Thursday, October 20, 2016 6:30 PM - 9:00 PMBuell Hall, 515 West 116th Street New York, NY 10027 East GalleryLeaving Tunisia soon after the fall of the Ben Ali regime in 2011, Maki Berchache arrived in Paris and stumbled upon L'abominable, a cooperative artist-run analog film lab devoted to alternative cinema, and met with filmmaker and activist Nathalie Nambot. Brûle la mer, shot in 16mm and 8mm, uses Berchache's own experience as a starting point for a collective narrative about the harragas — North African migrants attempting to find refuge in Europe in the wake of the Arab Spring — and for a poetic reflection on freedom and emancipation: what does it mean to “burn the seam” -- and borders, and laws, and papers? Following the harragas on their journey across the Mediterranean, through Italy and into France, Nambot and Berchache interrogate the quest for a new, "better" life in the North. Film screening followed by discussion with directors Nathalie Nambot and Maki Berchache and Professor Etienne Balibar, moderated by Nora Philippe.
