Ali Mouzaoui — Director | Biography, Movies & Career

Biography

Ali Mouzaoui was born on December 11, 1952 in Assi Youcef in Algeria. He passed the Assistant Director competition at the R.T.A Training Center in 1971. After his assistant director diploma obtained at the television training institute in Algiers in 1973, Ali Mouzaoui left for the Soviet Union (U.R.S.S.) where he is pursuing higher studies in cinema.

From 1973 to 1980, he trained at the Institut Supérieur du Cinéma where, in 1980, he obtained a diploma in cinema director, Art Film section. In 1980, with his diploma in hand, he returned to Algeria. He joined Radiodiffusion Télévision Algérien (R.T.A) where he worked as a director from 1980 until 1987. During this period, he directed, among others, documentaries such as: "Scars", "Traditional Architecture", as well as his first feature-length film. film “Start of the Season” on the honor bandits of Kabylie. Subsequently Ali Mouzaoui joined the National Audiovisual Production Company (E.N.P.A) from its creation in 1987 where he worked until its dissolution in 1992. He directed "Da L'Mulud" in 1987, a documentary devoted to the life and to the work of Mouloud Mammeri, representing the last link in an “Amusnaw” (intellectual) lineage in Kabylia. Also a documentary series entitled “Shadows and Memory” as well as two fiction films: “Les Piments Rouges” and “Portrait de Paysagiste”, selected by several festivals. From 1992, Ali Mouzaoui created "CITEL IMAGES", and became independent. He is artistic advisor to the production of the film “La Colline Oubliée”, the first feature-length fiction film in Kabyle by Abderrahmane Bouguermouh (1997). In 2002, he directed "Je suis Chrétien", a 45-minute documentary dedicated to the Christians of Kabylie. He will direct the documentary “Ahellil du Gourara”, an emblematic poetic and musical genre of the Zénètes du Gourara. Subsequently, he made two documentaries: “Le Bijou Des Ath-Yanni” and “Sur Les Ailes Du Vent”, a documentary on the Ksourian universe of the Hauts Plateaux. In 2005, he wrote his first novel "Thirga Au Bout Du Monde" (Éditions L'Harmattan).

In 2007, he directed the feature film "Mimezrane", The girl with braids", produced as part of "2007, Algiers, Capital of Arab culture". The film won numerous awards and selections in festivals. In 2008, he founded the SCRIBE writing space in Tizi-Ouzou to introduce young people to screenwriting.

In 2009, he will then direct the fiction documentary "Mouloud Feraoun", dedicated to the life and work of the martyr writer Mouloud Feraoun, assassinated by the OAS on March 15, 1962 in Algiers. In 2010, he will direct “Amours en Rade” (Tayri n Temzi), a 22-episode soap opera. In 2013, he shot "Mon Ami, Mon Double", a 52-minute documentary devoted to the life and work of Algerian filmmaker and novelist Abderrahmane Bouguermouh who died in 2013. Then the feature film "Le Menteur" in 2013, then “A3win”, a 22-episode soap opera, in 2015 for (TV4). In 2016, "L'Âme Montagnarde", documentary in tribute to the fighters of the war of national liberation. In 2017, he directed the feature film “Les Ramiers Blancs”. In 2020 he published the novel “Comme Un Nuage Sur La Route”, about the Kabyle poet Si Mohand Ou Mhand, which he will then bring to the screen.

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