Directed by Melissa Llewellyn-Davies, shot by an all-woman camera team, and made with the assistance of anthropologist Elizabeth Fernea, Some Women of Marrakech has been the subject of controversy since its inception. Entering into aspects of the lives of Moroccan women where no cameras have gone before, the project represented not only a major challenge to the filmmakers, but brought forth questions of ethics vs. ethnology. The film was first shown on British television in 1977, when K.L. Brown of the Royal Anthropological Institute noted:
“Its perspectives are doubly and unusually feminine. The camera turns away from the public world of men in order to focus on scenes of the relatively private and secluded lives of wives, mothers, daughters, servants, dancers, prostitutes, and just plain women as they dance, cook, gossip, pray, and sometimes talk about themselves. It has one central character (Aisha bint Muhammed) who works as a maid, and several events, including a ceremony of spirit possession and the celebration of a marriage. The recurrent theme suggests that in Marrakech women have much courage and strength, that they loyally support one another and enjoy being together, and that thereby they manage to defend themselves against isolation and insecurity in a society dominated by men and masculine codes of honour and perceptions of religion.
“I found the film sometimes effectively and evocatively vivid. It gave one a sense of having been allowed entrée into, and some extended glimpses of, the harems of Morocco. The dignity and sensuality of the women who have been portrayed, and the joys and sadnesses of their lives, will certainly leave an impression on viewers and may at moments shake their emotions....”