Selma Baccar

Selma Baccar or Salma Baccar (born December 15, 1945) is a Tunisian filmmaker, producer and politician. She is considered the first Women to make a featured length film in Tunis.[1][2] Selma Baccar is known for creating manifestos through her films, centred around Women's Rights in Tunisia.[1]

Salma Baccar

Early life

Selma Baccar was born on December 15, 1945 in Tunis. Her family moved to Hammam-Lif when she was seven year old.[1] Baccar was raised as a Muslim by her parents and has done the pilgrimage to Mecca with her family twice; however, Baccar identifies as agnostic.[1] She began to study psychology in 1966 to 1968 in Lausanne, Switzerland. She relocated after 2 years to study film in Paris at Institut Francais de Cinema.[3] She then became a member of the Tunisian Federation of Amateur Filmmakers, where she worked as an assistant director for a Tunisian television series.[3][1]

Career

At the age of 21, Selma Baccar began to create short films in 1966, along with other women at the Hammam-Lif amateur film club.[1] Her films surround women's issues and rights in Tunisia. Her first short film, made in 1966, was a black and white film called L'Eveil, that tackled women's liberation in Tunisia. L'Eveil later received accolades. Baccar directed her first full-length feature film in 1975 titled Fatma 75, this film is considered to be a "pioneer film" in Tunisia.[4] This was the first full-length feature film directed by a woman. Fatma 75, "a feminist essay film about women's roles in Tunisia."[5] The film uses a didactic style film that addresses feminism in Tunisia.[1] The film was banned for several years, due to censorship issues in multiple scenes, by the Tunisian Ministry of information, and was unable to be viewed in commercial movie theatres.[3] Her second full length film, Habiba M’sika (1994), was a biopic of a famous Tunisian singer and dancer, Marguerite Habiba Msika.[3] Flowers of Oblivion told the story of Zakia, an opium addict in a psychiatric hospital in Vichy-ruled Tunisia in the 1940s.[2] Selma Baccar owns her own production company under Intermedia Productions alongside other notable female directors, to make films and commercials.[3] Baccar also has produced a number of short films.[6]

Selma Baccar's activism for Tunisian women's rights lead her to an active political career; where she became a member of the Al Massar political party.[7] In October 2011, Selma Baccar was elected as a member to the Constituent Assembly[8] In 2014, Selma Baccar became the president of the parliamentary group of Democrats in Tunisia. Baccar was vice-president of the Democratic group, she became "the first and only woman to chair a parliamentary bloc." [7]

Filmography
  • 1976: Fatma 75
  • 1994: Habiba M’sika/La Danse du feu/The Dance of Fire
  • 2006: Knochkhach/La Fleur de l'oubli/The Flower of Oblivion
  • 2017: El Jaida[9]

Other Films

  • 1966: L'Eveil (director) (short film)
  • 1985: De la toison au fil d'or/The Golden Fleece (director) (short film)
  • 1989: Moon Child (Producer) (short film)[9]
  • 2010: Baydha (Tabou) (Producer)
  • 2016: Peluche (Producer)

Television series
  • 1996: Le Secret des métiers
  • 1997 : Femmes dans notre mémoire
  • 2002 : Farhat Lamor (Joie d'une vie)
  • 2005 : Chara Al Hobb
  • 2006 : Nwassi w Ateb
  • 2006 : Assrar âailya
  • 2007 : Chaâbane fi Ramadhane
  • 2007 : Kamanjet Sallema
  • 2007 : Layali el bidh

Awards
  • In 1968, L'Eveil, received an award at the Kelibia and Sfax film festivals.[3]
  • In 1979, Fatma 75, won the Gold medal at the Mannhiem Film Festival.[3]

Honours
  • 2014 : Knight of the National Order of Merit of Tunisia
  • 2015 : Officier of the Order of the Republic of Tunisia

References
  1. Stefanie van de Peer, 'An encounter with the doyenne of Tunisian film, Selma Baccar', The Journal of North African Studies, Vol. 16. No. 3, September 2011, pp.471-82. DOI: 10.1080/13629387.2010.527122
  2. Florence Martin (2011). "Selma Baccar's Transvergent Spectatorship: Flower of Oblivion (Tunisia, 2006)". Screens and Veils: Maghrebi Women's Cinema. Indiana University Press. pp. 183–209. ISBN 978-0-253-00565-6.
  3. Rebecca Hillauer (2005). Encyclopedia of Arab Women Filmmakers. American Univ in Cairo Press. pp. 375–. ISBN 978-977-424-943-3.
  4. Peer, Stefanie Van de (2012-10-01). "A transnational feminist rereading of post-Third Cinema theory: The case of Maghreb documentary". Journal of African Cinemas. 4 (2): 175–189. doi:10.1386/jac.4.2.175_1. ISSN 1754-9221.
  5. Stefanie Van de Peer (2017). "Chapter 3. Selma Baccar: Non-fiction in Tunisisa, the land of fictions". Negotiating Dissidence: The Pioneering Women of Arab Documentary. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-1-4744-2338-0.
  6. "Selma Baccar: "La cultura es el arma más poderosa contra el terrorismo y el integrismo"". 20 Minutos. October 23, 2018.
  7. "Tunisie – ANC : Salma Baccar nouvelle présidente du bloc démocratique". www.tunisienumerique.com (in French). Retrieved 2018-10-19.
  8. Lilia Labidi (2016). "Political, aesthetic, and ethical positions of Tunisian women artists, 2011-2013". In Andrea Khalil (ed.). Gender, Women and the Arab Spring. Routledge. p. 38. ISBN 978-1-317-59916-6.
  9. "Selma Baccar". IMDb. Retrieved 2018-10-19.
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