LabMed 2016
The class of 2016 was hosted in Algiers (Algeria) in February, by the Algerian Center for Cinema Development-CADC, in Ouarzazate (Morocco), in June, by the Ouarzazate Film Commission-OFC, and in Marseille (France, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Region) in September, by the Villa Méditerranée.
Rama Mari
After studying journalism in Tunisia and then film studies at the Academy of Arts University in San Francisco, Rama Mari worked as a 1st assistant, cinematographer and editor before directing several short films, including her latest, Izriqaq, which was selected in many festivals and won the Jury Prize at the Arab Short Film Festival in Beirut. At the same time, she teaches cinema at Dar Al Kalima University College of Arts and Culture and at the A.M. Qattan Foundation. She is preparing her first feature film, Geography of solitude.
Geography of solitude
A family sees the bonds of its members grow stronger as they go through difficult times.
Meryem Benm'Barek
Meryem Benm'Barek trained in cinema at INSAS in Brussels where she obtained her master's degree in directing. Alongside other professional experiences, Meryem Benm'Barek has directed three short films, L'After Shave (2011), Nor (2013) and Jennah (2014), selected and awarded in many festivals. She is developing her feature film project, Les plaies dorsales.
Les plaies dorsales
Malik, a 40-year-old man has always lived paralyzed by a strange fear of "disappearing." He meets Krystha, a mystical and disturbing young woman. Malik seems to be terrified of seeing the ghosts of the past resurface and refuses to confront them. But this is to misunderstand the obstinacy of Krystha who decides to cure him of his ills against his will by taking him on a breathless road movie to the heart of his deepest anxieties.
Anis Djaad
Journalist and novelist, Anis Djaad was born and raised in Algiers. He directed three short films, Le portlot, Passage à niveau and Le voyage de Keltoum, with which he participated in over a hundred international festivals. His first feature film, La vie d'après, is expected in late 2021. In addition to Land of Vengeance, he is currently developing other film projects
La vie d'après
On a spring morning, a wild rumor runs through the village about Hadjer, a widow who lives with her son, Djamil, a blameless teenager. Thrown out to pasture, they are forced to leave. After a few days of wandering, they end up on the coast, at the home of a benefactor who runs a gargote. Their "exile" to this new world will not be easy. Between the son's drifts and the mother's concessions, the road to reconstruction seems endless. Is a return to the native village still possible? Decidedly, there is only one drama to erase another...
Quentin Lestienne
Graduated from ESRA in directing, he directed several video clips as well as short fiction films. In parallel to the writing of L'Oliveraie, he develops an interactive Web doc with Simba productions.
La vie d'après
On a spring morning, a wild rumor runs through the village about Hadjer, a widow who lives with her son, Djamil, a blameless teenager. Thrown out to pasture, they are forced to leave. After a few days of wandering, they end up on the coast, at the home of a benefactor who runs a gargote. Their "exile" to this new world will not be easy. Between the son's drifts and the mother's concessions, the road to reconstruction seems endless. Is a return to the native village still possible? Decidedly, there is only one drama to erase another...
Myriam Chetouane
After a Master's degree in History at the University of Paris I, La Sorbonne on "Algerian Cinemas and Filmmakers from 1962 to 2003", then a DEA in History on "Cinemas and Filmmakers of Algerian Immigration from 1981 to 2004", Myriam Chetouane was a co-writer on several short projects or documentaries, then directed the short film Culture d'apparences widely selected and awarded in festivals. She is developing her first feature film project, Parloir fantôme.
Parloir Fantôme
The author does not wish to disclose the content of his project.
Emma Benestan
Graduated from La Fémis in 2012, Emma Benestan has held various positions in the audiovisual sector and worked as an editor on various films. She has directed several short films including Toucher l'horizon (La Fémis-2011) and Belle gueule (10/15 Productions-2014), which have won awards in numerous festivals. She is developing her first feature film project, Petite sauvage.
Petite Sauvage
Fifteen-year-old Kenza leaves Algeria for France to live with her father Samy, whom she has never known. She thinks she will finally find this father, a former soccer player, whom she has idealized so much. It is finally the beginning of a new life. A new country. But is it really the promise of happiness
Myriam El Hajj
Myriam el Hajj was born in 1983 in Beirut. In the continuity of Truce, her first feature documentary, Myriam is now developing her second documentary Suspended(s) with Abbout Productions and Gogogo Films. She is also working on her first feature film, Commedia, produced by Abbout productions and Andolfi production. In addition to her cinematographic activities, Myriam is since 2015, artistic director at the Fondation Liban Cinéma, an association for the support of Lebanese cinema. She has been teaching cinema at the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts since 2011.
Suspendu(s)
The guns, the ballot box or the street. Georges, Joumana, Perla. Three destinies that cross, three generations and the same desire to change a sick country: Lebanon. Whilethe crises follow one another inexorably, they are confronted with a dilemma: to save the world or to save their skin?
Elyssa Skaff
After studying at the American University of Beirut, La Fémis, INSEAD and Jacques Lecoq's School of Physical Theatre, Elyssa Skaff has acquired a good experience in the development of audiovisual and film projects.
Dancers of the spring
Dancers of The Spring tells the story of a meeting between two beings. In Beirut for a few months with two of his friends, Amir is a young Syrian refugee struggling to survive. Everything changes when he meets a young Lebanese woman, Anna. The young people encourage each other, and decide to prepare an audition together that could change their reality in the city. On another level, and in a totally unexpected way, this encounter will affect them in a much deeper way..
Ahmet Necdet Cupur
Graduated Civil Engineer from Gaziantep Polytechnic University, then civil engineer on large construction sites in Afghanistan and Iraq, Ahmet Necdet Cupur abandons his field of expertise to turn to cinema which he comes to study in Paris. He directed short films, among others: Alley Dancer, The boy and the bicycle (2014).
Raken
A boy becomes a man in a village in the Middle East. A place where growing up means blindly obeying hard and ancient rules. Lives will collide with each other having one common root: the father. Generation after generation of violence and honor killings will lead women and men to the point of unbearable. Will all this finally stop with Raken?
Jaad Gaillet
Jaad Gaillet is a French-Moroccan director who grew up in Paris. He combined his studies in mechanical engineering at the University Pierre et Marie Curie with studies in anthropology at the MNHN and the Cinéma du Réel in Paris. After his studies at Cinéma du Réel in Nanterre and Naples, he was selected for the Web documentary workshop at Gaîté Lyrique in Paris. Later, he obtained a Master's degree in Cinema at the Esav in Toulouse. Following his studies, he directed many short and long documentary films. He is currently working on a feature-length fiction project "Points noirs".
Points noirs
Leyla, a thirty-year-old Franco-Moroccan journalist travels to the High Atlas for a documentary project on wild boar hunters. The young journalist must then face the disappearance of all the wild boars shot, events of which she and her camera are the only witnesses.
François Lunel
Director and consulting screenwriter
François Lunel was born in Paris. He lived in the south of France (Hyères, Toulon, Aix en Provence) until the age of 19. He obtained an A3 baccalauréat with a cinema option. He went on to study cinema at the University of Paris VIII, and began making documentaries in 1992, moving to Sarajevo in 1993 during the siege, where he made "JOURS TRANQUILLES À SARAJEVO", selected at Cannes in 2002.
In 2005, he directed a documentary on the life of American saxophonist Sonny Simmons (supported by the CNC). He wrote a first novel set in Brittany (KEREMMA, éditions Riveneuve), then shot two feature-length films, "L'APPARITION DE LA JOCONDE" and "CHEZ LÉON COIFFURE", a documentary produced by Films d'Ici, released in April 2012.
In 2019, he shot the feature-length fiction film QUAND LA NUIT NOIRE, in Sarajevo, with Bosnian actors. The film has just been completed. Since 2004, he has been a lecturer at the Fémis film school, and runs writing workshops at the NFDC (Indian CNC), Groupe Ouest, PK Formation and Meditalents. Several of the projects he has supervised have been brought to the screen and selected at the world's leading festivals (Sundance, Venice...)
Filmography - Fiction
QUAND LA NUIT NOIRE : feature-length fiction film produced by Promenades Films/Rose Productions/National Television of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Released in 2021.
L'APPARITION DE LA JOCONDE, feature film produced by La Vie est belle and Promenades Films. With support from CNC, Musée du Louvre (Catherine Derosier). With Serge Riaboukine, Grégoire Colin, Vanesa Glodjo, Julie Gayet. National release: October 2011.
JOURS TRANQUILLES À SARAJEVO, feature film, produced by Promenades Films, TV Bosnia. With support from CNC (aid for French films in foreign languages), Fond Hubert Bals (Holland) and the Swedish Film Institute (AIDS). National release: March 26, 2003. Awarded at Alexandria Festival 2002, selected at Cannes Festival 2002, Thessalonica, Rotterdam, Göteborg. DVD release in 2005.
Filmography - Documentary
LE SAUT DE L'ANGE, 80 mn, produced by Promenades Films and Rose Productions (Bosnia), with support from CNC and Région PACA. In editing.
CHEZ LEON COIFFURE, 83 mn, produced by Les Films d'Ici (Serge Lalou, Laura Briand), with support from CNC, Ville deP aris. National release: April 2012.
FLEURS DANS LE MIROIR, LUNE DANS L'EAU, 52 mn, produced by JBA Production (Jacques Bidou, Marianne Dumoulin) and the Musée du Louvre (Catherine Derosier), selected at the Taïpei Festival, Hong Kong 2009. Published by Arte Vidéo:
TOGETHER WITH SONNY SIMMONS, 52 mn, produced by Promenades Films, project supported by CNC, SCAM, SACEM and PROCIREP. Diff : Images Plus. DVD release in 2005 (La Vie est belle Editions, Sacem).
SOL EN MER, 52 minutes, produced by Promenades Films. Coproduction: France 3, broadcast by France 3, April 2000.
Théâtre
LA BOUTIQUE AU COIN DE LA RUE, directed by Miklos Laszlo. 2011. Best play, audience award, best actor, best actress, Mostar Festival 2012.
Publication
KEREMMA, novel published by Riveneuve, collection Arpents, 2010.
ARTS ET CINÉMA, with Gisèle Skira, published by Séguier, 2011.
Nella Banfi
Franco-Italian producer, Les Nuits Fauves, Cyril Collard (4 Césars), co-producer of Nanni Moretti, and numerous first films. Former President of Meditalents, currently in charge of the association's development.
Magali Negroni
Magali Negroni holds a DEA from the University of Paris 8. Her research focused on Saül Bass. She began her career as an assistant director and went on to become a director, working on short films, commercials and documentaries that have been selected for competition in Berlin, New York and at the César awards.
Currently, she works as a scriptwriter and consultant mainly in the Middle East and Maghreb countries, as well as being a reader for Cinémas du Monde. In collaboration with Virginie Legeay, she co-wrote and produced the following films: "Les Jours d'avant" by Karim Moussaoui, "Hédi" by Mohamed Ben Attia, both of which won prizes in Berlin, and "The Translator" by Rana Kazkaz, which won the Prix Cinéfondation and was acquired by Arte.
Jérôme Soubeyrand
Jérôme Soubeyrand spent his childhood and teenage years in the Ardèche. After graduating from the Conservatoire, he became a classical guitar teacher, while beginning his career as an actor and theater director. In Paris, he took on several acting roles, before moving into directing with a series of short programs for Canal + in 1988. In 1996, he joined the script workshop at Fémis under the direction of Yves Lavandier.
After a number of television scripts (episodes of Les Monos, the first episode of Père et Maire, etc.), he worked with Alain Robak on a script produced by Mathieu Kassowitz, and went on to co-write Cécile Telerman's Tout pour plaire, starring Mathilde Seigner, Anne Parillaud and Judith Godrèche.
In 2009, he co-wrote Quelque chose à te dire, Cécile Telerman's second film, and Pièce Montée, directed by Denys Granier-Defferre in 2010.2012, Jérôme Soubeyrand became a producer.
He wrote and directed Ceci est mon corps, in which he played the lead role. Released on December 10, 2014, Danièle Heymann and Alain Riou made it their favorite, during the Le Masque et la Plume program. The film won the amphora du public (audience prize) Fifigrot 2013 (Groland festival in Toulouse), the audience prize at the Henri Langlois festival in Vincennes 2014. It was well received at Les Œillades d'Albi 2014 and was presented as Dominique Besnehard's coup de coeur at the Angoulême festival 2016. Ceci est mon corps also stayed in theaters for three years.
In 2021, he played Mimosa, the gay owner of a cabaret transformiste, in Paul Vecchiali's film Pas... de quartier. At the end of the 2000s, Jérôme Soubeyrand was president of the French screenwriters' union (then Union Guilde des Scénaristes - UGS), during which time he established a screenwriters' presence at the Cannes Film Festival, created the first screenplay market and the Jacques-Prévert screenplay prize.
Marcel Beaulieu
Marcel Beaulieu is a screenwriter born in 1952 in Canada. He began his career in 1978 writing radio plays for Radio Canada1. Working in Quebec, France and Europe, he has collaborated on over eighty works, with Léa Pool, Francis Leclerc, Yves Simoneau, Michel Langlois and others. In 1997, he founded a screenplay teaching program at the Institut national de l'image et du son (INIS) in Montreal. He is best known for Gérard Corbiau's Farinelli (nominated for an Oscar in 1995 for Best Foreign Film and winner of the Golden Globe for Foreign Film).
Tahar Boukella
Malika Laichour-Romane
Malika Laichour Romane is a director, scriptwriter and producer. She lives and works in Algiers, where she runs her own production company, Rive Blanche.