Patrimoine culturel et création audio-visuelle dans le monde arabe

Abstract

Audiovisual creation is facing in Arab countries problems arising from the use of imported techniques in order to reconstitute or transform their own reality. Arab audiovisual producers see this technique as an easy and efficient way to reproduce reality or construct conventionally an artificial universe. Sometimes, audiovisuals have an absolute suggestion power; sometimes, these techniques are faced with total incredulity. From a diffusion point of view, audiovisuals in the Arab world have a very specific status. The effects of television, studied by western researchers in their cultural environment, are not reproduced in the same fashion in the Arab cultural world. In the Arab world, the word very often still competes successfully with the picture, even after the appearance and adoption of mass media. Finally, one must mention a very interesting situation resulting from a linguistic phenomenon which is specific to the Arab world: the existence of 2 communication languages, one noble but little used, the other dialectical but popular. In all Arab countries, the News, the most political program, is broadcasted in the classical language, despite the danger of meaning distortion in the least educated public. The reason is probably that the classical Arab language enjoys a sacred status. Arab audiovisuals are facing several obstacles to their total and autonomous realization. The contribution of the Arab audiovisual producers is relatively modest, compared to some other areas of cultural creation. Arab film-making is looking more and more for the cooperation of contemporary writers. Contemporary literature is a considerable source for the renewal of Arab audiovisual expression. A relationship between film and popular cultural heritage could be very usefully established in both directions. Audiovisuals should treat popular cultural manifestations as a global social fact on several significant levels.