This is the second part of research into Remapping World Cinemas for the Digital Age, led by Professor Paul Cooke at the University of Leeds. This project explores the gap between the ways in which national elites seek to use film culture to project themselves internationally, culturally, politically and economically, and how this is understood by communities ‘on the ground’, in particular, those that consider themselves to be excluded – not least linguistically – from such elite discourses.  Learn more about the research and its aims below or contact p.cooke@leeds.ac.uk

Art, Language, Youth and the legacy of Conflict in Lebanon

Professor Stephen Hutchings (University of Manchester) will be investigating the media’s role in shaping the contours and values of, and reflecting tensions and fractures within, the post-Soviet Russian-speaking community.

With particular attention to key global media events centering on the post-Soviet space (Eurovision 2017 in Kiev and the recent 2018 World Cup in Russia)

Find out more below

The Transnational Moroccan Cinema project is a three-year, AHRC-funded project, running from December 2015 – December 2018. The project is led by Professor Will Higbee (University of Exeter, UK), working with an international team of researchers: Professor Florence Martin (USA,/France), Dr Stefanie Van de Peer (UK/Belgium) and Dr Jamal Bahmad (UK/Morocco).  The project analyses the rise of Moroccan cinema over the last two decades from relative obscurity to a position where it is arguably now amongst the most important national cinemas within Africa and the Arab world. The project aims to explore the critical and commercial success of Moroccan cinema through a transnational lens, analysing the global reach of this ‘small’ national cinema through its relationship with diasporic filmmakers, the role of festivals and international co-productions as well as the place of local and global audiences in the age of digital disruption. The project places a strong emphasis on collaboration with filmmakers, festivals, policy makers, film schools and industry figures, working with (amongst others) the Chamber of Moroccan Film Producers, The Africa in Motion film festival (Edinburgh), The London Film School and The International Film School Festival (Tétouan). With these partners the project aims to contribute to a transnational understanding of Moroccan identity through cinema, the identity of Moroccan cinema, and its role on the scale of a global film circuit. Through symposia, contributions to film festivals and publications, the researchers behind the project hope to open up a platform for international dialogue around Moroccan cinema that might also form a model for other ‘small’ national cinemas from the global south.