'A marvelous and timely book on Morocco's national treasure Farida Benlyazid. An elegant and playful spiral structure accommodates Martin's deep understanding of Benlyazid's many contexts, from the socioeconomic to the spiritual.'
'Florence Martin has achieved an into-depth exploration of a unique and unequalled Moroccan female cineaste-biography. Well-written, nuanced and historically informed.'
---Viola Shafik, Independent scholar and filmmaker, Berlin, Germany and Cairo, Egypt
A pioneer in Moroccan cinema, Farida Benlyazid has been successful at negotiating the sometimes abrupt turns of Morocco's rocky 20th century history: from Morocco under French occupation to the advent of Moroccan independence in 1956; the end of the international status of Tangier, her native city, in 1959; the "years of lead" under the reign of Hassan II; and finally Mohamed VI's current reign since 1999. As a result, she has a long view of Morocco's politics of self-representation as well as of the representation of Moroccan women on screen
Autorentext
Florence Martin is Dean John Blackford Van Meter Professor of French Transnational Studies at Goucher College, USA. She is the author of Screens and Veils: Maghrebi Women's Cinema (2011) and the co-author (with Will Higbee and Jamal Bahmad) of Moroccan Cinema Uncut: Decentred Voices, Transnational Perspectives (2020).