1st International Conference: Animation Arts in Africa and Arab World

Animation In Africa And The Arab World

From Geneses to Present Day: Challenges and Perspectives

The Arab Democratic Center in Berlin is pleased to launch a call for papers for the

International Hybrid Conference on

ANIMATION IN AFRICA AND THE ARAB WORLD

From Geneses to Present Day: Challenges and Perspectives

Date: November 2-3, 2024

Location: Zoom + In-person at the University of Kairouan-Tunisia

N.B: Participation is free of charge

Partners

Animation In Africa And The Arab World

From Geneses to Present Day: Challenges and Perspectives

Conference Chair:

Dr Maya BEN AYED Research Fellow at The Centre d'Histoire Sociale des mondes contemporains

(UMR:8058 CNRS, Université de Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne), France

https://histoire-sociale.cnrs.fr/ben-ayed-maya/

Chair Woman of the Scientific Comittee :

Dr Faten RIDENE Film Studies Teacher-reseacher at the Université of Jendouba-Tunisie- Official

representative of the Arab-Berlin-German Democratic Center in Tunisia-.Member of the international

ranking Committee of Université de Jendouba.

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5202-427X

Honored Committee:

Pr Amer Sabah ALMARZUK, Dean of the University of de Babylon-Irak

MA Dr Abdelaziz Smida University of Kairouan-Tunisia

Mme Raja KMICHA Président and fonder of the festival international du cinéma d’animation de

Kairouan-Tunisie

Pr. Ammar CHARAAN, Head of Democratic Arabic Center, Berlin-Germany

Conference Management :

MC Dr Bahia ZEMNI, Université Princesse Noura Bent Abderrahman, Arabie Saoudite

Dr Imene BEN HASSINE, University of Kairouan, Tunisia

Abir BEN WAHHADA, Universityof Carthage, Tunisia

Dorra DAALOUL, University of Kairouan, Tunisia

Dr Karim AICHE, Democratic Arabic Center, Berlin-Germany

Dr Ahmed BOHKOU, Democratic Arabic Center, Berlin-Germany

Institut Supérieur des Arts et Métiers de Kairouan-University of Kairouan-Tunisia

Festival International du Cinéma d’Animation de Kairouan

Faculty of Fine-Arts, University of Babylon IRAK

Animation In Africa And The Arab World

From Geneses to Present Day: Challenges and Perspectives

Arab and African animation has come into the spotlight, gaining more visibility in

international festivals by virtue of a renewal of interest and curiosity for these societies

since the popular uprising of 2011. Despite being noticed and/or awarded at the most

prestigious festivals (Annecy, Cannes, the Berlinale) as the subject of exclusive

cultural events, animation is rarely approached as an exclusive study object but often

as a cultural product that highlights the socio-political upheavals in the region.

Animation Studies in the Arab world, and even more so on the African continent, are

still in their embryonic stage, despite a renaissance of the genre and the production's

boom since the early 2000s accompanying the technological revolution.

The "democratization" of digital tools has freed the practice of this artistic expression

and technique from the financial and technical constraints specific to the genre

(Rostrum camera, filmstrip, etc.).

Maureen Furniss (2007) noted this marginal status of animation at university

compared to "the other" cinema until the late 1980s. The author sheds light on the

context of emergence of Animation Studies in the United States. She explains this in

terms of the influence of postmodernism on media studies, which legitimized the study

of popular forms of art and entertainment (wrongly considered less "serious"), on the

one hand, and the urgent need to document and trace the "evanescent" memory of this

art form, on the other.

Somewhat paradoxically, it's hugely the mass-market and commercial cinemas, with

their hegemonic presence on both large and small screens, which mostly mobilized

discourses and writings on the genre. State cinemas such as Canadian animation,

mainly supported by the National Film Board, or Eastern European cinemas benefiting

from a privileged status under socialist regimes (compared to other countries) find

themselves on the bangs of animation literature. Even though they are not lacking in

"visibility": international recognition, prizes, and awards at festivals (S. Bahun: 2014,

Ü. Pikkov: 2018, M. Jean: 2008).

Animated films from Africa and the Arab world are at the edges of the margins of film

and animation studies despite the fact that the animation's genesis in these cultural and

geographical areas goes back to the early years of the last century. One of the

continent's first animated films was made in 1915 in South Africa by the American

Harold Shaw, The Artist's Dream (Bendazzi, 2015). Egyptian animation was also a

pioneer in Africa and the Arab world, with the Frenkel Brothers' Mish-Mish Effendi,

Belarusian immigrants in Egypt whose first opus dates from 1936. This experience

would be followed by Dokdok in 1940, directed by the Egyptian Antoine Selim

Ibrahim who immigrated to the United States in the 1970s where he joined the Hanna

Barbara Studios as an animator. The decade of the 1960s, when many of these

nations gained independence, also marked the birth of African and Arab cinema.

Animation In Africa And The Arab World

From Geneses to Present Day: Challenges and Perspectives

In 1961, the Moheeb brothers, Cairo School of Fine Arts graduates, founded an

animation department in Egyptian television (Ghazala, 2021). The cartoonist

Mohamed Aram, who self-taught to produce animated shorts for Algerian television,

headed the animation department founded in 1964 at the Centre National du Cinéma.

The same year, 1965, saw the production of the first African films: La mort de

Gandji by Nigerian filmmaker MoustaphaAlassane during his study period at the

National Film Board (Canada), and La rentrée des classes by Tunisian filmmaker

Mongi Sancho as part of an association (Association des Jeunes Cinéastes Tunisiens,

which became the Fédération Tunisienne des Cinéastes amateurs in 1968). Like many

of Tunisia's animation pioneers, Mongi Sancho left to complete his studies in Bulgaria

in 1967 (Ben Ayed, 2019).

This is also the case for the pioneers of animation in the Levant, Syrian cartoonist

Mwafak Katt, who graduated from the VGIK in 1982 and made the first Syrian

animated film, Juha Fi Al-Mahkameh, for television in 1985, and Iraqi filmmaker

Fayçal al-Yasiri, who graduated in television directing in Vienna and worked for East

German (ex-GDR) television in the late 1950s and early 1960s, made the first Arab

animated feature film, The Princess and the River, in 1982. At the end of the 1980s,

Congolese animation pioneer Jean Michel Kibushi, who graduated in film studies from

Kinshasa's National Institute of the Arts and received animation training from the

Belgian company Atelier Garphoui, founded the Malembe Maa animation film studio.

In addition to producing the director's works, the mobile studio organizes workshops

for young people. The aim is to promote animation as a natural extension of

Congolese cultural forms and heritage (Callus, 2010). At the same time, in 1989,

Malian director MambayeCoulibaly directed an animation film, La geste de Ségou,

which was, as far as we know, the first of its kind in the country.

African and Arab animation, though still little known today, is an integral part of the

global history of animation. Although it emerged at different times in this vast region,

its genesis, and evolution were strongly influenced by tricontinental internationalism

and the pan-African and pan-Arab movements of the 1960s and 1970s. The Tunisian

capital, at the crossroads of two African and Arab cultures, and its JCC (1966), along

with FESPACO (1969) in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, were spaces for reflection and

aesthetic debate on the educational and artistic vocation of cinema and its mission to

awaken consciousness in the countries of the South. What has become of this heritage

in today's global age?

The primary aim of this conference is to bring attention to film production that is still

barely explored in film discursive practices and to expand the existing knowledge base

on film and animation. The vulnerability of early movies due to the use of the silver

medium, the loss of pioneers like Mohamed Aram and Moustapha Alassane, and the

transience of contemporary works, such as web animations created exclusively for the

Internet and quickly overshadowed by the constant flow of information, all contribute

to the urgency of documenting these cinemas. There is a pressing need to record the

Animation In Africa And The Arab World

From Geneses to Present Day: Challenges and Perspectives

history of animation in these unexplored regions and to integrate it into the global

narrative of this art form and the cultural and heritage history of these societies.

The second objective is to map the theoretical field of African and Arab animation by

approaching it as a whole. By “a whole”, we mean not only the final artwork but the

whole ecosystem involved in its production, from the training of its authors to the

various circuits of its distribution. This conference will focus on its inherent hybridity

(between art and technology), its multi-layered filiations with other artistic

expressions, its marginal status as a practice and in film studies, and how animation

can be a social witness to major transformations.

Research Axes

1. Animation in Africa and the Arab World : an uncharted territory

 National and Regional Animation: Early Cinema and Pioneer Portraits.

 The historiography of an Art: Animation-specific blurring of boundaries

between different artistic forms (theater, film, visual arts).

 Afro-ArabAvant-Garde: Legacies of the Pan-Africanist and Pan-Arabist

Movements of the 1960s and 1970s: affiliations and disruptions

2. Legacy, national and regional identity(ies) and contemporary practices.

 « Pervasive Animation », Hybridity and Transmedia: Animation at the

Crossroads of Disciplines, Artistic Expressions, and New Media. From

puppetry, shadow’s theater to video games, artificial intelligence, virtual and

augmented reality.

 Animation at the intersection of creativity and technicality: the crossfertilization

between graphic designers/visual artists and video processing and

web development technicians.

 Identity and heritage: Animation film as a tool for the promotion of cultural

heritage. African and Arab cultural heritage (oral traditions of storytellers,

griots, fdawi hakawati, Karagöz shadow theater, Puppet Theater) as a source

and material for the construction of a singular national, regional, and

transnational imaginary.

3. Teaching animation at the African and Arab universities: overview and

approaches

 Status and comparative approaches, public/private training.

 Associative environments as a training ground on the margins of the academic

space: examples: Tunisian film clubs (FTCA and FTCC), ASIFA by country

4. The changing ways of financing, producing, and distributing in the global

era. Constraints, challenges, and prospects that are specific to the genre

Animation In Africa And The Arab World

From Geneses to Present Day: Challenges and Perspectives

 The neoliberal economic policies of the mid-nineties, the end of state

protectionism, and the digital revolution: the consequences for the film

industry, especially animation in African and Arab countries.

 Flows and movements of people/creators and "animation workforce" abroad

due to lack of means and production structures or as a result of political/armed

crises, etc. Attractiveness of certain countries for African and Arab animators

and filmmakers (Gulf countries, Europe and the Americas).

 The State cinema versus an "independent" cinema.

"Independent"/transregional/transnational financial support funds for creation

since 2000.

 Transnational platforms of creations: associations, artist collectives.

 New ways of circulation and venues of films in the World age: Film festivals,

specialized festivals, animation in art galleries, exclusively online diffusion,

and other new medias.

5. Animated films as a source of knowledge documenting Arab and African

societies. Social witnesses and historical documents in the same way as

documentaries and other film genres.

 Memory and historical narratives and the docu-animation example

 Animation and crisis(es): The revival of a genre a causal links?

o Webanim documenting the 2011 revolutionary episode in the Arab

world.

o Global health crisis of 2020. Lockdown: from hybridity to animation as

the alternative.

Selective bibliography:

AKINYEMI, Akintunde& FALOLA, Toyin.The Palgrave Handbook of African Oral

Traditions and Folklore.Allemagne: Springer International Publishing, 2021.

ALAKILI, Hussein. MediologiaAflamAltahrik. Babel, Irak: Dar Al-FouratThaqafawa

Al Ilam, 2024.

Alrimawi, Tarek. “Challenges Facing the Arab Animation Cinema”. In: Lee, N. (eds)

Encyclopedia of Computer Graphics and Games. Springer, Cham, 2015

BAHUN, Sanja. The Human and the Possible: Animation in Yugoslavia,

Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union, 1960-1980. In: Cinema, State Socialism and

Society in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, 1917-1989 Re-Visions.

BASEES/Routledge Series on Russian and East European Studies. London:

Routledge, 2014

BARRES, Patrick. Le cinéma d’animation, un cinéma d’expérience plastique. Paris :

Éditions l’Harmattan, 2006

BAZZOLI, Maria Silvia (Ed.). African Cartoons. Il cinema di animazione in Africa.

Milano: Il Castoro, 2003.

BEN AYED, Maya. Le cinéma d’animation en Tunisie (1965-1995). Un cinéma de la

marge en contexte autoritaire. Paris :L’Harmattan, 2019.

BENDAZZI, Giannalberto. Animation: A World History: Volume I: Foundations -

The Golden Age. États-Unis: CRC Press, 2015.

Animation In Africa And The Arab World

From Geneses to Present Day: Challenges and Perspectives

BENDAZZI, Giannalberto. Animation: A World History: Volume III: Contemporary

Times. ÉtatsUnis : CRC Press, 2015.

BUCHAN, Suzanne (Ed). Pervasive Animation.London :Routeledge, 2013.

CALLUS, Paula. “Animation as a Socio-Political Commentary: An Analysis of the

Animated Films of Congolese Director Jean Michel Kibushi (2010)”. Journal of

African Media Studies, Vol 2, No. 1, Intellect Publishers, 2010.

CHERIAA, Tahar. “La politique et le cinéma dans les pays arabes et africains”.

Cinéma 71, Mars 1971 : 99-109.

CONVENTS, Guido. HUYSMANS, Guido & KIBUSHI, Jean-Michel. Images &

animation : le cinéma d’animation en Afrique Centrale, introduction au cinéma

d’animation en République Démocratique du Congo, au Rwanda et au Burundi. Pays-

Bas: Afrikafilmfestival, 2014.

COTTE, Olivier. 100 ans de cinéma d'animation: La fabuleuse aventure du film

d'animation à travers le monde. N.p., Dunod, 2023.

DENIS, Sébastien. Le cinéma d’animation. Paris : Édition Armand Colin, 2007

DIAWARA, Manthia. “Popular Culture and Oral Traditions in African Film”.Film

Quartely 41, no3. Spring 1998: 6-14

DIAWARA, Manthia. African Cinema: Politics and Culture. États-Unis: Indiana

University Press, 1992.

FURNISS, Maureen. Art in Motion.Animation Aesthetics. London: John Libbey

Publishing, 2007.

GHAZELA, Mohamed. Animation in Africa. Egypt: Luxor African Film Festival,

2021.

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production”, in: Nouvelles vues n° 7, revue sur la théorie et les pratiques du cinéma au

Québec, 2008. URL : http://www.cinemaquebecois.

net/index.php/articles/7/jean_quebec_animation, Site qui n’est plus

référencé [consulté le 15 mai 2011]. Texte disponible en ligne : URL :

https://nouvellesvues.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/NVCQ7Jean.pdf

KABORÉ, Gaston & MARTIN, Micahel T (Ed.). African Cinema: Manifesto and

Practice for Cultural Decolonization: Volume 1: Colonial Antecedents, Constituents,

Theory, and Articulations. États-Unis: Indiana University Press, 2023.

KORNHABER, Donna. Nightmares in the Dream Sanctuary: War and the Animated

Film. Royaume-Uni: University of Chicago Press, 2020.

LAMARRE, Thomas. The anime machine.A media theory of animation. USA:

University of Minnesota Press, 2009

MADICHIE, Nnamdi O., & HINSON, Robert Ebo. The Creative Industries and

International Business Development in Africa.Royaume-Uni : EmeraldPublishing

Limited, 2022. OUÉDRAOGO, Jean. Figuration et mémoire dans les cinémas

africains. Paris :L’Harmattan, 2011.

PIKKOV, Ülo. Anti-Animation: Textures of East European Animated Film. Tallinn:

EstonianAcademy of Arts, 2018.

RIDENE, Faten. “La recherche scientifique en patrimoine cinématographique en

Tunisie: l’état des lieux et les recours possibles”. In : H.B Labbed (Ed.), International

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538-559.

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in the Arab World. London: I.B. Tauris, 2017.

Animation In Africa And The Arab World

From Geneses to Present Day: Challenges and Perspectives

SAWADOGO, Boukary. African Film Studies: An Introduction. Royaume-Uni:

Taylor & Francis, 2018.

SCOGGIN Lisa & PLANK Dana (Ed.). The Intersection of Animation, Video Games,

and Music: Making Movement Sing.Royaume-Uni: Routledge, 2023.

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American University in Cairo Press, 1988 (5th edition, Egypt 2005).

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Allemagne : Springer International Publishing, 2019.

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the Struggle for a Pan-African, Postcolonial Future.Allemagne: Stanford University

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VAN DE PEER, Stefanie(Ed). Animation in the Middle East.Practice and Aesthetics

from Baghdad to Casablanca.London: IB Tauris, 2017

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UNESCO Publishing, 2021.

Scientific Committee:

 Pr. Prof. Sahbi ALLANI, Faculty of Arts and Letters of Unayzah, El

Qasim University-KSA

 Pr. Mohamed Adlane BEN JILALI, University of Oran 1 Ahmed Ben Bella,

Algeria

 Pr. Azelarab QORCHI, Faculty of Arts and Human Sciences (FLSH) Agadir,

Ibn Zohr University, Morocco

 Pr. Aïssa RASSELMA, Faculty of Letters and Arts, University of Oran1

Ahmed Ben Balla, Algeria

 Pr. Yolanda Guardi, University of Turin, Italy

 Pr. ElieYAZBEK,Director IESAV - Saint Joseph University, LEBANON

 Pr. Sana Jammali, University of Sousse, Tunisia

 Pr. Ikbel Charfi, University of Sfax, Tunisia

 Pr. Ahmed Gamaleddine Bilal, University of Muscat, Oman

 Pr. MondherSamehMuhamed Al Attum, Yarmouk University, Jordan

 Pr. Abdelaziz AMRAOUI, Cadi AyyadUniversity, Morocco

 MCF Murat Akser, School of Arts and Humanities, Ulster University, Ireland

 MCF Toufic EL KHOURI, IESAV-Saint Joseph University USJ - Beirut,

Lebanon

 MCF Privat Roch TAPSOBA, UFR-LAC, Joseph Ki-Zerbo University,

Ouagadougou, BURKINA FASO

 MCF Hassen ZRIBA, Editor-in-Chief (IJHCS), ISEAH Higher Institute of

Applied Studies in Humanities, Gafsa University, TUNISIA

 MCF Delphe KIFOUANI, UGB-SL-Gaston Berger University, Saint-Louis,

SENEGAL

 MCF. Amer Sabah ALMARZUK, Dean of Babylon University, Iraq

 MCF. Hafedh Rekik, Quassim University, Saudi Arabia

 MCF. HaythamNawar, Director, Diriyah Art Futures

 MCF. Hamid Tbatou, IbnZohr University, Morocco

 MCF. Mohamed Ghazela, IFFAT University, Saudi Arabia

Animation In Africa And The Arab World

From Geneses to Present Day: Challenges and Perspectives

 MCF. Tarek Ben Chabane, University of Carthage, Tunisia

 MCF. OuafaOuarniki, University of Guelma, Algeria

 MCF. Anis Semlali, American University of Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab

Emirates

 MCF Anouar Ben Khalifa, University of Jendouba, Tunisia

 MCF Chiraz KILANI, Virtual University, Tunisia

 MCF Manoubia BEN GHEDAHOM, University of Carthage, Tunisia

 MCF Samira OUALHAZI, University of Jendouba, Tunisia

 MCF Mohammad Badeer, Tlemcen University, Algeria

 C.A. Maya Ben Ayed, Center for Social History of Contemporary Worlds,

University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, France

 M.A. Yazan Ibrahim ALAMARAT, Petra University, Amman, Jordan

 M.A. AmiraTurki, University of Jendouba, Tunisia

 MA Stefanie Van de Peer, Queen Margaret University Edinburgh, UK

 M.A. Ali Chamseddine, University of Gabès, Tunisia

 M.A. Imene SAMET, University of Jendouba, Tunisia

 M.A. Omar Alawi, University of Jendouba, Tunisia

 M.A FatenRidene, University of Jendouba, Tunisia

 M.A. FatenHamdi, University of Jendouba, Tunisia

 M.A. Wassim Al-Jamal, University of Sfax, Tunisia

 M.A. Ali MawloudFadel, Al-Esraa University, Iraq

 M.A Mohamed Abdelwaheb YOUSSEFI, University of Manar, Tunisia

 M.A Ahlem HAMED, University of Gabès, Tunisia

Author Guidelines:

1. Only original and unpublished articles are accepted for submission. Submitting

an article to another conference or journal while it is under review here is

strictly prohibited.

2. Authors must ensure their research is novel, in-depth, and intentional, adhering

to scientific and methodological standards as per the APA guidelines.

3. Articles should be between 40,000 and 45,000 characters inclusive of references

and appendices. The Word file should be saved in Word 365 format.

4. Regardless of the article's language, an English abstract and an Arabic abstract

must be included (translation assistance is available for non-Arabic speakers).

5. Articles are accepted in English, Arabic, and French.

6. The research paper and abstract should be prepared in Word using the following

fonts: Adobe Naskh Medium (16) for Arabic text. Calibri (Body) (12) for Latin

languages. Font size 12 for Latin languages

7. Duplicate submissions will not be accepted.

Participation Fees

 Free Participation.

Animation In Africa And The Arab World

From Geneses to Present Day: Challenges and Perspectives

 Participating presenters will receive an electronic copy of the conference

proceedings. All presenters will receive a certificate of participation

acknowledging their contribution to the conference. A selection of peerreviewed

and accepted articles will be published in a collective book with an

international standard ISBN number. Authors of selected articles may have the

option to publish their work in the International Scientific Conference Journal,

an international peer-reviewed journal published by the #Arab Democratic

Centre Germany - Berlin. This journal publishes research articles drawn from

the proceedings of academic scientific conferences.

 The views expressed in the submitted papers are solely those of the authors,

who bear full responsibility for the authenticity of the data and any ensuing

ethical and scientific integrity issues. Articles should be written in the first

person singular.

Timeline:

 July 14, 2024 : Deadline by which contributors should submit their abstracts

to dr.faten-ridene@democraticac.de

 Results of abstract review returned to authors by July 25, 2024

 August 20, 2024: Submission Deadline of the full paper.

 September 25, 2024: Results of full conference paper review returned to authors

 October 10, 2024, Final articles should be sent to be published