Jocelyne Saab Shorts

'Beirut, Never Again'
The film is an elegy for the city of Beirut and was shot during a period when the war hostilities had ceased momentarily, and people were attempting to reconstruct their lives amongst the rubble and destruction of war. Shot over six months, the first half of the film shows us images of a destroyed city, of empty streets, bombarded buildings, random objects, of children playing, accompanied by a voiceover written by poet and artist Etel Adnan, telling how ”the unusual has destroyed the order of things”. People relate their experiences of desolation and the suffering from the battles. This city portrait is Saab’s first attempt to articulate in personal terms her experience of the war and to rework in essayistic form her previous filmic and journalistic coverage of the history of her country and its conflicts. The essay film is infused with the uncertainty and violence caused by the destruction of a place she had known and that she felt was lost forever.

1976 | 36min
Language: English without Subtitles.

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'For a Few Lives'
Raymond Eddé runs for presidential elections. He works in opposition to the confessional war. During the 1975-1976 battles, he actively sought out with his team the missing people of war, whether Christian, Druze of Muslim. This film has never been shown and is screened for the first time.

1976 | 17min
Language: Arabic and French without Subtitles.

This screening is part of the Jocelyne Saab Month at Dar El-Nimer, organised in collaboration with MACAM and curated by Mathilde Rouxel.