Film screening: A Thousand and One Berber Nights

Join a film screening of A Thousand and One Berber Nights and a discussion with the director, Hisham Aïdi.  

About the film

In 1961, the late African American theatre pioneer Ellen Stewart was visiting the old city of Tangier, Morocco, when she had a vision - she had to have her own "pushcart" to help others. Soon thereafter, she founded La Mama, the legendary experimental theatre club located in Manhattan's East Village. On the same trip to Morocco, Stewart would come upon a young Berber actor and choreographer named Hassan Ouakrim, whom she would embrace as a son and invite to work with her at La MaMa in New York.

A Thousand and One Berber Nights tells the story of this mentorship, looking at the life of Ouakrim from his childhood in 1940s French-ruled Morocco, to his involvement in anti-colonial theatre to his rise to becoming a "master teacher" who taught North African dance across America, to the cabaret scene and high society alike. Through his art, Ouakrim would form friendships with literary figures, politicians and jazz artists, including Ornette Coleman and Randy Weston. The film delves into Ouakrim's world of mysticism and jinn, including his participation in a ceremony in 1969 that cast a deadly curse on the Rolling Stones. The film features unseen footage and photos - from Ouakrim's personal archive - of Ellen Stewart, Ornette Coleman and Randy Weston, as well as interviews with and performances by his students and collaborators.

Through the life of one immigrant, A Thousand and One Berber Nights looks at art and cultural integration, New York City's "Oriental" cabaret subculture, the East Village queer scene and the cultural synergy between African Americans and North African immigrants. "My story is different," says Ouakrim, "but it's very American." 

About the director

Hisham Aidi is a Moroccan-American academic and music journalist who has recently taken to documentary filmmaking. He is the author most recently of Rebel Music: Race, Empire and the New Muslim Youth Culture (Pantheon 2014). As a cultural reporter, his work has appeared in The Atlantic, The Nation and The New Yorker. Aidi is the recipient of the Carnegie Scholar Award (2008), the American Book Award (2015), the Hip Hop Scholar Award (2015) and the Soros Racial Justice Fellowship (2020). "A Thousand and One Berber Nights" is his first feature film.

Image credit: Still from A Thousand and One Berber Nights used with permission of the director.