Stefanie is developing an anti-racist and feminist methodology to animate the globe's archives and neglected feminist heritage. Her project on Global Women's Film Heritage, funded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh, recently brought together scholars and practitioners from around the world, to discuss the meaning and shape of a feminist heritage and legacy of film, and her book publications include: (2019) with Lizelle Bisschoff, Women in African Cinema. Beyond the Body-Politic. London: Routledge and (2017) Negotiating Dissidence: The Pioneering Women of Arab Documentary. Edinburgh University Press.

The research seminar focuses on four films by three North African women: Fatma 75 (1976) by Selma Baccar from Tunisia, La Nouba des femmes du Mont Chenoua (1978) and La Zerda ou les chants de l’oubli (1981) by Algerian filmmaker Assia Djebar, and Une porte sur le ciel (1989) by Moroccan director Farida Benlyazid. The digitisation of Fatma 75 was initiated and funded by Africa in Motion in Scotland, La Zerda was restored and digitized by Arsenal in Berlin and Door to the Sky by Exeter University in England. La Nouba has not yet been restored. In considering these films’ individual and combined stories of archiving and preservation, I explore a way forward for historical research across diverse African film legacies.

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Abstract:
With the excitement of innovations and new directions in African cinema also comes an increasing awareness of the value of its heritage. Reflection on the past lives of films and film workers, and the responsibilities of archives is more and more urgent, as pioneers active in the 1970s and 1980s pass on and their films as well as their collective memory is in danger of being lost. In this self-reflexive presentation I explore three pioneering North African women filmmakers’ early works and the archival lives of their feminist films. I reflect on my own particular experiences with their films and their archival lives, with a focus on restoration practices, and the afterlives of archival films through contemporary festival networks.

In particular, I will discuss four films by three North African women: Fatma 75 (1976) by Selma Baccar from Tunisia, La Nouba des femmes du Mont Chenoua (1978) and La Zerda ou les chants de l’oubli (1981) by Algerian filmmaker Assia Djebar, and Une porte sur le ciel (1989) by Moroccan director Farida Benlyazid. The digitisation of Fatma 75 was initiated and funded by Africa in Motion in Scotland, La Zerda was restored and digitized by Arsenal in Berlin and Door to the Sky by Exeter University in England. La Nouba has not yet been restored. In considering these films’ individual and combined stories of archiving and preservation, I explore a way forward for historical research across diverse African film legacies.