PODCAST ¦ Matt Micucci interviews Mehdi Bekkar, director of Forgotten Massacre, from the 5th Europe Orient Documentary Film Festival of Tangier.

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Director and editor Mehdi Bekkar screened his film, Forgotten Massacre, at the 5th Europe Orient Documentary Film Festival of Tangier in Morocco. The film talks, as the title suggests, about a widely forgotten tragic and brutal event: the Paris massacre of 1961 against hundreds of unarmed Algerian civilians. We ask Bekkar why the massacre has been repressed and its story has remained untold for so long. Forgotten Massacre tells this story also through archive material and priceless contributions from interviewees who were present at the time. The latter talk about the massacre from various viewpoints and also contribute to an insightful and much-needed re-evaluation of the events. Bekkar talks about the challenge of looking for people to interview, and also whether he feels closer to the footage in his documentaries when he edits them (for he edited as well as he directed Forgotten Massacre).

FORGOTTEN MASSACRE. A film about the Paris massacre of 1961 carried out by the French police against hundreds of unarmed Algerian civilians. Forgotten Massacre delves deeply into the details of this important event in Algerian memory through the testimonies of guests who have lived through this event.