|
| |
We Are Here: New Shorts from Lebanon
ArteEast is pleased to copresent with the Tribeca Film Festival, The Lebanese Association for Plastic Arts, Ashkal Alwan and The Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies at NYU a selection of videos produced in Lebanon, during and in the immediate aftermath of the summer 2006 war.
April 26 - 30, 2007
In the past few years digital video technology has been credited with quietly generating a revolution in film production. During the summer 2006 Israeli assault on Lebanon, it allowed filmmakers, artists and activists to record what they were witnessing and experiencing and offered a forum to create work immediately related to the war. The compulsion to construct an audio-visual document of the violence came not only from a desire for an alternative to broadcast media; but also from an eagerness to compile an archive of the assault, because both the 17-year civil war and the numerous Israeli military campaigns since the 1960’s have scant records. The assault also stirred schisms, tensions and unresolved issues that had been lying dormant in the social and political body of Lebanon throughout its post-war years. In the face of trauma and the memory of past traumas, filmmakers reacted by producing short films, some in the framework of a commissioned project, others self-produced. The collection attests to the amazing diversity of approach, genre and talent in how artists and filmmakers reacted to the war. The works are bold in subject matter and approach and do not shy away from voicing a critical engagement with taboo subjects, or being deeply subjective or self-consciously militant.—Rasha Salti, ArteEast
Thu, Apr 26, 8:00pm
Tribeca Cinemas Theater 2
Sat, Apr 28, 1:00pm
AMC Kips Bay Theater 15
Mon, Apr 30, 10:30pm
Tribeca Cinemas Theater 2
All tickets: $18. To purchase tickets, please visit www.tribecafilmfestival.org. |
| |
|
|
|
|
Breaking News
by Hisham Jaber. 2006, Lebanon, 10 min.
An engaging video where the artist reflects on how the lived experience of a population in war becomes reconstructed as “news stories,” playfully contrasting the personal and collective drama or trauma, and challenging the anonymity that broadcast news affords Israeli soldiers engaged in combat. More
|
| |
|
|
|
|
July Trip
by Wael Noureddine. 2006, Lebanon, 35 min., 16mm
April 26 - 30, 2007
Using both 16mm and HDV, the filmmaker journeys into the heart of war-stricken areas to capture the experience of terror in the raw, questioning the documentary genre and its ability to mediate the immediate experience of witnessing death.
Coproduced by Micromega Productions, Wael Noureddine and Ashkal Alwan. More |
| |
|
|
| |
|
Lebanon/War
by Rania Stephan. 2006, Lebanon, 16 min.
April 26 - 30, 2007
These two shorts videos present a ledger of how the “average” Lebanese citizen negotiated their everyday life during and immediately following the war. Compelling vignettes give voice to both a street-cleaner in the deserted Martyrs’ Square, and children from the south displaced and relocated to public schools. Far from the bombastic frenzy of media broadcast, the tragedy of war is recorded with humility and simplicity.
Produced by Rania Stephan with support from the IFPO (Institut Français du Proche Orient). More |
| |
|
|
|
|
No Connection
by Myriam Sassine. 2006, Lebanon, 10 min.
April 26 - 30, 2007
Three young women in their early twenties are stranded far from their homes in the Beqaa valley in Beirut. Disrupted by the war, they each struggle to make sense of their lives: one decides to leave the country, the second becomes involved in humanitarian work, and the third decides to confront her frustrations through film.
From the series Summertime 2006, produced by Ashkal Alwan, funded by the Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development. More |
| |
|
|
|
|
Tank You
by Zaid Antar. 2006, Lebanon, 12 min.
In the early days of the Israeli assault on the coastal city of Sidon, its roads and bridges were destroyed, cutting off any contact with the rest of the country. Fear of fuel short-ages spread panic in the city. This video records a conversation with a woman who is waiting in a frustrated crowd at a gas station, and as she talks freely to the filmmaker about her life, we realize that her tank is full. More
|
| |
|
|
|
|
Window
by Rana Salem. 2006, Lebanon, 10 min.
April 26 - 30, 2007
On July 11th 2006, Maya receives a message from her father that he is arriving the next day after a fifteen-year-long absence from Lebanon. As she prepares to meet him, Beirut International Airport closes when its runways are hit by missiles from Israeli jets.
From the series Summertime 2006, produced by Ashkal Alwan, funded by the Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development. More |
| |
|
|
|
|
To The Lebanese Citizens
by Ali Cherry. 2006, Lebanon, 2 min.
On July 21st 2006, the state of Israel began to air messages to the Lebanese people, interrupting the broadcast of the Lebanese radio station “Voice of the People.” From the window of his apartment, Ali Cherry filmed the Israeli military barge across Beirut’s coastline. More
|
| |
|
|
|
