Past Film/Video | Classics

The Zerda or the Songs of Forgetting

(La Zerda ou les chants de l’oubli, Assia Djebar, 1982, Algeria)

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Multiple well dressed women looking down.

Only one of two films produced by trailblazing feminist Algerian author Assia Djebar, this award-winning documentary offers a poetic look at North Africa’s Zerda festival.

Assia Djebar (1936–2015) was one of the most prominent figures in North African literature, publishing a wealth of novels and essays highlighting the role of women in their twinned struggle against colonialism and patriarchy. Djebar took a 10-year-long hiatus from writing midway through this prolific career to produce two documentary films: The Nouba of the Women of Mount Chenoua (1977) and The Zerda or the Songs of Forgetting (1982).

The Zerda or the Songs of Forgetting is a multilayered, poetic essay film that recycles archival newsreels shot in the French colonies of North Africa. Out of these colonial artifacts, Djebar recuperates the history of the Zerda festival—a merrymaking tradition indigenous to North Africa—suggesting that the power and mysticism of this ceremony is obliterated by the voyeurism of the colonial gaze. Submitted to the 1983 Berlin International Film Festival, the documentary won the title for Best Historical Film. The original copy has since vanished, with this sole remaining copy restored and digitized by the Arsenal—Institute for Film and Video Art in Berlin. In French and Arabic with English and German subtitles (60 mins., video).

Multiple well dressed women looking down.

Image courtesy of Arsenal Institute for Film and Video Art

A french man in modern suit taking picture of an African man in his indigenous clothing.

Image courtesy of Arsenal Institute for Film and Video Art

A young lady revealing her smile.

Image courtesy of Arsenal Institute for Film and Video Art

Several people sitting and talking with a architectural landscape.

Image courtesy of Arsenal Institute for Film and Video Art

Organized by the Wexner Center for the Arts and curated by Ohio State History of Art graduate student Dareen Hussein and Film/Video Curatorial Assistant Layla Muchnik-Benali.

This series was made possible with support from the Global Arts and Humanities Discovery Theme Fellowship.

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Past Film/Video

The Zerda or the Songs of Forgetting