Published/Broadcast Stories

Young extras get a brush with fame, but at what cost?

By Mackenzie Ritter 

OUARZAZATE, Morocco – Strolling this town on the western edge of the Sahara Desert, you might hear a man relating a conversation he had with Brad Pitt. Or a 20-something talking about how he saw Tom Hanks on the street. Or a girl gushing about how beautiful Emilia Clarke is in person.

Ouarzazate may be far from Hollywood, which hosts the Oscars this weekend, but it is a well-established location for international film shoots. It already was a tourist center when Atlas Studios, one of Morocco’s biggest movie makers, brought film work here decades ago.

By Molly Mulroy

This article was published in Global Health Hub on February 7, 2017. Find it HERE

CASABLANCA, Morocco — When Driss Joundy helped check his father into Casablanca’s Notre Dame Polyclinic, it was only to get a respite from the psychological problems that made it difficult for the older man to sleep. He didn’t know the horror that awaited.

The next morning, Driss was notified that his father, 77-year-old architect Rachid Joundy, had burned to death in an overnight fire in his room. Worse yet, he had been tied to his bed.

By Danielle Douglas

This article was published in Al Jazeera English on February 3, 2017. Read it HERE

Ouarzazate, Morocco – The southern sun bakes down upon Morocco’s 580-megawatt solar plant, in line to be the largest in the world upon its completion in 2018.

This $9bn plant, known as Noor – “light” in Arabic – positions Morocco as a global leader in sustainable energy development. Situated in a dry, rocky, rust-coloured plain 13km outside the southern city of Ouarzazate, the plant has contributed energy to the country’s national power grid for the past year.