Hervé Cohen: This Little Song

2024 Filmmaker in Residence

This Little Song takes us on a journey in Algeria, in the footsteps of a lost melody my Jewish grandmother used to sing to me in Arabic. From the arid lands of the south, where my grandmother's roots lie, to the coastal city of Oran, my family's former home, the film unfolds through a vibrant tapestry of characters. I aim to resurrect memories of an era when Jews and Muslims, Algeria's indigenous communities, shared not only a culture and language but also the sheer joy of making music together. I will revisit a time when these communities not only coexisted but thrived together, fostering deep connections. Navigating the sensitive topic of the Jewish presence in Algeria which has been forgotten or worse purposely erased, my ultimate goal is to reconnect to my "Algeriansim", to my true Jewish-Arabic identity through an intimate, socially engaging, historical, and yet playful undertaking.

Hervé Cohen is an award-winning French-American filmmaker and cinematographer. He has traveled the world to capture compelling stories: from the countryside of China, following the work of three traveling projectionists; via Senegal capturing the initiation ceremony of a young Diola; the entire United States, filming a family road movie during the Democratic Primaries following the Obama campaign; Benin, West Africa, documenting the life of a 7 year old girl over the course of 12 years of her school life. He directed and shot “Notes from the Forest”, a short musical and poetic road documentary movie shot in the Peruvian Amazon, with acclaimed musicians, among which Grammy Award winning musician Esperanza Spalding. Hervé Cohen’s latest work is the critically acclaimed and award-winning groundbreaking interactive web documentary and media installation Life Underground, a journey through the subways of the world and into the personal stories of their passengers. Cohen has also produced a worldwide collaborative project “CoVisions – Young Filmmakers’ Voices at the Time of Corona”. He is currently developing “This Little Song”, his first journey throughout Algeria, the land of his ancestors, in the search of the lost Judeo Arabic song his grandmother used to sing to him - a poetic and musical personal documentary revisiting the historical interrelations and interdependence between Jewish and Muslim communities in Algeria, through musical influences and beyond.