ESAV Marrakech (l’Ecole Supérieure des Arts Visuels), Morocco’s film, television and visual arts school, is in its third year. In late 2007 it transferred to a new custom-built campus in northern Marrakech which was inaugurated by veteran director Martin Scorsese during the Marrakech International Film Festival. The privately-run institution, which aims to create a new generation of filmmakers, receives support from a group of internationally-renowned directors, including Abbas Kiarostami, Claude Miller, Abderrahmane Sissako and Wim Wenders.

ESAV attracted an investment of $9.5 million from The Susanna Biedermann Foundation in Switzerland and, as part of a partnership deal with the Cadi Ayyad University of Marrakech, obtained the right to a 40-year lease on the school’s land. At the end of the lease, the ownership of the school buildings and equipment will revert to the ownership of the Moroccan state. The school also receives substantial support from the Centre Cinématographique Marocain (CCM) which provides free equipment, and low cost printing and developing services.

“ESAV is the first school of its type in Morocco,” states managing director Vincent Melilli, creator of Paris’s Escurial and Max Linder movie theatres, and former director of the French Institute of Marrakech. “It is a school of excellence with professional aims which was established to help Moroccan and foreign students master their field and also their future profession through artistic and technical knowledge. Discovering and accompanying young talent is our foremost mission and we aim to attract 150 talented students to our film section. We want to ensure that the young professionals who graduate from ESAV are capable of working independently, and have the ability to create and manage a company of their own and assemble film crews.”

ESAV offers three-and five-year post-secondary degrees which combine creative assignments and workshops with theoretical teaching. Its directing department is headed by Hassan Lagzouli and Hamid Fardjad, while Charlie Van Damme, Alain Marchal and Martine Zévort head the photography, sound and editing departments respectively.

“We give each student a real autonomy in the organisation of his or her work, a good mastery of techniques and creative processes, and the capacity to adapt – an essential skill in this constantly evolving profession,” continues Melilli. “It is absolutely essential that our directing and shooting students become familiar with 35mm film and acquire the competences required for working on lighting, film printing and development, calibration and camera use.”

Kodak is involved as a partner through its film school initiatives. Casablanca-based Kodak distributor Christian Garaud initially discussed the use of film versus video with Melilli, who eventually opted for 35mm, and is currently gathering information about ESAV’s needs in order to determine Kodak’s future involvement.

Garaud has experienced increasing demand for Kodak film in Morocco. “Local film production is booming, with features like Babel, Kingdom of Heaven and Charlie Wilson’s War and now Disney’s Prince of Persia. In the last four years Morocco has changed from being a background for foreign productions to a country that produces its own diverse features. The help of the Moroccan State is very important too. In 2008 it will invest around $6.6 million in about 15 features and roughly the same number of shorts,” notes Garaud.