Catherine Poncin Traces Morocco’s Vanishing Cinemas in Marrakech Screenings

A disused picture house can contain more than an abandoned screen. In La Septième Porte filmmaker and visual artist Catherine Poncin follows the memory of cinema-going across Morocco, entering theatres that have closed, changed purpose or survived in altered form. Cinéma Leila Alaoui in Marrakech will screen the documentary on November 11 and 17, with the director scheduled to attend the second evening.

The film moves through the cinemas of Casablanca, Fès, Tétouan and Tangier, bringing together architectural images, archival traces and personal accounts. In some interiors, former spectators recall the films they saw; elsewhere, buildings that once gathered whole neighbourhoods are now occupied in very different ways.

Poncin does not simply lament the loss of grand movie palaces. The memories held by the buildings offer a portrait of social change from the 1950s onwards, and of the changing relationship between Moroccans and the moving image. A cinema can be a stage for courtship, a refuge, an opening to faraway worlds or a place whose disappearance changes the life of a street.

The director is a photographer and video artist whose work repeatedly turns to history and archives. Produced by La Traverse and vià93, the 70-minute French-language documentary was presented earlier in 2026 as part of programming around France's Festival de l'histoire de l'art.

Marrakech's Cinéma Leila Alaoui lists Wednesday, November 11 at 7 p.m. and Tuesday, November 17 at 7 p.m. Its programme specifically marks the November 17 session as being in the director's presence; it does not make the same promise for the earlier screening.

The cinema is housed within the Institut français on Route de Targa, in the Victor Hugo neighbourhood. Standard cinema admission is listed at 50 MAD, or 20 MAD for visitors under 26 and eligible members; the venue also recognises free admission through the Pass Jeunes scheme. The usual ticket policy permits box-office purchase shortly before the start.

Dates, screening language and the director's appearance are published by Cinéma Leila Alaoui. The cover reproduces the genuine film poster, not an imagined photograph of a lost Moroccan cinema.