The Feminine Mashriq: Recent Episodes
Hyperreal Film Club
The Feminine Mashriq is a virtual series created by Emily Basma shining a light on the thriving independent cinema of the Arab world - 50% of which is made by women and femme directors. This series will focus on narratives that don’t explicitly center on war or poverty, but instead the mundane, poetic, and human aspects of taking up space in the MENA region. Each week we will highlight a film from a different country and explore the idea of national and regional cinema.
In episode 3 of The Feminine Mashriq, Emily is joined by filmmaker and musician Faiza Kracheni to discuss the first feature directed by an Arab woman. They touch on colonization, symbolism, and the mise-en-scene of this North African melodrama.
Faiza Kracheni is an experimental media artist, musician, and educator in Austin, Texas. She is currently a Director at Motion Media Arts Center, co-founder of Texan women’s film festival Transform, and a member of the UNESCO Media Arts Austin board. You can often find her playing shows in the local DIY punk scene, or teaching local classes on analog filmmaking.
For more on the virtual series, The Feminine Mashriq programmed by Emily Basma, visit: https://hyperrealfilm.club/virtual-programming
In the second installment of The Feminine Mashriq, Emily is joined by two incredible Lebanese photographers Jinni J and Nadia Elchmaissani as they discuss feminine expectation, assimilation, and familial norms in Lebanon.
The center of the discussion is the 2007 directorial debut of Lebanese filmmaker Nadine Labaki, Caramel. For her first film, it was important to her to show Lebanon how it actually is, complex and full of life, and not just destitute and war-torn the way that it is portrayed in Western media.
Read more about Caramel and The Feminine Mashriq virtual series at https://hyperrealfilm.club/the-feminine-mashriq
In Episode 1 of The Feminine Mashriq, we visit Palestine through Annemarie Jacir's Wajib. Emily is joined by Syrian-American filmmaker Shereen Younes where they discuss representation, Arab customs and pleasantries, and what it means to not have claim to one's homeland.
The Feminine Mashriq is a virtual series shining a light on the thriving independent cinema of the Arab world - 50% of which is made by women and femme directors. This series will focus on narratives that don’t explicitly center on war or poverty, but instead the mundane, poetic, and human aspects of taking up space in the MENA region. Each week we will highlight a film from a different country and explore the idea of national and regional cinema.