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Notes I N T R O D U C T I O N 1. There are good reasons for challenging the broad terms “Third World” and “national cinema,” but I think there are better reasons for continuing to use them. I will return to this question in the conclusion. Until then, I hope the reader will accept these terms as convenient shorthand. 2. Thinking only of Africa and the Arab world, Ousmane Sembène in Senegal (Xala, 1974, and Cedda, 1977), Souleymane Cissé in Mali (Yeelen, 1987), Idrissa Ouedraogo in Burkina Faso (Yaaba, 1989), Merzak Allouache in Algeria (Omar Gatlato, 1976), Férid Boughedir in Tunisia (Halfaouine, Children of the Terraces, 1990), Muhammad Malas in Syria (Dreams of the City, 1986), and Elia Suleiman in Palestine (Divine Intervention, 2001), to name just a few, come immediately to mind. (I am not including Egyptian filmmakers because the Egyptian film sector and South Africa’s are the only ones on the continent that deserve the label “industrial” and they have special characteristics.) 3. The Moroccan Film Center (Fr. Centre cinématographique marocain, hereafter referred to as the CCM) is the state organization that oversees all film activities. (For more detail, see chapter 2, “Moroccan Cinema from Independence until 1980.”) 4. In mid-2003 there were fewer than 170 theaters in Morocco (counting multiplex cinemas according to their number of screens), down by over 30 percent from a high of 247 in 1985. Attendance has dropped continually and even more precipitously, from forty-five million admissions in 1980 to under thirteen million in 1999, then to under twelve million in 2001 and under eleven million in 2002, an overall decrease of more than three-quarters for a population that increased by over 50 percent. The number of imported films has also decreased, from an average of over 300 during the 1980s and 1990s to just over 180 in 2001, although this figure rebounded to almost 250 in 2002. Even at the lower figure this number dwarfs the number of Moroccan films shown in the theaters, although recently this number has been climbing (five in 2000, eight in 2001, ten during the first half of 2003). In the area of production, foreign features filmed in Morocco during 2001 invested 13 times as much as Moroccan films and employed 4.5 times as many technicians, twice as many actors, and 26 times as many extras; in 2002, foreign features invested 12 times as much as Moroccan features and employed 8 times as many technicians, almost twice as many actors, and 30 times as many extras. If all genres are included (features and short films, advertising 364 Notes to pages 5–6 spots, video clips, etc.), foreign productions accounted for approximately 90 percent of investment in 2001 and 2002. (All figures in this section are from the CCM.) 5. Morocco has consistently produced between five and ten films per year since the late 1990s and box-office figures show the public’s support for these films: in 1998 two Moroccan films were in the top ten films in receipts; in 1999 Moroccan films ranked first, second, and ninth in receipts and occupied three of the top five places in admissions. This trend has continued: in 2001 Moroccan films ranked first and second in both attendance and receipts and in 2002 obtained almost the exact same ranking (Moroccan films ranked first and second in receipts, second and third in attendance, with a third Moroccan film ranking eleventh in receipts). On the whole, for 2002, the average attendance for a Moroccan film far outpaced films of all other nationalities, averaging almost twice as many spectators as the next closest national competitor and, while Moroccan films constituted only 2 percent of all films shown, they drew a significantly larger share of total admissions (7.6 percent; CCM figures ). 6. Morocco’s National Film Festivals will be discussed in greater detail in the conclusion, when we assess Moroccan cinema’s future prospects. 7. Averages over the period 1988–1999 for the “big five” are (with 1995 population in millions in parentheses): India 839 (945), China (plus Hong Kong) 489 (over one billion), United States 385 (216), Philippines 456 (69), Japan 238 (125). Figures in this section on national film production, wealth, and population are taken from UNESCO: Cinema: A Survey on National Cinematography (www.unesco.org/culture/industries/cinema/html_eng/survey). (The U.S. population figures in the UNESCO document appear to be inaccurate : the U.S. Census...

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