Newfound cinematic freedom tested in Tunisia. Tunis - With some sitting on the floor or standing in the aisles, fans packed a Tunis movie house earlier this year to watch a documentary many believed would never see the light of day. La Memoire Noire (The Black Memory) by director Hichem Ben Ammar examined the years of imprisonment and torture suffered by leftist activists under the regime of former President Habib Bourguiba. Since the ouster of authoritarian ruler Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011, Tunisian cinema appears to have entered a new era. "After the fall of Ben Ali, there was [a] wave of people who simply took their cameras and went out to the streets to film what was happening, and that was the first impact of the revolution," Alaeddine Slim, who co-directed a documentary about refugees in Tunisia, told Al Jazeera.
VIDEO: Conservative Muslims clash with secularists in Tunisia Tunisian cinema is nearly as old as the medium itself. RELATED: Opinion - Cinema and the condition of coloniality. Tunisians jailed for Facebook cartoons of Prophet | Rights & Liberties. Harlem Shake as Protest in Tunis. Hard line Salafi fundamentalists (who are small fringe in Tunis) showed up at a language school in Tunisia’s capital on Wednesday to attempt to stop the filming of a video clip of the Harlem Shake, electronic-music performer Baauer’s internet sensation in the Trap genre.
One of the Salafis had on military khakis and carried a molotov cocktail, which he did not use. They shouted at the students that their brothers in Palestine were suffering and they were dancing. The students at the language school drove off the Salafis and went on with their filming. The Minister of Education, however, appears to agree that the filming of the dance at the school was inappropriate, and is making noises about expelling the students involved. In turn, that threat has provoked calls for a public demonstration against the government in downtown Tunis that will involve mass performance of the Harlem Shake. A section of the Tunisian Salafis have adopted essentially al-Qaeda tactics. #AB11 - In the Heart of Tunisia: A Journey to the Epicenter of the New Arab World — The Sudanese Thinker.
To truly begin to understand the significance of the 3rd Arab Bloggers Meeting that just took place in Tunisia, you first have to make yourself familiar with what happened two years ago in December 2009 during the 2nd Arab Bloggers Meeting in Beirut. Back then, in the words of the late Steve “Abdulfattah” Jobs, we were “the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently.” We were crazy enough to think we could change the world. Fast-forward nearly two years later and that’s precisely what happened. It’s one hell of a powerful validation, because we now know beyond a shadow of a doubt that our collective efforts were not in vain. Critics can say whatever they want. In fact, in some countries, things might have to get “worse” before they get better. Nonetheless, the regional psychological shift from victimhood and apathy to entitlement and self-empowerment is unstoppable.
What about you? “Think different.” Global Voices · Tunisia Revolution 2011.