I address the interrelationship of the nation and its cinema, particularly during the early years of national independence during which time the cinema was used as a tool to cement national identity and unity—as is the case in Morocco’s post independence cinema history. Spurred by long-term debate over whether a national cinema is necessary to or able to represent the nation to its populace and others, I investigate the link between national films and national identity during this important post-independence, nation-cementing era for Morocco and the representations afforded of women and women’s potential statuses in the post-independence nation. I provide the initial orientation to the cinema developments in Morocco inherited from French colonization--particularly because the French left behind a conception about cinema, a model that Morocco would follow, and a nascent infrastructure. Schlesinger supports Hagerstrand's thesis that ‘management of audiovisual space has important consequences for the construction of social identity’ and that media should be used to ‘reawaken and reinforce a sense of local history, of time and place.’ (Schlesinger, "On National Identity: Cultural Politics and the Mediologists," p. 147.) In developing countries such as Morocco, film occupies a very particular place in the State's efforts to define itself and its people. Unlike literature and newspapers that require advanced literacy, Moroccan films (along with television and radio) reach illiterate audiences. Film distribution outside urban areas is ameliorated by the use of cinema caravans. One benefit of film is that, once produced, films can be circulated in theaters, in community centers, in public squares, via mobile units, etc., and have a long life span. Films can be aired on television as well. Thus, on one hand, in national terms Moroccan films could be significant because Moroccan audiences would see and hear themselves and their unique concerns expressed on screen. Thus filmic representations of Moroccan women would potentially resonate strongly with the newly independent audiences seeking to define themselves. In this paper I will discuss early independent film representations of women, from short films designed to be “educational” to feature films such as Bamou that address the independence movement and the particular role that women in rural areas played in that movement, to films such as Life is a Struggle in which “modern” women’s representations also reflect class and urban differences in women’s efforts to define themselves in post-independent Morocco.