Ahmed El Maanouni, Al Hal [Trances]

Ahmed El Maanouni’s Al Hal [Trances] is a classic of Moroccan cinema and a compelling introduction to it. While presenting itself as a music documentary on the iconic band Nass El Ghiwane, it is also a film about friendship and collaboration, archival memory, the anti-colonial imagination, and working-class life in Casablanca.

The African Film Institute is pleased to invite you to e-flux Screening Room on Thursday, April 18 at 7pm for a rare evening with El Maanouni, curated by, and in conversation with, Omar Berrada.

The evening is co-presented with ArteEast.

Ahmed El Maanouni, Al Hal [Trances] (1981, 88 minutes)
Of all the art forms in 1970s and ’80s Morocco, music was perhaps the most potent, aesthetically and politically. Nass El Ghiwane epitomized the period, both for the way they reclaimed popular storytelling and African musical traditions, and for the way they voiced people’s desire for freedom. In Al Hal, as El Maanouni follows them through a series of electrifying concerts, documenting the kind of trance they induce in their audiences. At the same time, by showing the revered musicians in their humble quotidianness, he paints the poignant portrait of a generation. All the while, through a deft use of archival images, he traces colonial echoes in the present, giving historical depth to the narration. Both a concert movie and a free-form audiovisual experiment, Trances is pure cinematic poetry.

For inquiries addressed to the African Film Institute, please write to africanfilminstitute@e-flux.com.

For general and press inquiries, contact program@e-flux.com.

Accessibility  
–Two flights of stairs lead up to the building’s front entrance at 172 Classon Avenue.  
–For elevator access, please RSVP to program@e-flux.com. The building has a freight elevator which leads into the e-flux office space. Entrance to the elevator is nearest to 180 Classon Ave (a garage door). We have a ramp for the steps within the space.  
–e-flux has an ADA-compliant bathroom. There are no steps between the Screening Room and this bathroom.