Rabat, March 15, 2023 (AIB)- Actors from the world of African cinema present in Morocco for the Pan-African Cinema Days, visited on Tuesday in Casablanca the Touria and Abdelaziz Tazi Foundation / L’Uzine and the Hiba studio, which have “superior infrastructure,” according to officials.

The visit started at the Hiba studio which is a recording and post-production studio. “We have superior quality infrastructure. We touch on everything related to sound, from the writing residency to the mastering of musical titles or the sound mixing of cinema or television audiovisual projects”, indicated the manager of the Hiba studio, Hamza Lyoubi.

The space visited by the actors of African cinema is on three levels. “We have a basement for sound problems, we have a residence space for artists or projects and a restaurant space,” explained Hamza Lyoubi.

Mr. Lyoubi pointed out that upstairs is part of the administration of the foundation. As staff, the studio includes sound managers, a technical manager, an artistic director who does all the graphic creations of the foundation, a courier, said the studio manager.

The guests of the day visited the general control room, very modular rehearsal rooms which are used for rehearsals and residencies. According to Hamza Lyoubi, these rooms have recently been adapted into production rooms for rappers.

They also visited the 100.1 mixing room. “When there are audiovisual mix projects, we set up a system and the sound engineer or his director or his producer come to work in total autonomy. Then we have an auditorium to view the results that have been mixed,” said the studio manager.

“Finally, we have a sound recording room, a large cabin that can accommodate up to fifty musicians. We have already recorded an orchestra there and two isolation rooms,” continued Mr. Lyoubi.

The delegation then visited the Touria and Abdelaziz Tazi/L’Uzine Foundation. According to the general director of the Asmaa Zniber Foundation, it is a family of philanthropists who is behind the foundation project.

She explained that before the foundation existed legally, it was a space dedicated to artists, it was a deposit, hence the name factory with Z. Ms. Zniber gave the history of the foundation.

“Singers came to ask the Tazi family for a place for their rehearsal. The family initially made the basement of their house available to them. They came to rehearse in this space which has become an informal place for artists and this is how the idea of creating this foundation in a legal way was born,” she said.

In the opinion of general manager Asmaa Zniber, “the mission of this foundation and its cultural space L’Uzine is to promote culture for all, to democratize access to culture, to offer a platform dissemination and creation to artists. We are 100% financed by funds from the Tazi family”.

Among the visitors to the two facilities was the director of the Espace culturel Gambidi, Kira Claude Guingané. Espace Gambidi is a Burkinabe cultural center open to all the arts, a place of artistic creation and dissemination.

“We visited a world-class studio. We have seen the quality of the infrastructure, this also induces the quality of the work that can result from it”, affirmed Kira Claude Guingané.

He says he is challenged and intends, once back in Burkina Faso, to talk about the need to build infrastructures that will be working tools for Burkinabè artists. According to him, “competition is also the technical infrastructure that allows the artist to create and reveal his talent, creativity alone is not enough”.

Concerning the Uzine, Kira Claude Guingané felt that “when you are a musician and you come to such a place, where you rub shoulders with urban music dancers, theater people and all the infrastructure allows you to navigate from one discipline to another, it’s great”. He said he was very satisfied with both visits.

These two visits to Casablanca took place on the sidelines of the 1st edition of Roots Rabat-Days of Pan-African Cinema which is being held from Sunday March 12 to Thursday March 16, 2023 in Rabat, African Capital of Culture under the High Patronage of His Majesty the King. Mohammad VI.

Source: Burkina Information Agency