Safinez Bousbia

Born in Algeria but a nomad at heart. She studies in Switzerland, England and the U.A.E, she then works in Milan, Abu Dhabi and London. She currently lives and works between Paris, Dublin and Algiers. After obtaining her BA Honors in architecture from Oxford, Safinez moves to Dublin in 2002 and enrolls for a Masters in Production Design. A year later, during a trip to her city of birth, Algiers, she stumbles upon the remarkable story of a group of forgotten musicians from the 1940's, separated and dispersed by war. These men were the pioneers of Chaabi Music, an authentic style born in the 1920's. The voice of the people, this music captures the unique soul of Algier's Casbah. Captivated, Safinez decides to track these men down and reunite them to form a 42 member orchestra. To tell the story of these extraordinary men torn apart by war and brought together by music, she produces and directs her first feature length documentary "El Gusto". In 2007, Safinez creates "Quidam Music" and becomes the manager of the "El Gusto" orchestra. That same year, alongside Damon Alborn (Blur, Gorillaz), they co-produce the first album of the orchestra, distributed by EMI. To accompany the release, she puts together a tour, a series of concerts in prestigious venues such as, the Barbican in London, the Palais Omnisport of Paris-Bercy and the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels. In 2011, along with Fella and Femi Kutti's producer Sodi, Safinez produces the second album of the orchestra, the soundtrack of the film "El Gusto", released by Warner Music in 2012. Safinez Bousbia organizes another world tour : in Europe, the Grand Rex of Paris, the Oslo world music Festival, the Carré Theater in Amsterdam, and in the USA, Los Angeles, San Francisco, not to mention the Lincoln Center in New York and the Kennedy Center in Washington, and many more.. To undertake this ambitious project, she creates a production company "Quidam Film LTD". After editing her film with Oscar-winning editor Francoise Bonnot ("Z" by Costa-Gravas), "El Gusto" is released to critical acclaim. The film premiered in renown festivals worldwide prior to it's theatrical release in 2012. Distributed internationally by UGC and Fortissimo Films, "El Gusto" won the FIPRESCI prize and best director at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, as well as picking up the Audience Award in Washington DC Film Fest. In 2009, she produces and directs "X-Kids", a documentary about single mothers in Algeria fighting for the custody of their illegitimate children. Inspired by the stories her research generated, she hopes to adapt it into a fiction film that she wishes to produce. In 2010, she co-curates the Algerian Art Fair, an exhibition showcasing art from local painters, born out of a series of workshops bringing together Algerian and international artists. The exhibition subsequently traveled to various European countries. After the release of her film "El Gusto" she begins developing a TV series on Pirates of the Mediterranean Sea. She focuses on the fascinating true story of a Dutch pirate who navigated into the shores of Salé and Algiers, converted to Islam and later lead numerous ingenious raids in Europe. To write the series, she collaborated with Stephen Jeffreys, the renowned playwright of "The Libertine", starring Johnny Depp and John Malkovitch. In 2014, she begins developing another big budget television series Heya, the humorous and gripping journeys of four women from different parts of the Arab world who move to the cosmopolitan mecca of the Arab American Dream, Dubai, to host an innovative all-female TV talk show. Flirting between reality and fiction, this series aims to explore the conditions facing women in the modern Arab world using comedy and dramatic tones simultaneously. Both these series are currently in the writing stage. Safinez is currently recording the third album of the "El Gusto" orchestra, between Paris, Algiers, Tel Aviv and Montreal, a musical anthology of 24 timeless tracks to celebrate the 100 years of Chaabi music. She is also preparing a second feature length documentary to recount this new adventure, real musical odyssey.