Arab Media Lab  project launches the new season of its series of workshops and masterclass –  Media Arts Morocco MAM , for the 10th consecutive year. an online training program intended for students and freelances lovers of cinema and media arts in Morocco, as well as the MENA region. 

The program   BEYOND THE “NEW-NORM”  aims to demonstrate, open and encourage radically distinct perspectives and positions that explore traditional cinema and local and Western cinematic academic education formula, and examine whether this is the only valid framework:  a possibility of existence, analysis and critical thinking. The main idea is to create a contemplative post-education program on the practice of the arts of alternative media and cinema, as well as technical theories with a group of international, regional and local filmmakers and academics. The program teaches a select group of participants who live and work in Morocco and the MENA region.

This online educational program aims to overcome the idea of closure, albeit in a “temporary and imaginative” manner, in addition to liberating the practice of cinema arts from the “narrow academic circle” to the big concept of cinema on the ground. Online workshops have become a global affair in light of the current conditions caused by the Coronavirus and by passing the closure imposed on schools and universities as the state of education and digital knowledge, as well as the ability to access them, has become more urgent than ever. 

Young people in Morocco and the MENA region are advancing in the digital arena and they need a new approach that is more global and less academic. Our program has already been open for several years on online platforms, and will continue to renew to help these young people even more, but also to learn from their skills and energy as well.