Confluence Women - A discussion about 'Adam'
by Aidan Nichol - Arts, Culture & Heritage Manager, Catstrand
Latifa storytelling at Cafe Clock, Marrakech.
For International Women's Day 2021 CatStrand Arts Centre screened Maryam Touzani's ‘Adam’ with help from Take One Action Film Festival and Boutique Films. Three Moroccan women’s lives intertwine in Touzani’s intimate portrayal of life behind closed doors in Casablanca: with young pregnant woman Samia asking single mother and widow Abla to give her somewhere to stay - leading to the blossoming of an unexpected and impactful friendship. As each woman deals with external, societal barriers and her own inner demons, the film is a striking telling of female experiences that are both local to Morocco and universally powerful.
The film screened on the CatStrand at Home virtual platform almost a year after the venue closed following our International Women's Day event 2020 which brought together women from the Glenkens to enjoy stories, music and discussion from some very talented Scottish female artists along with a Moroccan inspired feast from local caterer Jo Jackson Bonning.
Confluence's Anne Errington enchanted us with her tales of daring women and Confluence Women Founder, Fiona Morrison hosted a discussion around women's representation in narrative and the media. Artists Luki and Pefkin supported the event by performing beautiful ethereal music.
Despite the lockdown restrictions which obviously meant we couldn’t hold a physical event this year, we were happy to keep the conversations flowing with Confluence so we were delighted that Fiona was able to bring together two Moroccan storytellers (Sarah and Latifa) to discuss the film and it's themes following the screening event which you can watch here.
About the storytellers:
Sarah Maacha has recently graduated from Skidmore College with a major in International Affairs and a minor in Documentary Storytelling. Although her past experiences have spanned numerous industries and fields from education startups to creative consulting, going through performance art, filmmaking and marketing, the main common thread is her passion for social change, growth, and human connection. Her passions lie at the intersection of education, mental and physical wellness, and storytelling across various mediums. Her interests lie in the overlap between the political and the personal, the sacred and the profane, the public and private, history and the present, which she explores through visual storytelling. Sarah also recently moved back to Morocco from New York and is currently enjoying time with family, brewing her own herbal tea, and taking care of her new puppy (Zoom) while cooking some new collaborative storytelling projects with other artists.
Latifa Amghar is a Moroccan Translator and Storyteller, from Marrakech, Morocco. She joined the Storytelling program in 2019 where she embraced her journey as a storyteller for the first time, which complements her translation work on Moroccan stories from Moroccan Darijja to English. She participated in two festivals: Confluence The World - Visions and Stories Festival 2019, and Morocco’s Storytelling festival. The art of storytelling in Morocco is rooted back to decades, and being able to carry this art as piece of the Moroccan culture and identity, is just beyond words.