O canto das vozes esquecidas: : as tradições orais no cinema de Assia Djebar

Abstract

Although the involvement of women in African revolutions, especially in Algeria, is a recognized fact throughout history (Bedjaoui, 2020), when observing films produced in the African context that seek to reconstruct such events, it is possible to notice absences regarding to the way this female participation was represented. Therefore, in the present work we propose an approach based on the films La Nouba des femmes du Mont Chenoua (1975-1977) and La Zerda, les chants de l'oubli (1978-1982), directed by algerian filmmaker Assia Djebar (1936-2015), starting from the hypothesis that such productions, in addition to allowing other ways of representing women in the Algerian revolution, also invite another understanding of the historical narrative by appropriating elements from oral traditions as a rhetorical resource in the film narrative (Soulez, 2011). A process that begins with the appreciation of stories and songs as inspiring sources in the composition of the film narrative and which, through analysis, offers possible contributions to the way we think about orality in African cinemas, in general, and specifically, about the potential of the voice (Chion, 1992; Châteauvert, 1996), especially female voice, in awakenig memories, through film narrative in favor of a historical review of facts.