An evening with renowned Lebanese film director and photographer Fouad Elkoury

Fouad Elkoury gained international recognition for his powerful photos of war-torn Beirut and landscape photography. In recent years, he has turned his lens to cinema. Join us for an evening showcasing his work.

Synopses:

Jours tranquilles en Palestine by Fouad Elkoury (France, 1998, 13 min, Beta SP) U.S. Premiere

This film tells an often forgotten story of Palestine: that of a pre-Israeli society happily living on its land. Using old photographs found by the Arab Image Foundation and the voices of five women born in Palestine before 1948, the film recalls ordinary moments of life before the current history of violence and suffering.
In French w/English subtitles

Letters to Francine by Fouad Elkoury (France, 2002, 43 min, Beta SP) 
U.S. Premiere

Through the filmmaker’s email correspondence with Francine and a two-year project photographing Turkey, this film uses a rich layering of sound and image to draw intimate contrasts between the way the photographer sees a landscape but cannot see his own body and illness.
In French w/English subtitles

Moving Out by Fouad Elkoury (France, 2004, 26 min, Beta SP)  U.S. Premiere

A woman and her two children move out, leaving her husband alone in their home. As the film follows two days of packing and moving, it reveals a history of tension and lovelessness.
In French w/English subtitles

Post-screening panel discussion with filmmaker and photographer Fouad Elkoury and Walid Raed (Cooper Union)

Filmmaker’s Bio:

Fouad Elkoury was born in 1952 in Paris of Lebanese parents. After completing his degree in architecture in London in 1979, he turned to photography, producing Beyrouth Aller-Retour, a report on daily life in war-torn Lebanon (1984). His work on the urban landscape of Marseille in 1986 resulted in an exhibition at the Musée de la Vieille Charité and in a sustained interest in photographing cities. In 1989 he joined the Rapho agency and won the Prix Medicis Hors les Murs, before spending a year in Egypt retracing “the steps of Gustave Flaubert and Maxime Du Camp.” In 1991, he took part in a collective mission in downtown Beirut in the aftermath of the war, and his work was published in an album Beirut City Centre, followed by an exhibition at the Paris Palais de Tokyo in 1993. Soon after, he initiated several stays in Gaza and the Occupied Territories, resulting in the publication of Palestine, l'envers du miroir (1996), and the shooting of his first film Jours tranquilles en Palestine produced by Arte for the 50th anniversary of the creation of Israel. He then published two other books: Liban Provisoire (1998) and Suite Egyptienne (1999). The Paris-based Maison Européenne de la Photographie held a retrospective of his work in 2002, including his film Lettres a Francine. The photographic compositions he exhibited there were published in a book by Marval as Sombres. He is a co-founder of the Beirut-based Arab Image Foundation.

Festivals and Awards:

Jours tranquilles en Palestine
• Arte, 1998

Letters to Francine
• 21st FIFA, Montrral, Canada, 2003
• Visions du Réel, Nyon, Switzerland, 2003
• Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts, Turkey, 2003
• Etat généraux du film documentaire, Lussas, France, 2003
• e-phos 2003, Athenes, Greece, 2003
• 25th Mediterranean Film Festival, Montpellier, France, 2003
• 7th International Documentary Film Festival, Jihlava, Czech Republic, 2003
• Les écrans documentaires, Gentilly, France, Special Mention by the Jury, 2003
• Premier Prix de Qualité 2003 Centre National du Cinéma, Paris, 2004
• 7th Biennale of Arab Cinema, Paris, 2004

Reviews:

Print Source:

Fouad Elkhoury
Email: jim72@free.fr