The film’s fertile terrain lies in the interstitial spaces between li (here) and lá (there), in the liminal lives and livelihoods, between memory and present, between those who arrived and those born here but carrying another land with them, between a country that calls itself modern and the persistence of underserved informal settlements that persist — despite decades of promises of dignified and universal rehousing — as mirages on the periphery. Rather than an ethnographic outsider’s look, Ali, Aqui proposes a wandering story told from within, a community fiction rather than a docu-drama, based on the rhythms, languages, emotions, textures, pains, and humours of those who inhabit the community.
It is this historical context of political exchanges and utopias that inspired Zineb Sedira to develop Standing Here Wondering Which Way To Go, a multimedia project that delves into emancipatory dreams, transnational networks and conviviality. Borrowing its title from a song performed by African-American singer Marion Williams at the Pan African Festival of Algiers, the exhibition pays homage to the spirit of solidarity and resistance of the global 1960s which was so present in newly independent Algeria. Divided into four ‘scenes’, the project also celebrates culture in its diverse forms as a vital tool for social mobilisation and political consciousness.
No seu acto final, Complô não poupa socos, mas vai com luvas de lã. De volta ao estúdio –– esse refúgio improvisado entre blocos de prédios algures na Margem Sul – pressentimos a mudança de tom. A raiva dá lugar à ternura, talvez porque a ternura sejá mais poderosa. Ghoya grava uma faixa para a companheira. A sua voz abranda, amacia. “Baby, nós merecíamos um filme,” ele diz.
The film’s fertile terrain lies in the interstitial spaces between li (here) and lá (there), in the liminal lives and livelihoods, between memory and present, between those who arrived and those born here but carrying another land with them, between a country that calls itself modern and the persistence of underserved informal settlements that persist — despite decades of promises of dignified and universal rehousing — as mirages on the periphery. Rather than an ethnographic outsider’s look, Ali, Aqui proposes a wandering story told from within, a community fiction rather than a docu-drama, based on the rhythms, languages, emotions, textures, pains, and humours of those who inhabit the community. 
It is this historical context of political exchanges and utopias that inspired Zineb Sedira to develop Standing Here Wondering Which Way To Go, a multimedia project that delves into emancipatory dreams, transnational networks and conviviality. Borrowing its title from a song performed by African-American singer Marion Williams at the Pan African Festival of Algiers, the exhibition pays homage to the spirit of solidarity and resistance of the global 1960s which was so present in newly independent Algeria. Divided into four ‘scenes’, the project also celebrates culture in its diverse forms as a vital tool for social mobilisation and political consciousness. 
No seu acto final, Complô não poupa socos, mas vai com luvas de lã. De volta ao estúdio –– esse refúgio improvisado entre blocos de prédios algures na Margem Sul – pressentimos a mudança de tom. A raiva dá lugar à ternura, talvez porque a ternura sejá mais poderosa. Ghoya grava uma faixa para a companheira. A sua voz abranda, amacia. “Baby, nós merecíamos um filme,” ele diz. 
