As part of the commemoration of October 17, 1961, the Local Youth Council (CLJ) of La Courneuve hosted a debate centered around the film The Battle of Algiers. This municipal body for participatory and citizen democracy organized a film-debate on October 30, extending the memory work initiated after the official commemoration day on October 17.
On October 17, 1961, thousands of Algerians peacefully demonstrated in the streets of Paris to protest a discriminatory curfew and to claim their right to independence. This demonstration was violently repressed by the French police, leading to the beating, arrest, and killing of Algerian protesters, some of whom were thrown into the Seine. This event is considered one of the most tragic episodes, long obscured, of French colonial history.
The Battle of Algiers, a 1966 fictional film long censored in France, depicts the uprising of the Muslim Algerian population in 1957 and its brutal repression by the French army. The discussion following its screening allowed the audience (young and old) to exchange views on forms of domination in a colonial context, oppression by authorities, and the transmission of narratives after Algeria's independence.
