Contemporary French Civilization

Technology, resistance, and Franco-Arab transculturalism in Nadia El Fani's Bedwin Hacker

Contemporary French Civilization (2013), 38, (1), 1–21.

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3828/cfc.2013.1
Language
English
Pages
21

Abstract

The development of social media use in Tunisia between 2008 and 2011, the protests that led to President Ben Ali's ousting from power, and the larger Arab Spring movement demonstrate the power of technology for global resistance. Planting the seeds of opposition to oppressive dominant power, Nadia El Fani's first feature-length film, Bedwin Hacker (2002), a cultural product of President Ben Ali's regime, foreshadowed and, to a certain extent, laid the groundwork for social media forms of resistance to emerge in 2010 and 2011. While complete freedom of expression may have seemed very unlikely in 2002, the significance of Bedwin Hacker lies in the fact that it identified or showcased individual and grassroots forms of resistance by showing the ways in which the community, the image, communication, and media, especially the Internet and television, can be effective tools of revolution. In Bedwin Hacker, the main character, Kalt, a maverick hacker who represents resistance par excellence, disregards any national purview and diffuses subversive messages in Tunisian-Arabic dialect delivered by a cartoon camel on French national television. In this article, I argue that while the possibility for cultural exchange is great between French and Maghrebi cultures, Bedwin Hacker exposes the invisible restrictions on freedom that the global North places on the global South. In the film, Kalt uses and reconfigures technology for her own purposes as a mobile citizen who defines freedom in her own terms. Moreover, Bedwin Hacker, as well as the Arab Spring, illustrates the ways in which individuals can communicate and speak against power in order to form a collective voice and to redefine themselves as citizens. The circulation of information via technology leads to unprecedented choices and relationships to authority: this redefinition creates the opportunity for social change toward the beginning of the third millennium.

Access Token

FormatArticle

£25.00
READ THIS ARTICLE
References
Full Text
PDF
If you have private access to this content, please log in with your username and password here

Barlet, Olivier. "Casser les clichés: A propos de Bedwin Hacker." Africultures. Web. Accessed 11 March 2012. http://www.africultures.com/php/index.php?nav=article&no=2511. http://www.africultures.com/php/index.php?nav=article&no=2511 Casser les clichés: A propos de Bedwin Hacker Africultures Google Scholar

Barlet, Olivier., "En politique, ce n'est pas grave de perdre." Africultures. Web. http://www.africultures.com/php/index.php?nav=article&no=10571. Accessed 16 August 2012. http://www.africultures.com/php/index.php?nav=article&no=10571 En politique, ce n'est pas grave de perdre Africultures Google Scholar

Bedwin Hacker. Dir. Nadia El Fani. Tunis: Z'Yeux Noirs Movies, 2003. DVD. Google Scholar

Boukhars, Anouar. "The Arab Revolutions for Dignity." American Foreign Policy Interests 33 (2011): 61-68. Print. The Arab Revolutions for Dignity American Foreign Policy Interests 33 61 68 Google Scholar

Gajjala, Radhika. "South Asian Digital Diasporas and Cyberfeminist Webs: Negotiating Globalization, Nation, Gender and Information Technology Design." Contemporary South Asia 12.1 (2003): 41-56. Print. South Asian Digital Diasporas and Cyberfeminist Webs: Negotiating Globalization, Nation, Gender and Information Technology Design Contemporary South Asia 12 41 56 Google Scholar

Gauch, Suzanne. "Jamming Civilizational Discourse: Nadia El Fani's Bedwin Hacker." Screen 52:1 (2011): 30-45. Print. Jamming Civilizational Discourse: Nadia El Fani's Bedwin Hacker." Screen 52 30 45 Google Scholar

Gugler, Josef. "Bedwin Hacker: A Hacker Challenges Western Domination of the Global Media." In Josef Gugler (ed.). Film in the Middle East and North Africa: Creative Dissidence. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2010. 285-292. Print. Film in the Middle East and North Africa: Creative Dissidence 285 292 Google Scholar

Hillauer, Rebecca. Encyclopedia of Arab Women Filmmakers. Trans. Alison Brown, Deborah Cohen, and Nancy Joyce. Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, 2005. Print. Encyclopedia of Arab Women Filmmakers Google Scholar

Lewis, Jeff. "From Culturalism to Transculturalism." Iowa Journal of Cultural Studies 1 (Spring 2002): unpaginated. Web. Accessed 8 September 2008. From Culturalism to Transculturalism Iowa Journal of Cultural Studies 1 Google Scholar

MacDougall, David. Transcultural Cinema. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998. Print. Transcultural Cinema Google Scholar

Majumdar, Margaret. "The Francophone World Moves into the Twenty-First Century." In Kamal Salhi (ed.). Francophone Post-colonial Cultures. Lanham, MD: Lexington, 2003. 1-13. Print. Francophone Post-colonial Cultures 1 13 Google Scholar

Martin, Florence. "Cinema and State in Tunisia." In Josef Gugler (ed.). Film in the Middle East and North Africa: Creative Dissidence. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2010. 271-284. Print. Film in the Middle East and North Africa: Creative Dissidence 271 284 Google Scholar

Martin, Florence., Screens and Veils: Maghrebi Women's Cinema. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. 2011. Print. Screens and Veils: Maghrebi Women's Cinema Google Scholar

Martin, Florence., "Transvergence and Cultural Detours: Nadia El Fani's Bedwin Hacker (2002)." Studies in French Cinema 7.2 (2007): 119-129. Print. Transvergence and Cultural Detours: Nadia El Fani's Bedwin Hacker (2002) Studies in French Cinema 7 119 129 Google Scholar

Rensburg, Wessel van. "Tunisia and the Technologies of Freedom." Kameraad Mhambi. Web. http://mhambi.com/2011/01/tunisia-social-media-uprising/. Accessed 10 August 2012. http://mhambi.com/2011/01/tunisia-social-media-uprising/ Tunisia and the Technologies of Freedom Kameraad Mhambi Google Scholar

Rensburg, Wessel van., "Tunisia Was Hit by a Facebook Tsumnai." Kameraad Mhambi. Web. http://mhambi.com/2011/02/tunisia-was-hit-by-a-tsunami-of-the-mundane/. Accessed 10 August 2012. http://mhambi.com/2011/02/tunisia-was-hit-by-a-tsunami-of-the-mundane/ Tunisia Was Hit by a Facebook Tsumnai Kameraad Mhambi Google Scholar

Rodowick, D. N. "Introduction: Mobile Citizens, Media States." PMLA 117.1 (2002): 13-23. Print. Introduction: Mobile Citizens, Media States PMLA 117 13 23 Google Scholar

Tarr, Carrie. "Franco-Arab Dialogues in/between French, Maghrebi and Maghrebi-French Cinema(s)." Franco-Arab Cultures Today Conference. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 19 April 2008. Keynote address. Franco-Arab Dialogues in/between French, Maghrebi and Maghrebi-French Cinema(s) Google Scholar

If you have private access to this content, please log in with your username and password here

Details

Author details

McFadden, Cybelle