Screens and Veils: Maghrebi Women's Cinema

Acknowledgments

ix “Gratefulness” shares with “grace” the generous Latin root of gratia, whosevariegatedsphereofmeaningsincludesthanks,charm,evenplea­ sure. What a delight it is to share gratefulness with all of you, who have been so giving of your stories, articles, ideas, laughter, love, companion­ ship,films,enthusiasm,patience,meals,evenyourhomeswithmeallthe way to the end of this book. The book took several years in the making, during which I lost two of my dearest, wittiest conversationalists: my father, Roger­Marc Martin, and my mentor, Michel Fabre. Both of these losseshaveleftmyworldaskewandstrangelymuted,andIwishtohonor their missed smiles and fatherly voices here. For his careful, smart editing and deep friendship, my thanks go first and foremost to John Boughton, an extraordinary reader and in­ terlocutor without whose patience and brains this book would be a pale and awkward shadow of its present form. For their friendship, readings, encouragement,andcarefulcomments,Iwishtothankfromthebottom ofmyheartSusanHayward,IsabelleFavre,andMaryseFauvel,aswellas “thereadinggroup”–MarkIngram,DanMarcus,AntjeRauwerda,John Turner–and, of course, Mifa Martin. For their generosity in sharing films, insights, laughter, meals, coffee, and friendship, I wish to warmly thank Selma Baccar, Farida Benlyazid, Sonia Chamkhi, Nadia El Fani, and Naceur Sardi. For their unfailing help in everything in Tunis and their chaleur humaine in the dead of winter, I wish to thank my Tunisian Acknowledgments x Acknowledgments family:Lotfi,Amel,Firasse,andWardMallek.Forhisamazingresources and knowledge, my gratitude goes to Taoufik Thamri, without whom large parts of the history of Tunisian cinema would remain a mystery to me. This book would not have been possible without several summer grants from Goucher College, or without my dear student Anndal Nara­ yanan’s help on the appendix. I am also indebted to the editors of Studies in French Cinema Journal, who gave me permission to use and revise an articlepublishedintheirjournal(“TransvergenceandCulturalDetours: Nadia El Fani’s Bedwin Hacker (2002),” vol. 7, no. 2, 2007: 119–129) and to Yoram Allom, who authorized the use of extensive passages from a chapter I contributed to Gönül Dönmez­Colin’s anthology The Cinema of North Africa and the Middle-East (“Bab al-samah Maftouh /A Door to the Sky, Farida Benlyazid, Morocco/Tunisia/France, 1988,” London: Wallflower Press, 2007, 123–132). Finally, this book, at long last in your language, is dedicated to you, Robin, you who opened your arms wide so I could fly away for months at a time to do research overseas, and who closed them back on me at the end of each journey. Screens and Veils ...