Videograms: Before the Dying of the Light

On January 20th 7 PM, the only screening of 𝕍𝕚𝕕𝕖𝕠𝕘𝕣𝕒𝕞𝕤 festival in Kaunas will take place at Kaunas Artists' House with the preview of Ali Essafi's film "Before the Dying of the Light".

This glittering collage of posters, magazine covers, archive footage, jazz music and cartoons takes you back to the art scene of 1970s Morocco viewed from the perspective of the artists and actors themselves. Many of them were to end up in prison or disappear without a trace. Dedicated to the victims of censorship and oppression, Before the Dying of the Light employs riotously edited fragments and evokes a time of excitement about the future before it was extinguished by the repressive years under King Hassan II. Now that flame is briefly rekindled, as these images are shown once again.

Documentary, Morocco, 2020, Arabic and French with English and Lithuanian subtitles, 70 min.

The film will be introduced by the program curator Karolis Žukas.

Ali Essafi was born in Morocco. After training as a psychologist, he began working in the visual arts and directing documentaries. His works as a director include Général, nous voilà (1997), The Silence of the Root Fields (1998), Ouarzazate Movie (2001), Sheikhates’ Blues (2005) and Crossing the Seventh Gate (2017), which have won praise and awards on the international circuit. In 2003, he was appointed Artistic Director of Morocco’s Société Nationale de Radiodiffusion et de Télévision (SNRT). His research into North African film archives has inspired publications, films, and installations, including Wanted!, commissioned by the Sharjah Biennial in 2011, and ‘Halaqat Nord-Africaines’, a selection of the Dakar Biennale in 2014.

 Movie screening is FREE. The possibility pass and a medical mask is required.

"Before the Dying of the Light" is a part of the festival’s program “What We Left Unfinished” (curated by Karolis Žukas), which is focused on archival cinema and private and public memories.

𝕍𝕚𝕕𝕖𝕠𝕘𝕣𝕒𝕞𝕤 is a recurring festival of video art, artists’ films and moving image practices organised in Lithuania. Its second edition in 2021 presents contemporary artists and their work which often appears outside the conventional film market. “Videogram” literally means “writing with video”, while the festival aims to present cinema and video art that do not only reflect, but also actively create history, extending the visual consciousness and establishing a unique means of expression or conversation.