A sumptuous and star-studded celebration of Sephardi films and excellence in the arts. Featuring the Pomegranate Awards Ceremony, a Moroccan reception, and a musical performance by Moroccan star and 2019 Pomegranate Award recipient Maxime Karoutchi.
Albert Memmi, this year’s Pomegranate Award for Lifetime Achievement recipient will appear via a video, RUE ALBERT MEMMI, recorded in his Paris home by the ASF.
The evening will also feature the NY Première of El Hara, a cinematic journey of the Hara (former Jewish Quarter of Tunis, Tunisia) today, punctuated by an exclusive interview with Albert Memmi and readings of his lyrical prose, directed by Margaux Fitoussi & Mo Scarpelli.
Albert Memmi, photograph by Claude Truong-Ngoc, December 1982
About Albert Memmi
Born in Tunisia into a poor Jewish family, the 98 year-old writer and sociologist Albert Memmi is a giant of Sephardi literature of French expression. His works include The Pillar of Salt, The Scorpion, Portrait of the Colonized, and numerous seminal sociological works. Memmi situated his work early on at the crossroads of Jewish, Arab, and French cultures. Seen as a “Prophet of Decolonization,” he strove toward a recognition of multiple identities, the fight against all forms of racism, and wrote about the difficulty of finding a balance between East and West. Recognized by peers, including Albert Camus, Aragon, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Léopold Sedar Senghor, his work is often read in conjunction with those of Frantz Fanon and Aimé Césaire. Due to Memmi’s advanced age, an award ceremony was organized at his home in Paris with authors Colette Fellous and Guy Dugas, coordinator of the upcoming Memmi Centennial in France and Tunisia. Upon hearing the news of the Pomegranate Award for Lifetime Achievement, the Ambassador of Tunisia at Paris, His Excellency Abdelazziz Rassâa, paid a visit to Memmi to recognize the bestowing of the Award to a fellow Tunisian native. The video of this occasion will be screened during the Opening Night of the New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival, on 6 March 2019.
Maxime Karoutchi
About Maxime Karoutchi
A true tenor and exemplar of the Judeo-Moroccan music scene, Maxime Karoutchi has rhythm in his genes. Dynamic, timeless, generous, and authentic, Maxime is a connoisseur of heritage and modern music, a cinephile, and a faithful reader of old books of poetry. This indefatigable showman easily moves from Andalusian to Melhoun, from Gharnati to Hawzi, from Ayta of HajjaHamdaouia, to Nass pieces. A graduate of the National Conservatory of Casablanca, Karoutchi left Morocco to pursue a career in engineering in general mechanics, but fate had different plans for him. Coming from a line of great musicians, he rejuvenated his repressed passion to join that of his father and his two brothers: “I never thought for a second that I would make music my job, even if, in the family, we are a line of singers from father to son for six generations. One day, my father found himself without a pianist and asked me to accompany him in a wedding. Little by little, I began to sing and to defend the music of my country. You can’t escape it when you were born in the old Medina of Casablanca, the neighborhood where all the communities coexisted and where the late Salim Halali had installed one of the most prestigious cabarets in the world, the Coq d’Or.” From the heart of Casablanca, Maxime has attracted adoring fans the world over, from Los Angeles to Malaysia. He has produced ten albums in 20 years, including unforgettable musical covers and wonderful new memories. Passionate and powerful, Maxime Karoutchi continues to delight music lovers. Steering clear of “starmania,” Nessim (his given name) still prefers the intimacy and magic of smaller gatherings and performing for family and friends. He performed in 2008, 2010, 2012, and, 2014 at Essaouira, Morocco’s world-renowned Festival des Andalousies Atlantiques, one of the 17 festivals created by Senior Advisor to the King of Morocco and 2017 ASF Pomegranate Award Lifetime Achievement Honoree, Mr. André Azoulay. Maxime is a generous friend of Association Mimouna who has performed at many events in Morocco in support of their mission to preserve and promote the Jewish Moroccan legacy and life today.
About Margaux Fitoussi
A filmmaker and anthropologist based in New York City, Margaux Fitoussi’s award-winning short film EL HARA (2017) was shown at the Atlanta International Film Festival, Mountain Film Festival, and New York Jewish Film Festival, as well as released online as a Jewish Film Institute Short of the Month. EL HARA was first screened as part of an exhibition Margaux curated about the Jewish neighborhood in Tunis, Tunisia, at Harvard University and Dar Ben Achour at Tunis.
Margaux Fitoussi
Two of her short films are in post-production: FLAVIO-SHIRÓ (2019) and I, TONY (2019). She is currently translating a text on Tunisian Ottoman history to be published by AUC Press later this year. From 2011–2013, as a Judith Lee Stronach Scholar, Margaux was based in Central Africa developing an early warning system in LRA-affected communities. Before beginning at Columbia University as a PhD student in anthropology, she studied at UC Berkeley and at Harvard University as a Presidential Scholar. Her research explores the cultural politics of “betrayal” and traces the history of unrest and discontent among the Tunisian Left since independence from France in 1956.
