Fez Heritage Photography Winners
Here are the winners and their photographs, in order of merit, in the recent ALIF-ALC Photography Club competition held to celebrate International Heritage Day. Eighty entries were received from around Morocco, and forty were chosen for an exhibition that was displayed in conjunction with the conference Patrimoine architectural de la ville de Fès. The top five photographs were selected as the winners of the competition.
Soraya Benchekroun
Sally Lyall Grant
Ali El-Kassass
Tiffany Harris
Matt Schumann
ALC-Fez Merit Scholars for Spring 2012
The following students have received outstanding results in their English classes at the American Language Center Fes during Spring 2012.
Mustapha Snihji BEG 2
Sanae Es-sounni BEG 3
El Mehdi Bououd BEG 4
Rita El Maammar BEG 5
Meryem Jrifa BEG 6
Douaa El Khalfi INT 1
Aicha Kazmane INT 2
Salma Tazi INT 3
Sara Hassnaoui INT 4
Zineb Benkirane INT 5
Omar Mdarhri Alaoui INT 6
Nour El Houda Remok ADV 1
Karim El Adlouni ADV 2
Guita Azzouzi Ouedrhiri ADV 3
Hajar Fathi ADV 4
Abdelhak Sadik ADV 5
Adam Attouk ADV 6
Animal Farm at ALC Fez
The animals of a farm successfully revolt against its human owner, only to slide into a more brutal tyranny among themselves.
Who: ALC & ALIF and university students
When: Friday May 25 at 3 PM
Where: ALC Room Six
Steinbeck’s Arab Legacy
The ways in which famous American author John Steinbeck has been influential on Arab authors was the topic of a recent lecture at the American Language Center by Hamid Mountassir.
Delivered on May 3 as part of the 32nd Steinbeck Festival, Mountassir spoke on how Steinbeck’s writing about people on the margins of society had influenced contemporary authors such as Mohamed Choukri.
“He (Steinbeck) was trying to experience life as it is,” said Mountassir. ”He is the model when it comes to writing short fiction and novels.”
To see a video of the lecture CLICK HERE.
Here are a few tips from Steinbeck about writing your own novel:
1) Abandon the idea that you are ever going to finish. Lose track of the 400 pages and write just one page for each day, it helps. Then when it gets finished, you are always surprised.
2) Write freely and as rapidly as possible and throw the whole thing on paper. Never correct or rewrite until the whole thing is down. Rewrite in process is usually found to be an excuse for not going on. It also interferes with flow and rhythm which can only come from a kind of unconscious association with the material.
3) Forget your generalized audience. In the first place, the nameless, faceless audience will scare you to death and in the second place, unlike the theater, it doesn’t exist. In writing, your audience is one single reader. I have found that sometimes it helps to pick out one person—a real person you know, or an imagined person and write to that one.
4) If a scene or a section gets the better of you and you still think you want it—bypass it and go on. When you have finished the whole you can come back to it and then you may find that the reason it gave trouble is because it didn’t belong there.
5) If you are using dialogue—say it aloud as you write it. Only then will it have the sound of speech.
Courtesy of The Atlantic.
ALIF Movies this Weekend
Whatever Works
Attempting to impress his ideologies on religion, relationships, and the randomness (and worthlessness) of existence, lifelong New York resident Boris Yellnikoff rants to anyone who will listen, including the audience. But when he begrudgingly allows naive Mississippi runaway Melodie St. Ann Celestine to live in his apartment, his reclusive rages give way to an unlikely friendship and Boris begins to mold the impressionable young girl’s worldly views to match his own. When it comes to love, “whatever works” is his motto, but his already perplexed life complicates itself further when Melodie’s parents eventually track her down.
Language: English
Who: ALIF students
When: Friday May 18 at 6 PM
Where: ALIF Riad
The Mirror
A young girl leaves school and discovers that her mother is not outside waiting. She boards what looks like the correct bus, but eventually realizes that she has gone the wrong way. A friendly driver begins to help the now irritable child. Suddenly she stops and announces “I don’t want to play this part anymore.” The story surprisingly becomes about making a film. The actress continues to be filmed without her knowledge.
Language :Arabic with English subtitles
Who: ALIF students
When: Saturday May 19 and Sunday May 20 at 6 PM
Where: ALIF Riad
Moneyball
Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane’s successful attempt to put together a baseball club on a budget by employing computer-generated analysis to acquire new players.
You can see the trailer Here
Who: ALC & ALIF and university students
When: Friday May 18 at 3 PM
Where: ALC Room Six
The Hammam as Tangible and Intangible Cultural Heritage in Morocco
Naima Lahbil, Moroccan Professor of Economics and current consultant with ADER-FES on the HAMMAMED project will talk about the importance of the Hammam in Moroccan everyday culture and experience.
Naima Lahbil dancing in the Hammam!
The project is working on restoring and maintaining the architectural and historic integrity of some of the important hammams in the medina.
Professor Lahbil has long been a champion of the cultural and historic heritage of Fes Medina and worked with UNESCO and the World Bank on many projects.
This lecture will give students some insight into the Moroccan hammam experience as well as an opportunity to learn more about the direction and goals of the historic restoration projects in Fes.
Click Here to know more about the HAMMAMED project
When: Monday, May 14 at 5 PM
Where: Room 1 at the ALC
Who: ALC, ALIF & university students and the general public
Another Earth at ALC-Fes ALIF
In the framework of its cultural activities, the U.S. Embassy is organizing a series of film screenings with the Sundance Institute’s Film Forward Program. Another Earth will be shown at the American Language Center in Fez this Thursday, followed by a discussion with the film’s director, Mike Cahill.
On the night of the discovery of a duplicate planet in the solar system, an ambitious young student and an accomplished composer cross paths in a tragic accident.
Click Here to see the trailer
When: Thursday, May 10 at 6 PM
Where: ALC annex, across from the ALC
Who: ALC, ALIF & university students and the general public
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Eight years of being raised by humans and now left behind in an abusive sanctuary, a hyper-intelligent chimpanzee will lead a revolution of apes towards freedom from man’s torturous exploitation.
You can see the trailer Here
Who: ALC & ALIF and university students
When: Friday May 11 at 3 PM
Where: ALC Room Six
ALIF Movies this Weekend
A Passage to India
When liberal-minded English ladies Mrs. Moore and Adela Quested arrive in India, they’re shocked by the extreme racial prejudice that exists there. Fortunately, kind Dr. Aziz rises above the intolerance and guides the women on a splendid tour of the mysterious Marabar caves. But the outing turns tragic when Adela suddenly comes running from one of the caves–scratched, bleeding and terribly frightened. News of the incident quickly spreads across the whole of India…igniting a powder keg of tension just waiting to explode. “A rich tapestry woven of the clash between two cultures” (Newsweek), A Passage to India is supreme entertainment and a visual wonder that is truly spellbinding.
Langue: English
Who: ALIF students
When: Friday May 11 at 6 PM
Where: ALIF Riad
RESISTANCE[S]
The RESISTANCE[S] DVD compilation is a panorama of contemporary experimental creativity from this region of the world. The artists presented on this DVD (Zoulikha Bouabdellah, Taysir Batniji, Mounir Fatmi, Lamya Gargash, Usama Alshaibi, Jayce Salloum, Frédérique Devaux and Waël Noureddine) are all international travellers. Their identities have been shaped by the cultures they’ve encountered during forced or voluntary states of migration and exile. Using images to lead the narrative, each artist, no matter the style or medium, succeeds in raising fundamental questions relating to humanity, politics and aesthetics. The relationship between past and present, between tradition and modernity, geographical distance and culture gaps, the status of women in today’s Arab societies, the image of these societies as portrayed by the media, as well as a number of political concerns are all central themes of this program.
Language :Arabic with English subtitles
Who: ALIF students
When: Saturday May 12 and Sunday May 13 at 6 PM
Where: ALIF Riad
Steinbeck Festival at ALC-Fez ALIF
When: Thursday, May 3 at 5pm
Where: American Language Center, Room 1
Who: ALC, ALIF & university students and the general public
Movies at ALIF Riad This Weekend
Anonymous
Set in the political snake-pit of Elizabethan England, Anonymous speculates on an issue that has for century’s intrigued academics and brilliant minds such as Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, and Sigmund Freud, namely: who actually created the body of work credited to William Shakespeare? Experts have debated, books have been written, and scholars have devoted their lives to protecting or debunking theories surrounding the authorship of the most renowned works in English literature. Anonymous poses one possible answer, focusing on a time when scandalous political intrigue, illicit romances in the Royal Court, and the schemes of greedy nobles lusting for the power of the throne were bought to light in the most unlikely of places: the London stage.
Langue: English
Who: ALIF students
When: Friday May 4 at 6 PM
Where: ALIF Riad
The Tornado
Beirut, civil war. There are checkpoints, arbitrary executions, car bombs, machine guns, handguns, funeral processions, ambushes, hot heads, vendettas, and revenge. Cruelty and death are everywhere. Akram, who’s been studying in Russia, is back in Beirut on holiday and plans to visit his mother in his home village. But can he get there? He spends time with friends in the city; they tell stories of death. Danger is on all sides. Driving down the street may lead to murder. Touches of the surreal appear: are they real, are they dreams? Can Akram survive? If so, at what cost?
Language :Arabic with English subtitles
Who: ALIF students
When: Saturday May 5 and Sunday May6 at 6 PM
Where: ALIF Riad
Grapes Of Wrath
The ALC-Fes Film Club is showing this film as a part of the Fringe Festival of the 32nd Annual Steinbeck Festival.
A poor Midwest family is forced off of their land. They travel to California, suffering the misfortunes of the homeless in the Great Depression.
You can see the trailer Here
Who: ALC & ALIF and university students
When: Friday May 4 at 3pm
Where: ALC Room Six
