A Little for my heart and a little for my God
Barcode: 58956629
Call Number: DF-24479
Material Type: Video -Digital
Time: 60 min.
Date: 1993 1994
Language: French AND Arabic
Creator: Directed by Brita Landoff
Description: Because most women in Algeria traditionally are not allowed to mix with men, female orchestras customarily entertain gatherings of women. When they play, women remove their veils and dance, away from the view of men. All summer long one can her music from roof terraces and walled gardens as women celebrate engagements, weddings, and the circumcision of their sons.
The meddahatts are women musicians who perform for other women. Though they are much in demand, they are held in low esteem. Many are widowed or divorced, and have fallen on hard times. But their earthy humor and erotic showmanship delights their normally constrained sisters.
This film is a portrait of one such orchestra. Only a woman filmmaker could have penetrated this closed environment and captured on film such a spontaneous and colorful portrait. paradoxically, this orchestra includes Sid Ahmen and Amin, a gay couple. Nobody seems to question their presence, the only men in an exclusively female world.
Collection: Language Resource Center