WRITING FILM SCRIPTS– THE MOROCCAN EXPERIENCE
part 2
The latest edition of CINEMAG, the French-language Cinema and Audiovisual Magazine of Morocco (No. 10. Nov.09 – Feb 2010) devotes a Special Section to script writing in Morocco. The views and experiences of 16 personalities of Moroccan cinema are presented through articles and interviews. Writer-directors, screenwriters, cinema critics and professors explain how they approach writing scripts, what difficulties screenwriters face and how they see scren writing as part of the future development of Moroccan cinema. Joanna Tachmintzis presents below a summary of some of the points made by Moroccan Writer- Directors in CINEMAG.(magazine website: www.cinemag.info)
IS SCREEN WRITING THE WEAK POINT OF MOROCCAN CINEMA?
There seems to be general agreement between most of the Moroccan film directors questioned by the magazine that there is a crisis in screen writing in the Moroccan film industry. “As far as I know, apart from two or three persons, there are no real screenwriters in Morocco” says Latif LAHLOU. “Many people write, but we are a long way from having real professionals(...)This is why we speak of a crisis, and it is also the main reason driving directors to write their own scripts themselves”. Saad CHRAIBI regrets that the industry did not realise early enough the need to train screenwriters who need to have knowledge of the technical tools of screen writing as well as vision and imagination for fiction. Despite the proliferation of scripts written for both the cinema industry and the TV, their quality leaves a lot to be desired. He believes that the crisis is also the result of lack of communication within the industry, and that screen writing will not really develop in Morocco if there continues to be an absence of producers as a separate profession (in the sense of production leaders/production designers) and if directors continue to also be producers.
For Ahmed EL MAANOUNI, the crisis is real, despite the existence of talent and imagination, and is due to a flagrant lack of interest in the role of the screenplay in the film production chain. He finds it absurd that a film project exists only after the script has been written and financing has been found. “Nobody seems to be concerned about the important stage of “writing”, as if it arises spontaneously” he says. “It is as if in obstetrics we only start taking care of the baby after it has been born”. Rachid ZAKI also considers that Moroccan cinema suffers from the lack of good scripts, and lack of specialist screenwriters, but cautions against making screen writing the scapegoat for the creative “downfall”of Moroccan cinema. He agrees that good screenwriters can be counted on the fingers of one hand, but considers that harm is done by those who have insufficient knowledge of writing for films but who declare themselves screenwriters – whether they be directors or novelists or whatever. He believes that proliferation in TV channels and other media have also contributed to the crisis- many bad scripts end up being filmed and screened, especially for TV films, because there is a market need and they fill the void. And many screenwriters leave aside artistic considerations in favour of economic ones- quantity and not quality of scripts pays better.
Hassan LEGZOULI goes as far as calling the current state of screen writing in Moroccan cinema “catastrophic”and underlines that insufficient funding goes into writing. He believes that if the Moroccan film industry is to achieve a constant level of high quality, it needs to put more money into screen writing and distribution, instead of only concentrating the funding on the production stage itself as it does now, and also needs to understand that screen writing is a paid profession. “Writer-directors must understand that a screenwriter is a collaborator and not a competitor, and that one can very well be a good director without being a good screenwriter”he says. “ The problem of screen writing in Morocco is not only the lack of means, but also, and above all, a problem of culture”.
But how can screen writing be improved and find its rightful place in the creative process in the Moroccan film industry? Latif LAHLOU believes that the whole Moroccan audiovisual sector needs restructuring: “The script is an essential part of the cinematographic creative process, but it is only one part; it is crucial, but it does not stand alone. It cannot be dissociated from the rest”. And Ahmed EL MANOUNI urges a deep reflection on the current state of creative writing in Morocco. Increased and more diverse training for screenwriters is proposed by Saad CHRAIBI and Hassan LEGZOULI as well as creating an appropriate system for paying screenwriters. And everyone underlined the importance of creating more awareness on the role of screen writing and increasing mutual understanding and cooperation between the different professions in the film sector.
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