| |
The Calm After the Storm: Making Sense of Lebanon's Civil War Groundbreaking Showcase of Lebanese Cinema
May 5 - 15, 2010
ArteEast and The Film Society of Lincoln Center, in partnership with The Ministry of Culture, Republic of Lebanon, are pleased to announce, The Calm After the Storm: Making Sense of Lebanon’s Civil War, an unprecedented film program that maps the incredible evolution of a box-office obsessed industry, to an artistically rigorous, fearlessly original and politically bold one.
The Calm After the Storm: Making Sense of Lebanon's Civil War features U.S. premieres of several classic films, including Mohamed Selmane's The Black Jaguar, civil war-era films such as Jocelyne Saab's A Letter from Beirut and contemporary masters including Ghassan Salhab's 1958 and Mohamed Soueid's My Heart Beats Only for Her.
The program also includes special tributes to two pivotal figures in Lebanese cinema, Maroun Baghdadi and Randa Chahal Sabbagh, both of whom, at the vanguard of Lebanese cinema, forged an auteur voice. Baghdadi’s films, Beirut Oh Beirut, Little Wars, The Most Beautiful of All Mothers and We Are All For the Fatherland, and Chahal Sabbagh’s films, Step by Step, Another Time, Another Lebanon, Our Reckless Wars, Souha, A Civilized People and The Kite will be screened!
We’re pleased to have with us Mr. Baghdadi's widow, actress Souraya Baghdadi (Little Wars) as well as filmmakers Khalil Joreige, Michel Kammoun and Pamela Ghanimeh who will be participating in panels and post-screening Q&As.
Finally, The Calm After the Storm: Making Sense of Lebanon's Civil War will also occasion an exhibition of posters of Lebanese cinema, giving an overview of a rich tradition of design spanning over 50 years.
After its premiere at The Film Society of Lincoln Center, a selection of the The Calm After the Storm: Making Sense of Lebanon's Civil War program will tour numerous film venues and universities throughout North America.
The program was made possible by public funds from New York State Council on the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Additional support provided by the Consulate General of Lebanon in New York, Nadi Koll el-Nass, Fondation Liban Cinéma, Né à Beyrouth, Beirut DC, Seal, The Lebanese Club, the American University of Beirut, and The Make Agency.
|
|
|
The Ring Seller (Bayya'at el-Khawatem)
Youssef Chahine (Lebanon; 1965, 95 min.)
Wed. May 5, 2:00 p.m.
Fri. May 7, 8:00 p.m.
Exiting Egypt after Nasser’s nationalization of the industry, Chahine made this absolutely delightful musical fantasy starring the great Lebanese singer Fairuz as the diffident object of several suitors’ desires. With terrific song-and-dance and colorful sets, the story unfolds in a village where the mayor tells tall tales about imaginary foes to all but his beautiful niece.
More
|
|
|
West Beirut (À l’abri les enfants)
Ziad Doueri (Lebanon/France; 1998, 105 min.)
Wed. May 5, 4:00 p.m. & 7:00 p.m.
Wed. May 12, 6:30 p.m.
High schoolers Tarek and Omar just want to find girlfriends and make Super-8 movies—but the division of Beirut into warring districts cuts them off from the only place that will develop their film. Winner of the International Critics’ Prize at the 1998 Toronto Film Festival and a great hit in New Directors/New Films a year later. More
|
|
|
Beirut oh Beirut (Beyrout Ya Beyrout)
Maroun Baghdadi (Lebanon; 1975, 111 min. Digibeta NTSC; Screening Fee US$500)
Perhaps the first real masterpiece of Lebanese cinema: In the aftermath of the 1967 defeat, four young Lebanese try to figure out their places in a society whose rules seem to have changed. This film proved to be extraordinarily prescient of the civil war that would engulf the country while the film was being edited. More
|
|
|
A Suspended Life (Ghazal el-Banat)
Jocelyne Saab (Lebanon/France; 1985, 90 min.)
Wed. May 5, 8:45 p.m.
Fri. May 7, 4:15 p.m.
In the thick of the civil war, a young girl from south Lebanon named Samar and a Beirut painter find each other. Originally premiered at Cannes, this beautiful coming-of-age tale sensitively captures Samar's transformation from a dutiful young girl to a woman ready to strike out on her own in especially uncertain times. More
|
|
|
The Black Jaguar (Al-Jagwar al-Sawda)
Muhammed Selman (Lebanon; 1967, 100 min.)
Thu. May 6, 2:00 p.m.
Sun. May 9, 12:00 p.m.
Egyptian-style cinematic spectacle meets James Bond in this exploitation extravaganza! An undercover cop hits 1960s Beirut’s underworld: glam night clubs, drug gangs, a black Jaguar, beautiful women, and chases! Made during the city’s golden years as a crossroads between East and West, the noir thriller plays up Beirut as a glittering, decadent hot-spot of cosmopolitan jet-setting.
More
|
|
|
A Letter from Beirut (Rissalah Min Beyrout)
Jocelyne Saab (France; 1979, 50 min.Digibeta PAL US$450)
Filming during heavy fighting in the civil war, Saab attempts to come to terms with a city and a country she no longer recognizes. Her documentary lays bare how people make sense of their lives in the midst of chaos, violence, and sorrow. A text by award-winning poet Etel Adnan adds to the film’s raw energy.
More
|
|
|
My Palestine
Nadine Naous & Lena Rouxel (Lebanon; 2007, 59 min.)
Thu. May 6, 4:00 p.m.
Fri. May 14, 9:20 p.m.
Screens with A Letter From Beirut. Total run time is 109 minutes.
A fascinating portrait of “third generation” Palestinians. More
|
|
|
A Perfect Day (Yawmon Akhar)
Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige (Lebanon/France; 2005, 88 min.)
Thu. May 6, 6:15 p.m.
Mon. May 10, 2:00
Screens with Ashes. Total run time is 114 minutes.
Taking place over one day, this luminous and soft-spoken film follows a middle-aged mother and her son as each deals with laying a husband and a father to rest. As gentle as a caress, the film is an existential call for mourning, the most essential step in moving past the legacy of the war.
More
|
|
|
Ashes
Ramad Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige (Lebanon; 2003, 26 min.)
Thu. May 6, 6:15 p.m.
Followed by Q&A with Khalil Joreige
Mon. May 10, 2:00 p.m.
Screens with A Perfect Day. Total run time is 114 minutes.
Nabil repatriates the ashes of his deceased father, to execute his last wish to spread them over the Raousheh Rock, on Beirut’s seashore. Cremation being still regarded as taboo in postwar Lebanon, where the religious dogma and mores dictate rules over the politics of the body, Nabil’s family forces him to find a surrogate body for the funeral and ritual of condolences. Nabil is conflicted between family, social pressure and the ability of a dead body to rally a community, and his drive to mourn the loss of his father by fulfilling his last wishes.
More
|
|
|
My Heart Beats Only for Her (Ma Hataftu li Ghayriha)
Mohamed Soueid (Lebanon; 2008, 87 min.)
Thu. May 6, 9:00 p.m.
Mon. May 10, 4:15 p.m.
Screens with Faces Applauding Alone. Total run time is 94 minutes.
Reconstructing his father’s youth as a revolutionary from a diary, Soueid creates a nonfictional portrait of two generations, fathers and sons: from restless 1970s revolutionaries to today’s technicians of dream-cities. It’s a poetic flight back and forth in time back—from when young men dreamed of changing the world, to today’s goal of a secure job. More
|
|
|
Faces Applauding Alone
Ahmad Ghossein (Lebanon; 2008, 7 min. Mini DV PAL; Screening Fee US$50)
Combining video footage filmed in the 1980s and a voice-over of letters between Rachid Ghossein and Mariam Hamadeh (the artist’s family), this short non-fiction video ponders the break between between remains and ruins. More
|
|
|
Falafel
Michel Kammoun (Lebanon/France; 2006, 83 min. Digibeta PAL; Screening Fee US$500)
After hours, postwar Beirut: one man’s tense but amusing trip by moped captures the pervasive but intangible disquietude that holds the country captive. As Toufik crosses the nightscape, with city lights shimmering and sea breezes at his back, there’s a great sense of calm; yet as he soon discovers, trouble lurks beneath the surface.
More
|
|
|
We Will Win
Mahmoud Hojeij (Lebanon; 2008, 10 min.)
Fri. May 7, 2:15 p.m.
Wed. May 12, 8:45 p.m.
Screens with Falafel. Total run time is 93 minutes.
Can the Lebanese Israeli conflict be resolved in a Parisian park? A short comedy of errors.
More
|
|
|
The Kite (Tayyarah Min Waraq)
Randa Chahal Sabbagh (Lebanon/France; 2003, 80 min.)
Fri. May 7, 6:15 p.m.
Tue. May 11, 4:00 p.m.
When 16-year-old Lamia crosses the barbed-wire barrier set up by Israel that separates her village from that of her cousin and fiancé Samy, the teenager notices a young Israeli soldier staring at her. Gradually, a relationship emerges between them. Winner of the Special Jury Prize at the 2003 Venice Film Festival, and an international success.
More
|
|
|
A Civilized People (Mutahaddirat)
Randa Chahal Sabbagh (Lebanon/France; 1999, 97 min.)
Sat. May 8, 5:00 p.m.
Sun. May 9, 7:45 p.m.
As the civil war intensified, many Lebanese fled to Europe, leaving behind sumptuous villas and servants from all over the world. For her first dramatic feature, Randa Chahal Sabbagh weaves together the stories of a startling cross-section of Lebanese society, revealing the tensions (class, religious, political) that still threaten the nation long after the declaration of peace.
More
|
|
|
Leila and the Wolves (Leila Wa al-Zi'ab)
Heiny Srour (Lebanon/UK; 1984, 90 min.)
Sat. May 8, 7:10 p.m.
A rare opportunity to see this much discussed classic of Arab cinema, a penetrating exploration poised between fiction and documentary on the role of women in Middle East politics. The engaging and innovative film, in episodic fashion, begins with Leila, a young student who is attempting to put together a photography exhibition in London.
More
|
|
|
We Are All for the Fatherland (Kulluna Lil Watan)
Maroun Baghdadi (Lebanon; 1979, 80 min. Digibeta PAL; Screening Fee US$100)
In this documentary, Baghdadi recorded the experience of villagers in south Lebanon following the Israeli invasion of 1978. At once humane and humble, the film gives voice to those forgotten left the fray of military strategy, speeches and international diplomacy. Premier screening in the US.
More
|
|
|
Little Wars (Hurub Saghirah)
Maroun Baghdadi (Lebanon/France; 1982, 108 min. Digibeta NTSC; Screening Fee US$500)
The foremost classic of Lebanese war cinema. Bold, masterfully directed, shot under duress, Baghdadi’s film renders the lived experience of the Civil War from within. New York Film Festival ‘82.
More
|
|
|
1958
Ghassan Salhab (Lebanon; 2009, 66 min. Digibeta PAL; Screening Fee US$330)
From one of Lebanon’s consummate auteur filmmakers, this nonfictional journey weaves biography with national histories, delving into exile, colonization, and local politics as well as linguistic diversity. Poems, archival footage, and contemporary reflections are blended—but the film’s secret heart is an ode to the filmmaker’s mother, a symbol of strength in an unsettled world.
More
|
|
|
(Posthumous)
Ghassan Salhab (Lebanon; 2007, 28 min.)
Sun. May 9, 5:30 p.m.
Thu. May 13, 4:00 p.m.
Screens with 1958. Total run time is 106 minutes.
During and after the 2006 war with Israel, Beirut thoroughfares are a cloud of media noise and martial worship, with the steady scrape of the bulldozer claw. Locals, posed like Bresson “models” in screen tests, silently return and confound the gaze, or give their backs. Salhab layers sound and image like chips of a cairn, a fragile yet lapidary marker on the road to the Lebanese interior. More
|
|
|
Bosta
Philippe Aractingi (Lebanon; 2005, 112 min.)
Mon. May 10, 6:15 p.m. & 8:30 p.m.
A huge hit in Lebanon, this colorful, warm-hearted “road musical” follows a dance troupe taking its show to the hinterlands in a glorious bus. Reuniting with old friends, Kamal goes all out with a roof-shaking version of festive traditional dabkeh music that rattles some listeners. With Nadine Labaki (Caramel) and a multitextured fusion score.
More
|
|
|
Step by Step (Khutwa Khutwa)
Randa Chahal Sabbagh (Lebanon; 1978, 70 min.)
Tue. May 11, 2:15 p.m. & 6:15 p.m.
Screens with Another Time Another Lebanon (Liban d’autrefois). Total run time is 81 minutes.
Going beyond the headlines and drawing on years of research, Randa Chahal Sabbagh burrows deep into the complex causes of the civil war that erupted in 1975, including societal inequities, the contradictions of power-sharing among religious communities, and the greater Arab-Israeli conflict. More
|
|
|
Another Time, Another Lebanon (Liban d’autrefois)
Randa Chahal Sabbagh (Lebanon; 1982, 11 min. Digibeta PAL; Screening Fee US$250)
“The war erases everything in Beirut, a gallery exhibits black and white photographs, images of strangers, collected from families, old photographs from the turn of the [past] century. In these images, I saw the opposite of the war, so I filmed them.”–Randa Chahal Sabbagh. More
|
|
|
Beirut – The Encounter (Beyrout el-Liqa')
Borhane 'Alawiyyeh (Lebanon/France; 1981, 105 min.)
Tue. May 11, 8:10 p.m.
Wed. May 12, 4:00 p.m.
Inner monologues and searing actual footage tell the story of a Muslim man and a Christian woman who risk their lives to meet in war-torn Beirut before it’s too late. Easily a classic of Lebanese war cinema – the story is simple yet poignant, as the impossibility of their encounter heralds the spiraling of the war.
More
|
|
|
In the Battlefields (Ma'arek Hobb)
Danielle Arbid (Lebanon/France/Belgium; 2004, 90 min.)
Wed. May 12, 2:00 p.m.
Fri. May 14, 7:30 p.m.
Bombs are going off on the edges of Lina's middle-class Beirut neighborhood, but they're nothing like the fireworks exploding behind the closed doors of the area's well-appointed apartments. This impressive first feature follows 12-year-old Lina as she painfully discovers the hypocrisies of adult life while growing close to a poor girl working for her aunt.
More
|
|
|
Akram Zataari Program
Thu. May 13, 2:00 p.m.
Sat. May 15, 3:00 p.m.
A screening of three films by Akram Zaatari that represent fascinating hybrids of documentary, fiction and experimental filmmaking. All Is Well at the Border (Al-Shareet bi Khayr) is a Godardian examination of Lebanese prisoners during Israeli occupation. The second film, Red Chewing Gum (El-‘Elkeh el-Hamra), is a tale of separation on a commercial street in decline. The program closes with Crazy for You (Majnounak), in which three working-class men open up about sexual relationships. Total run time of films: 81min.
More
|
|
|
All is Well on the Border (Al-Shareet bi Khayr)
Akram Zaatari (Lebanon; 1997, 43 min.)
Thu. May 13, 2:00 p.m.
Sat. May 15, 3:00 p.m.
Screens with Red Chewing Gum (El-‘Elkeh el-Hamra) and
Crazy for You (Majnounak).
Total run time is 81 minutes.
A tribute to Jean-Luc Godard’s Here and Elsewhere (Ici et Ailleurs), All Is Well on the Border stages three testimonials that shed light on the experiences of Lebanese prisoners detained in Israeli jails during the occupation of south Lebanon. The film explores and experiments with notions of heroism and suffering intersecting with dissected codes of representation and ideological indoctrination during times of conflict.
More
|
|
|
Red Chewing Gum (El-'Elkeh el-Hamra)
Akram Zaatari (Lebanon; 2001, 10:45 min.)
Thu. May 13, 2:00 p.m.
Sat. May 15, 3:00 p.m.
Screens with
Crazy for You (Majnounak) and
All Is Well on the Border (Al-Shareet bi Khayr).
Total run time is 81 minutes.
Red Chewing Gum is a video letter that tells a story of separation between two men, set within the context of Hamra Street, the formerly booming commercial center, in transformation. The video looks at image making in relationship to consumption and the possession of desired subjects. It examines issues of desire and power, and the attempt to capture fleeting time.
More
|
|
|
Crazy for You (Majnounak)
Akram Zaatari (Lebanon; 2003, 26 min.)
Thu. May 13, 2:00 p.m.
Sat. May 15, 3:00 p.m.
Screens with
Red Chewing Gum (El-‘Elkeh el-Hamra) and
All Is Well on the Border (Al-Shareet bi Khayr)
Total run time is 81 minutes.
Set in the working class suburbs of Beirut, Crazy for You explores male sexuality through interviews with three men, who were asked to recount, with a great deal of openness, the beginning, middle, and end of a sexual relationship. The video explores their body language, the vocabulary they use in reference to sexual experience, songs, signs and codes that articulate their fantasies and their own self-representation as conquerors.
More
|
|
|
Caramel (Sukkar Banat)
Nadine Labaki (Lebanon/France; 2007, 93 min.)
Fri. May 14, 2:00 p.m.
Sat. May 15, 9:20 p.m.
The international hit gently chronicles the lives and loves of a Beirut beauty parlor’s employees and loyal customers. Labaki, who stars as the salon’s owner, celebrates the women’s strength, perseverance, and just plain good humor in the face of a variety of obstacles and mishaps. “Utterly entrancing and completely brilliant!” —Amy Taubin, Film Comment
More
|
|
|
Falling From Earth (Wa 'Ala al-Ard, el-Sama)
Chadi Zeneddine (Lebanon; 2008, 65 min.)
Fri. May 14, 4:00 p.m.
Sat. May 15, 1:00 p.m.
Screens with Ready To Wear Imm Ali (Prêt-à-Porter Imm Ali). Total run time is 92 minutes.
This poignantly surrealist debut film pays tribute to four lonely people trying to survive their own private wars in Beirut. In 1958, a solitary little girl exchanges her world of make-believe for a camera; in 1975, a security official grieving over a departed loved one finds unexpected solace. A moving elegy for a lost homeland.
More
|
|
|
Ready to Wear Imm Ali (Prêt-à-Porter Imm Ali)
Dima El-Horr (Lebanon/France; 2001, 27 min. Digibeta PAL; Screening Fee US$100)
When the newly installed neon sign of Imm Ali's ready-to-wear boutique goes out in the middle of the night, speculations abound in the small village of the recently liberated southern tip of Lebanon. Visually eloquent, the film is the first to use the medium of fiction to capture how everyday folks negotiate the quotidian after the withdrawal of the Israeli army and the covert hegemony of Hizbollah. It earned the Grand Prize at, Montpellier Film Festival and also at the Tangiers Film Festival.
More
|
|
|
The Most Beautiful of All Mothers (Ajmal al-Ummahat)
Maroun Baghdadi (Lebanon/Canada; 1978, 30 min. Digibeta PAL; Screening Fee US$150)
An intimate and tender portrait of the men and women who dreamed of establishing a republic based on justice, equality and secular principles, and took up arms in Lebanon’s National Front in the first chapter the civil war. U.S. premier.
More
|
|
|
Lemon Flowers (Zahr el-Laymoon)
Pamela Ghanimeh (Lebanon/Denmark; 2007, 35 min. Digibeta PAL; Screening Fee US$150)
With the outbreak of the civil war in 1975, the Christian communities of Haret Hreyk, a neighborhood in Beirut’s southern suburbs, began to move to other neighborhoods. Ghanimeh’s family was amongst the last to leave. In the same period, the area witnessed a construction boom fueled by the displacement of Shiites from south of the country to Beirut’s suburbs, due to attacks by the Israeli army. For Ghanimeh’s family all that remains from their life in Haret Hreyk are few memories. More
|
|
|
Our Reckless Wars (Hurubuna al-Ta'ishah)
Randa Chahal Sabbagh (France; 1995, 61 min. Digibeta PAL; Screening Fee US$100)
Since 1983, Randa Chahal Sabbagh filmed her family and the daily drumbeat of strife around her. Woven together years later, the moving result is this searching exploration of the effects of the war on one family and the long-term consequences of militant political engagement.
More
|
|
|
Souha, Surviving Hell (Souha)
Randa Chahal Sabbagh (Lebanon; 2001, 57 min.)
Sat. May 15, 4:45 p.m.
Screens with Our Reckless Wars. Total run time is 110 minutes.
In 1989, at the age of twenty-one, the young Lebanese woman Souha Béchara attempted to assassinate General Antoine Lahad, who was collaborating with the Israeli Army in the South of Lebanon.
More
|
|
|
