Moroccan Women as a Visual Subject in Sociology of Cinema: A Critical Endeavor to Establish knowledge beyond Aesthetic Criticism

Abstract

Through this study, we aim to examine what the research bibliography provides on the subject of the portrayal of women and gender issues in films. We will critically analyze the available studies so that we could probe into the limits of what has been written on the subject so far.  In fact, our critical reviews have led us to infer that the field of film studies in the Arab world in general and Morocco in particular are still experiencing a scarcity at the quantitative level. Actually, there are very few researchers in sociology who are interested in the field of cinema and visual culture, and their complex phenomena, in which the aspirations of directors and the aesthetics of their works meet the expectations and reactions of the audience. Furthermore, we will try in this study to show the realistic motives that require directing the research compass towards giving more importance to cinema issues. We will also try to prove the scientific effectiveness of "cinema sociology" as a study that can go beyond the value judgments that normally occur in the writings of art criticism about women’s cinema, and which can also overcome the deficiency that characterizes semiological approaches which confine themselves to analyzing the internal content of films only.