The movie
Bouchra (Previously Unreleased)
Bouchra, a filmmaker in New York, calls her mother in Morocco. Bouchra is a coyote, and so is her mother. For some time, she has been staring at the blank pages of her screenplay. She wants to tell the story of how a queer filmmaker moved from Casablanca to New York to start a new life, and what role her mother, a cardiologist, played in that decision. The problem is: how can she visualize the story, and what exactly happened? Bouchra picks up the phone.
Entangled in the relationships of New York’s queer scene, the filmmaker worries about the impact of her sexuality on her relationship with her mother. After Bouchra came out, a nine-year silence grew between them. She hopes to use her film as a way to confront tensions and unresolved issues. Her chosen family in New York supports her every step of the way.
What follows is a layered 3D animated film—a playful blend of documentary and humorous fiction, improvisation, flashbacks, and doubled characters (there are two Bouchras and two mothers), all embodied as anthropomorphic coyotes circling one another.
Bouchra, an international co-production, marks the first feature-length animated film by documentary filmmaker Orian Barki and visual artist Meriem Bennani. The duo previously gained attention with the eight-part animated television series 2 Lizards (2020). Bouchra was selected for several prestigious international film festivals, including Chicago, Toronto, and Thessaloniki, and received multiple awards. Meriem Bennani won the fifth Eye Art & Film Prize in 2019.
Description
Bouchra, a filmmaker in New York, calls her mother in Morocco. Bouchra is a coyote, and so is her mother. For some time, she has been staring at the blank pages of her screenplay. She wants to tell the story of how a queer filmmaker moved from Casablanca to New York to start a new life, and what role her mother, a cardiologist, played in that decision. The problem is: how can she visualize the story, and what exactly happened? Bouchra picks up the phone.
Entangled in the relationships of New York’s queer scene, the filmmaker worries about the impact of her sexuality on her relationship with her mother. After Bouchra came out, a nine-year silence grew between them. She hopes to use her film as a way to confront tensions and unresolved issues. Her chosen family in New York supports her every step of the way.
What follows is a layered 3D animated film—a playful blend of documentary and humorous fiction, improvisation, flashbacks, and doubled characters (there are two Bouchras and two mothers), all embodied as anthropomorphic coyotes circling one another.
Bouchra, an international co-production, marks the first feature-length animated film by documentary filmmaker Orian Barki and visual artist Meriem Bennani. The duo previously gained attention with the eight-part animated television series 2 Lizards (2020). Bouchra was selected for several prestigious international film festivals, including Chicago, Toronto, and Thessaloniki, and received multiple awards. Meriem Bennani won the fifth Eye Art & Film Prize in 2019.
