries by all means to stay out of the bloody upheavals caused by the battle of Algiers, Hassan, an honest and naive father, unknowingly offers hospitality to a mujahid actively sought by the army. French. A series of events and misunderstandings quickly catapult him to the forefront, presenting him under the pseudonym “Hassan Terro”, a great fictitious terrorist who would have sworn the doom of the French army...
The Epic of Cheikh Bouamama
The story of the film revolves around the epic of Sheikh Bouamama, a leader of the national resistance in Algeria during the French colonial era. The events are taking place in southwestern Algeria. The film also tells about different stages of the resistance, especially about one of the uprisings of the Algerian people, namely "the battle of the sons of Sidi Sheikh Bouamama", in which French General Leuti was appointed to try to suppress and end this resistance.