Montreal, QC
Bouchra Assou
Dhakira Collective is a digital archive and a volunteer-led research and curatorial project founded in July 2020 and run by Bouchra Assou and Gaïa Guenoun, two multidisciplinary artists based in Montreal. Our collective’s mission is to research, highlight and celebrate cinema, art and music outside of the western canon with a focus on cinema from the SWANA region (South West Asia & North Africa). Our goal with the collective is to create a space for people from different diasporas where they can learn about and enjoy art and cinema that represents their own identity and collective experience. Our archive exists primarily on the social media platform Instagram (@dhakirakhasba) where we have shared over 200 works by filmmakers and artists from across the world. Dhakira Collective has a digital presence in 4 continents (Africa, America, Asia and Europe) and has attracted the attention of several key figures from the SWANA film industry.
The North African Queer Film Festival '23 Arts & Culture
We brought African and Arab diasporas together to celebrate our queer past and present while simultaneously elevating the voices of queer individuals/groups in these countries. Queerness is still considered a crime across the region and is a massive taboo. We aimed to counter the stigma attached to the queer identity in the Arab-speaking world and created a space for queer North Africans and all others who identified with our struggle for recognition and liberation, where people felt not only seen and heard but also celebrated. Building on our first successful edition of this community-centered festival, we sought to bring this initiative to even more people from African and Arab diasporas both online and locally in Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang/Montréal.
About this Project
Communities Served
My project will involve and/or impact the following communities:
- LGBTQ2+ Community members
- Refugees & newcomers
- Racial or visible minorities
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
When it comes to community impact projects, the UN has created 17 Sustainable Development Goals. These are the Sustainable Development Goals associated with my project.
- SDG 10: Reduced inequalities
- SDG 5: Gender equality
How the project works
This project was the second edition of the North African Queer Film Festival (NAQFF), a community-driven platform dedicated to celebrating and supporting films by, about, and for North African queers, powered by Dhakira Collective. The festival kicked off on September 7th and lasted all the way through September 25th. In addition to the free in-person and online screenings of 11 award-winning films, the festival also included a musical component in the form of a radio show which took place at N10.AS Radio, as well as a curated series of talks, panels and Q&A sessions with filmmakers, industry professionals, and invited guests on various topics.
Project Impact
We used film to connect diasporic African and Arab LGBTQ+ people with innovative Queer artists and art that speak to their experiences in an effort to remedy the erasure and denial of queerness in North African communities. Every single event of the festival was sold out (Free RSVPs exceeded the capacity for most of the events even) and the festival received much positive coverage and press in local magazines, news outlets and radios such as The Link Newspaper, Hors Champ, Ça vous choc etc. The festival was extremely well received by both our local community as well as internationally. For the first time since its inception, the festival was also able to create and develop successful partnerships with local arts institutions and fellow film festivals which took the shape of co-presentations: Revue Saha, FIFA (International Film Festival of the Arts) and the acclaimed Fantasia Film Festival.
Project Mission
To foster a borderless collaboration between artists, activists and cultural workers to amplify the impact of rare, subversive films from North Africa and beyond..
Project Team
Canadian-Moroccan film programmers committed to highlighting overlooked works from the Global South.
- Bouchra Assou
- Gaïa Guenoun
Video
NAQFF '21 – Festival trailer
Optional Photo Gallery
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