Still from A THOUSAND AND ONE BERBER NIGHTS
ASILAH OUI: MELEHI + A THOUSAND AND ONE BERBER NIGHTS
This screening – presented on the occasion of the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop’s exhibition “Asilah Oui: Robert Blackburn in Morocco” – pairs two films that explore the links between Morocco and New York: Shalom Gorewitz’s MELEHI (1984) and Hisham Aïdi’s A THOUSAND AND ONE BERBER NIGHTS (2023), which together examine two pioneers of Moroccan art in the twentieth century.
Commissioned as part of his 1984 solo exhibition at the Bronx Museum, MELEHI documents the work and life of renowned Moroccan painter and Asilah Cultural Moussem founder Mohamed Melehi through his projects as a teacher, painter, and modernist. Forty years after its production, MELEHI provides a career snapshot of the artist contextualized by his influences across the Moroccan landscape, placing him in the larger history of Morocco and its visual culture.
A THOUSAND AND ONE BERBER NIGHTS delves into the transatlantic career of dancer, actor, and choreographer Hassan Ouakrim. In the late 1950s, Ouakrim was a young dancer and actor in Morocco. Little did he know that he would soon become the protegé of La Mama Theatre founder Ellen Stewart, performing across America, forming friendships with the likes of jazz virtuosos Ornette Coleman and Randy Weston, and becoming a pioneer in spreading Berber dance and music in North America.
“Asilah Oui: Robert Blackburn in Morocco” at the Blackburn Study Center, September 15-December 12, 2026, focuses on the first decade of the Asilah Cultural Moussem. Established in 1978, this international festival brought together printmakers, musicians, intellectuals, and poets from around the globe to create, as founders Mohamed Benaissa and Mohamad Melehi described it, “a permanent center for cultural diffusion, rich in authenticity and steeped in heritage.” The exhibition illuminates how Robert Blackburn’s Printmaking Workshop served as a conduit in connecting the Moussem’s international artists.
This screening is organized by the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, and co-presented with the Bronx Museum. For more info about the exhibition, visit: https://www.rbpmw-efanyc.org/asilah-oui