Video Interviews with 5 Arab Cartoonists

I am very remiss in not having noticed that Samar Media had made four more videos following their excellent profile of Syrian comics artist Ali Farzat.

The most recent video profile went live on The Guardian on Thursday, and was a look at the anonymous “Z, Tunisian cartoonist.”

“Z,” an architect by day and blogger-cartoonist by night, continues to remain anonymous. That’s because, he said, “Laws haven’t changed that much, we don’t feel safe enough to take off our masks. So I keep this mask: ‘Z’, Tunisian cartoonist.”

“I don’t publish in any newspaper,” he told interviewers, “only on my blog.”

Z’s blog is at www.debatunisie.com, and he can most often be identified by the numerous pink flamingoes in his work. These came about as he tried to raise environmental awareness about destructive development project that was slated to destroy the habitat of many flamingoes.

Z told his interviewers: “I believe that the best cartoons are the ones that are both news-related and timeless.” He added: “Our job is to make a mockery of all these human woes.”

Other video profiles include:

Tunisian cartoonist Nadia Khiari 

Algerian cartoonist Ali Dilem 

Egyptian cartoonist George Bahgoury 

And, of course, the original profile of Ali Ferzat 

If you still haven’t had enough, then watch this short movie made for the launch of TokTok 6:

For someone who had no idea how these sorts of things are done, I found the video enlightening, although it was perhaps a bit more of Scott Joplin’s “The Entertainer” than I might’ve wanted.