Faten RIDENE, PhD

Dr. Faten Ridene is an Associate Professor at the University of Jendouba (Tunisia) and a leading researcher in cinema and audiovisual heritage. Her academic trajectory is built around the duality between cinema and cultural heritage, examining how film functions simultaneously as an artistic language and as a means of documenting, preserving, and reinterpreting tangible and intangible heritage. She has published extensively on the role of cinema in cultural memory, identity construction, and heritage valorization, with a focus on the Maghreb and Mediterranean contexts.
Her recent research integrates artificial intelligence as a methodological and creative tool, particularly in the fields of animation and immersive audiovisual experiences, to enhance the preservation and accessibility of cultural heritage. By linking film heritage, cultural heritage, animation, and AI-driven tools, Dr. Ridene positions her work at the crossroads of humanities and technology, fostering innovation in educ

EDUCATION

PhD in Audiovisual and Film Studies

RESEARCH, TEACHING, or OTHER INTERESTS

Arts and Humanities, Visual Arts and Performing Arts, Multidisciplinary, Cultural Studies

FUTURE PROJECTS

Scopus Publications

Fiction Movies as a Means of Culinary Heritage’s Safeguarding and Research Referencing: Cases of Couscous Illustration in Tunisian Cinema
Faten Ridene
University Library System, University of Pittsburgh
Couscous is a staple dish that became recognized and registered as an immaterial cultural heritage by UNESCO, simultaneously for Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and Mauritania (UNESCO, Knowledge, know-how and practices pertaining to the production and consumption of couscous, 2020). It represents a mixture of love, heritage, and innovation, which links identity, originality, and modernization. The dish is eligible for two of the five broad domains in which intangible cultural heritage is manifested: social practices, rituals, and festive events. Once a fiction film represents this gastronomic heritage, it reflects the filmmaker's culture and identity during its international distribution. This study aims to compare the couscous dish’s illustrations in Tunisian fiction films such as Halfaouine, Under the Rain of Autumn, and The Secret of the Grain; to prove how fiction movies be considered as an identity card for any filmmaker’s homeland by reflecting the culinary cultural heritage of their homeland, or even a tourism promotion for his nation; and most of all to evince that a fiction movie could become a reference for researchers, in tandem with scientific articles and books.


The Black magic: An aesthetic analysis of its illustration in the sociohorteur film: Dachra
Faten Ridene
University Library System, University of Pittsburgh
Throughout the history of the humanity, and not withstanding of the humankind; the black magic has always been, and is still, an ugly and frightening human folklore in many cultures, whatever would be their religions and beliefs ; and from which, they are still suffering until nowadays, due to its distinction with mysterious and suspicious practices that have been imprinted in the identity of mankind, as a point of contention that transcends different sects and races. Discussing such issue is deeply hated by most of the populations, due to the huge rate of horror and frightens it may push the interlocutors to feel: what if such an internationally suffering from problematic is treated through a motion picture? Would its receiving and comprehension be better and easier? And how would a horror movie be a film d’auteur, horror and social one at the same time? Will there be a difference in the way of receiving it by the audience? And would the fact of being predecessor and identificatory at the same time, positively influence its distribution? We will try to answer all those questions through our article that we baptise: The Black magic: an intangible cultural heritage in defiance of the human will-An aesthetic and analytical lecture of its illustration in the sociohorteur movie: Dachra made by Abdelhamid Bouchnak

RECENT SCHOLAR PUBLICATIONS