M’HAMID OASIS MOROCCO: RESTORING, RECORDING AND INVENTORYING THE TANGIBLE AND INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE
SYNOPSIS
This documents the restoration and recording work undertaken by an international team of researchers and volunteers in the most remote oasis of the Draa Valley, at the edge of the Sahara Desert.
In 2019, ArCHIAM (University of Liverpool) and the NGO Terrachidia (Spain) teamed up in conducting an “Earthen Architectural Heritage Workshop” in M'Hamid/Morocco. Involving the local community as well as architects, engineers and earthen-architecture enthusiasts from around the world, the team restored and documented the oasis’ endangered cultural heritage. In addition, the workshop provided an opportunity for local young people to get trained by master builders in earth building techniques, which otherwise would be forgotten.
The film creates awareness of the cultural significance of this place and its struggle of survival, highlighting its tourism potential. It will inform government bodies and public/private stakeholders to assist in securing funding to implement sustainable development initiatives that can reactivate the settlement through the synergy of heritage preservation/economic and infrastructural development/community participation and empowerment.
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ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
MONIKA KOECK is a professionally trained architect, dancer and award-winning filmmaker. She is a Cambridge University graduate whose artistic work is shown on festivals and exhibitions world-wide.
Koeck started her career as a professional ballet dancer, before entering the world of architecture and filmmaking. Monika taught architectural design as Visiting Professor in the US and Research Associate in the field of architecture and film at the University of Cambridge. Monika is founding director of the Liverpool-based film/architecture production and post-production company CineTecture Ltd and holds a part-time teaching position at the University of Liverpool.
Koeck has a large portfolio of academic, commercial, and art-based moving image productions. In her artistic Oeuvre, her work emphasises the creative use of the ‘body in motion’ as well as the use of ‘space’ and ‘screen space’ as a narrative expressive element. In terms of research, her specialty is the production of films, digital animations and motion graphics that emphasise and illustrate complex themes in an understandable and accessible way to allow for greater impact.
MORE INFORMATION
YEAR: 2019
LANGUAGE: English
SCREENING INFO
February 27, 2022
3 PM