Since 1999 and the death of King Hassan II, Morocco has experienced adramatic social transformation. Encouraged by the more openly democraticclimate fostered by young King Mohammed VI, filmmakers have begunto explore the sociocultural and political debates of their country whilealso seeking to document the untold stories of a dark past.Screening Morocco: Contemporary Film in a ChangingSociety focuses on Moroccan films produced and distributedfrom 1999 to the present.

Moroccan cinema serves as an all-inclusive medium that providesa sounding board for a society that is remaking itself.Male and female directors present the face of an engaged,multiethnic and multilingual society. Their cinematographypromotes a country that is dynamic and connected to theglobal sociocultural economy of the twenty-first century. Atthe same time, they seek to represent the closed, obscurepast of a nation's history that has rarely been told, drawingon themes such as human rights abuse, the former incarcerationof thousands during the Lead Years, women'semancipation, poverty, and claims for social justice.

Screening Morocco will introduce American readers to therichness in theme and scope of the cinematic production ofMorocco.