Film Screening and Panel Discussion:  5:30-7pm, Studio C
Reception:  Communications 139, 7-8pm 

Surfing is a sport dear to Santa Cruzians, as the city has branded itself the “Original Surf City USA” for over two decades. Despite the awe-inspiring image of individuals “rid[ing] pulses of energy moving through the ocean,” the sport is also embedded in a global history of colonization and displacement. The origins of surfing have been traced back to Peru and West Africa, though a more familiar variant is that surfing “discovered” by Captain James Cook in Hawaii in the nineteenth century, leading to a tourism craze that was disastrous for local populations.

Presented by the Center for the Middle East and North Africa, this film screening and panel discussion will explore the history of surfing and the ramifications of surf tourism for Morocco. Surfing was imported to Morocco by North American soldiers based near Rabat in the 1940s. By the 1970s the sport became more common, in large part thanks to the presence of European tourists. Americans also started flocking to Aghazout – an Amazigh fishing village as part of the so-called “hippie trail.” By the early 2000s, the government started actively promoting surf tourism, establishing official sporting organizations and dedicating resources to infrastructure and surf camps. This had a transformative effect on Moroccan youth culture as well, as surfing has generally been associated with economically and socially marginal individuals in Morocco, and female surfers have sought to challenge gender norms. In recent years, activists and artists have been organizing against the destruction of cultural heritage (notably troglodyte houses) in the cities of Tifnit and Imsouane and the displacement of their inhabitants. There are also environmental concerns, as waste and wastewater management are priorities for those who seek to protect the coast.

The film screening will feature a short documentary by Arté on gentrification and surfing in Morocco, followed by two short films by the Moroccan director Ilias El Faris (Azayz and Sukar). The discussion will explore the history of surfing in Morocco and the ways that global capitalism has changed traditional sporting practices. How have gender, class, and race shaped ideas of surfing in Morocco? How does surfing help elucidate the contrasts and contradictions of Moroccan society, and how have these norms shifted with the arrival of mass tourism?

The panel discussion will feature  Yasmine Benabdallah, a PhD candidate in the Department of Film and Visual Media at UCSC, whose work highlights questions of decolonization, memory, and history in Morocco; Michael Vann, Professor of History at California State University, Sacramento, who is a specialist of French Indonesia as well as avid surfer who has written on the history of the sport for Jacobin; and Soufiane Belmkaddem, a Moroccan surfer and activist who is a member of Black Surf Santa Cruz.

Parking Info:

This is the communications building on Google maps.

This is a map with parking information: https://transportation.ucsc.edu/parking/campus-parking-map/#interactive-map

Park Mobile parking spots can be located in lot 139A. Alternative parking options include the Core West parking structure, which is located down the hill from the communications building.

Presented by the Center for the Middle East and North Africa (CMENA) and and co-sponsored by the Film and Digital Media Department.

Photo Credit: Heatheronhertravels.com, www.heatheronhertravels.com/